CirCon#148: How to Save Up to 40% on Your Apple Hardware Costs
Today’s newsletter sponsor: Blancco
Secure data erasure. Intelligent device diagnostics. Greater visibility across the technology lifecycle.
Discover how Blancco helps organisations securely manage devices from intake through to their next use.
Circular Showcase: Mac Group Solutions (MGS)
Making Second-Life Apple the Straightforward Procurement Choice
For most organisations, Apple hardware is no longer a creative niche. It is core infrastructure.
Yet procurement teams still face familiar challenges: long lead times on configured machines, refresh cycles driven by budgets rather than business needs, and valuable assets that quietly lose their residual value once retired.
Second-life technology should solve many of these problems. Too often, however, buyers are asked to choose between the assurance of new hardware and the economics of refurbished devices.
MGS was built to remove that trade-off.
MGS at a Glance
Headquartered in Nantwich, United Kingdom, MGS operates across the UK and Netherlands, with fulfilment capabilities spanning more than 12 countries and significant Apple stockholding across the UK and Europe.
The business combines second-life Apple supply with trade-in and buy-back programmes, alongside enterprise deployment capabilities, and is ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified.
From Apple Specialist to Circular Technology Partner
MGS was founded in 2023 by Mark Williams, Russell Cusack and William Bishop, building upon the foundations of MacStore UK, which was established in 2013 to supply high-performance Apple hardware to scientific and research organisations.
Today, MacStoreUK.com serves retail customers through its own e-commerce platform and leading marketplaces, while Mac Group Solutions Ltd focuses on B2B supply, circular procurement and lifecycle management.
The business expanded into Europe in 2024, opening a second operational hub in the Netherlands.
Making Second-Life Apple Enterprise-Ready
MGS specialises in premium second-life Apple technology, from open-box and near-new inventory through to professionally refurbished previous-generation hardware.
Every device undergoes quality checks, certification and grading through the company’s own internal processes, ensuring customers know exactly what they are buying. For organisations, however, confidence in the hardware is only part of the requirement; it also needs to integrate seamlessly into how their technology estate is deployed and managed.
MGS enables second-life Apple hardware to be enrolled into Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager, allowing organisations to deploy and manage refurbished devices just like new equipment.
For enterprise and education customers, this brings together the quality, availability and economics of second-life hardware with the deployment capabilities expected from new devices.
The Commercial Case for Second-Life
According to MGS, organisations can reduce hardware spend by up to 30–40% without sacrificing deployment capability, while its stockholding can provide access to high-specification Apple Configure-to-Order devices in days rather than months.
Second-life procurement can also help organisations extend refresh cycles and maximise the value of existing technology estates, with the commercial opportunity continuing when devices are eventually retired.
MGS is investing heavily in trade-in, buy-back and lifecycle management programmes designed to keep technology in productive use for longer while helping organisations recover value from ageing estates. Rather than allowing retired devices to sit unused and depreciate, equipment can be recovered and returned to the secondary market while it still has a productive life ahead of it.
This allows MGS to support both sides of the equation: helping organisations procure second-life Apple technology more cost-effectively while recovering residual value from the devices already within their estates.
Looking Ahead
MGS is now looking to expand further into education, support employee benefit programmes with second-life Apple technology and scale circular trade-in partnerships through MSP and VAR channels.
Its long-term ambition is to repurpose more than 15,000 devices every month, while becoming a trusted second-life Apple partner for education, enterprise and public-sector organisations across the UK and Europe.
The wider goal is simple: increase awareness of second-life technology as a mainstream business procurement strategy.
“Our aim at MGS is to educate businesses on the true value their devices still hold and to show that businesses can use second-life technology over new because technology doesn't have to cost them the earth, figuratively and literally.”
Connect with MGS
Grow your business with Circular Connect 📈
MGS recently became a Circular Connect Member and we think you should too.
Join the business network connecting companies across the circular economy. Raise your profile, reach new customers, build valuable relationships and unlock new commercial opportunities.
Discover Circular Connect Membership 👇
|
Circular Calendar
Looking for your next industry event? The Circular Calendar brings all conferences, meetups and summits into one place. Browse the full calendar.
Featured Event:
Returns to Revenue brings together leaders across retail, reverse logistics, returns and recommerce to explore how businesses can reduce costs, recover more value and create new revenue opportunities from returned products.
Taking place on 22 September at Unipart House in Oxford, the conference will tackle some of the biggest commercial challenges facing modern returns operations, from rising costs and product write-offs to value recovery and recommerce.
As an event partner, Circular Connect readers can secure tickets for just £95.
Have a superb week and we’ll see you again on Friday!
Cheers to circularity,
#TeamCircularConnect #ConnectingTheCircularEconomy