The World’s Biggest Garage Sale may have a new name and a growing national scope, but co-founder Yasmin Grigaliunas says Circonomy maintains the vision she had in 2017: giving a second life to consumer goods and business materials destined for landfill.
Circonomy, the name given to World’s Biggest Garage Sale after Officeworks acquired 21% of the Brisbane-based business in early 2022, has opened a facility in Richmond, Melbourne, dedicated to collecting, repairing, refurbishing, and reselling a wide range of products.
The company has also launched what it calls its national Refurbishment and Response Squad, designed to help corporate clients, like Catch.com.au, Mirvac, and David Jones, find a second life for dormant goods.
With both additions, Circonomy is now poised to revitalise more furniture, tech goods, and consumer appliances deemed surplus to requirements, returned to retailers after minor use, or bearing mendable defects which disqualified them from sale on the primary market.
The national expansion is “quite humbling, but also a grounding experience”, Grigaliunas told SmartCompany.
“There’s definitely been a lot of what I say are ‘Gritty, shitty and unpretty’ moments along the way,” she said.
“But I think that’s the reality of being a founder, so to be here today, and to stand strong, preparing to expand nationally like we are, it is such a beautiful collision for the business and its vision.”
As part of the business’ strengthening ties to Officeworks, Circonomy now counts Ryan Swenson as CEO, following his stint as head of ESG and corporate affairs at the workplace retail giant.
“It’s been a quite an exceptional feeling to be able to return to that level of acumen within our business and know that we’re very well prepared for the future,” Grigaliunas said of his appointment.
Now, Swenson said Circonomy is focused on adapting its services to the needs of its corporate clients across Australia, no matter what goods they want to save from dormancy.
“We often say we don’t have a traditional supply chain, what we have is a ‘Surprise chain’,” Swenson said.
“And what we’re finding is the more partners we’re working with, obviously the diversity of our products expands as well.”
Although its Richmond facility is still new, Swenson said the challenge of saving an estimated $2.5 billion worth of as-new goods from wastage requires rapid action and an Australia-wide vision.
“We are a business that moves quick,” he said.
“So one of our values is we’re ambitious, and a little impatient.
“And ultimately we can already service the market outside of Victoria with some of partners that we have on the ground in New South Wales as well.”
The scope of Circonomy’s offering is set to grow, too: Grigaliunas said the growth will not only benefit everyday customers looking for a bargain, but corporate partners who are becoming serious about reducing their wastage and environmental footprint.
“I think we’ll start to see parallel markets: not just retail, but insurance, and even the finance industry, really starting to pay attention to the work Circonomy is doing and really starting to engage our enterprise to be able to work outside of the traditional retail basis,” she added.
Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
