November 27, 2018
Ingram Micro ITAD has grown over the years to become one of the premier IT Asset Disposition and Lifecycle Services providers in the world. As we embark on the next significant change in our continuing evolution, we take a moment to reflect on the milestones that have brought us to we are today and take a quick look into the future.
As you might expect, we didn’t arrive at our industry-leading position all at once…or by chance. Each step in the journey was intentional as we built strength upon strength, listening to our clients, monitoring legislation, forming strategic partnerships, and delivering a growing suite of world-class ITAD and associated lifecycle support services.
Ingram Micro ITAD was founded in 2001 under the name Asset Forwarding Corporation. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the company grew steadily and, in 2008, added investors and changed our name to CloudBlue Technologies. That same year we also acquired Midwest Technology Recyclers and opened ITAD facilities in Georgia and New Jersey.
Our expansion continued in 2009 with the acquisition of Arizona-based GreenAssetDisposal, after which the company entered a phase of rapid organic growth, opening a facility in the UK and, the following year, facilities in Northern California, Texas, and Puerto Rico. During this time our focus on our clients’ needs and attention to customer service established us as the company to watch in the ITAD industry.
Then, in a watershed year for CloudBlue, 2013 saw the opening of a new facility in Minnesota and our acquisition by Ingram Micro, a major corporation with vast global infrastructure and a focus on cloud, mobility, technology lifecycle, supply chain and technology solutions. The acquisition was a strategic move for Ingram Micro to enhance its worldwide service offerings and a continuation of the overall roll-up in the ITAD industry as the need for global ITAD with chain-of-custody, data destruction, and tracking capabilities was highlighted by evolving regulatory requirements. It was also a logical move for CloudBlue to move into new markets and countries with enhanced financial resources.
Over the next four years CloudBlue continued to expand our U.S. and international presence, growing organically and expanding into new locations and new countries. Unlike other competitors who grew during this time by acquiring other ITAD companies then struggling to integrate them, CloudBlue had the advantage of growing by locating our operations in existing Ingram Micro facilities. Instead of struggling to integrate different reporting systems we simply expanded our BlueIQ asset intelligence system as we spun up new locations, creating a true global one-system reporting capability.
In 2017, CloudBlue continued our alignment with our parent company by rebranding to become Ingram Micro ITAD. While CloudBlue was a well-known name in the U.S. ITAD industry, Ingram Micro was stronger branding in other parts of the world, bringing the advantages of name recognition as we moved into additional markets like Brazil and India. The change also eliminated confusion between CloudBlue and Ingram Micro’s Cloud business. In fact, the CloudBlue name took on a new purpose within Ingram Micro as the name of the company’s cloud software and services platform…and change with multiple benefits.
Earlier this year we became part of Ingram Micro’s Commerce & Lifecycle Services (CLS) family, a group that brings together complementary lines of business in the logistics, mobility, and ITAD industries. Since becoming part of CLS, Ingram Micro ITAD has opened new full-service ITAD facilities in Brazil and Western Canada plus five new ITAD Service Centers in the U.S. These additions bring us to 16 ITAD facilities in North America plus locations in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, and the UK…with additional sites scheduled for 2019.
Our growth continues unabated as we embrace each change. Which brings us to the next step in our journey: in the coming weeks our www.ingrammicroitad.com website will migrate and become part of the combined Commerce & Lifecycle Services site at www.ingrammicroservices.com. You’ll still find all the detail about our ITAD certifications, processes, safeguards, technology, and reporting plus information about service offerings from other parts of Commerce & Lifecycle Services. Just as Ingram Micro is a global company involved in a broad range of businesses so are our clients. Information about some of the services and solutions beyond ITAD will be readily available on the new, combined site.
We’re anticipating continued fine-tuning and updates to our new web identity as we settle into the CLS family. We invite you to follow us on this next stage of our journey.
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