Cascade Releases its 2022 Annual Report
Last year, research conducted by the ITAD firm, Cascade Asset Management, indicated that e-commerce marketplaces offered more plentiful growth in revenue compared to wholesalers when it came to selling used electronics. Unfortunately, like so many other businesses in this sector at the time, its profits still suffered due to declining rates.
Cascade recently published its 2022 annual report, giving insight into the workings and performance of the private enterprise. Among the contents of this document were several noteworthy points.
Based in Madison, Wis., Cascade Asset Management continues to grow. Last year saw an 11.3 percent increase of over 4 million pounds of equipment delivered to its processing centers located in Madison, Indianapolis, and Orlando, amassing a staggering 366,308 distinct assets.
A Decrease in Prices, an Increase in Volume
Cascade’s annual report highlighted the drop of average resale prices by 20.0 percent last year compared to 2021. Like other ITAD organizations, Cascade experienced a surge of volumes sold despite the reduced costs.
Simultaneously, Cascade encountered a substantial boost in device sales revenues, which rose by 6.6 percent. This was attributable to the 13.8 percent rise in the number of devices that were resold or donated from the firm’s three facilities.
Acknowledging the company’s year-over-year decline, Cascade officials ascribed this to a move away from pandemic-induced prices and a shift towards more traditional market rates.
“Due to supply chain disruptions and difficulty in sourcing new equipment, the price paid for refurbished desktops, laptops, and monitors steadily increased during the pandemic,” Cascade’s report stated. “Now that supply chain issues are stabilizing … prices are returning to pre-pandemic levels of 2019.”
A Boost in Direct-to-Consumer Sales
Cascade revealed that revenues from selling directly to consumers had experienced a rise of 78.9 percent over the course of last year, contrasting with the 1.3 percent growth in sales to wholesalers. The corporation sold electronics throughout the United States, except for Alaska and Hawaii.
In total, only 0.34 percent of products sold by the company had to be returned by customers, “a testament to the quality of our refurbishment program.”
In his interview with E-Scrap News, Cascade Asset Management’s CEO and owner, Neil Peters-Michaud, reported that the organization saw its e-commerce/retail sales grow by 5 percent between 2021 to 2022.
As an example, last year the company generated over $1 million in revenue from its eBay store through 2,901 sales transactions. This figure nearly doubled profits from the previous year. The share of wholesale sales to total sales showed a slight decline in 2022 to 87.6 percent, down from 92.6 percent in 2021.
“When global resale prices began dropping mid-2022, we shifted more sales to direct-to-consumer online retail markets, like our Cascade Marketplace online store and eBay,” Peters-Michaud stated. “This was a way to generate more margin from these products and better returns for our customers earning rebates from our revenue share program.
“It is still the case that the vast majority of Cascade’s refurbished products are sold through wholesale channels, but in 2022 we concentrated on more value-added resale and refurbishing activities to generate better returns,” he added. “We see this trend continuing.”
Broadening Cascades Impact
In 2021, Cascade made the decision to expand and open its third facility, this time located in Orlando. Previously, Florida had supplied 10.75 percent of the total weight handled by Cascade, second only to its home state of Wisconsin.
Cascade’s report also noted an increase in its service range, due to the use of third-party white glove pickup services, box return programs and its own staff. “These additional service options were increasingly utilized by clients with remote work needs and enabled us to collect equipment from 52% more states in 2022 than in 2019.”
Altogether, Cascade accumulated equipment from 344 entities across 47 US states and Puerto Rico. Of that total, Cascade staff were responsible for managing 88 percent, while 12 percent was redistributed via customer deliveries, box returns, and mailing services.
Challenges and Facility Updates
Many ITAD companies receive computers that have remote software locks, preventing firms from wiping or reselling drives until the locks are disabled by the clients. Without these locks being removed, it is impossible for ITAD companies to wipe and resell hard drives. Fortunately, through collaboration with 44 clients, 6,670 assets were unlocked, yielding an added rebate of $385,000 for Cascade’s clients.
Also, Cascade reported that it has made significant changes to its Wisconsin and Indiana facilities, by upgrading the company’s refurbishing processes.
“Activities included redesigning the work station layout in Wisconsin to improve work flow and increase capacity, and reconstructing the Indiana refurbishing process to improve testing capabilities,” the report stated.
