Niagara business successful in refurbishing rugged tech
It’s easy to miss where they’re located, but hard not to know the companies they’ve dealt with.
Tucked away inside a largely non-descript white building off the Queen Elizabeth Way in Niagara-on-the-Lake, near the Niagara Falls border, tech-savvy employees refurbish rugged technology, such as laptops and tablets, which are then sold to small and large businesses.
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Over the years, Rugged Books Inc. has worked with some major corporations, such as SpaceX, Costco, Toyota, PepsiCo and Verizon.
Having grown from a small startup to a team of about 45 talented individuals, Rugged Books has become a local success story supplying the international market by obtaining ISO and R2 certifications, demonstrating its dedication to responsible recycling and reducing its carbon footprint.
It has set a goal of becoming the industry leader when it comes to taking discarded rugged technology, that would otherwise end up in landfills, and giving it renewed life.
And the magic all happens inside a 3,530-square-metre building on Townline Road, which Rugged Books owns. Ontario Power Generation is a tenant, occupying about half of the space.
Kal Kefel, board director of Rugged Books Inc., left, and Naz Nahle, vice-president of sales.
Rugged Books was established by Mahmoud Nahle and his uncle Naz Nahle.
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Mahmoud has worked in technology with a passion for electronics and anything computer based. Naz has a background in sales.
The two decided to start a business and in 2016, were joined by Kal Kefel, who was living in Dubai and has a background in engineering and worked for BlackBerry for about 14 years.
He helped to take the smartphone brand international, running the “entire business from A-Z,” having sold about $1.4 billion of revenue on a yearly basis.
After BlackBerry’s global fortunes turned, Kefel retired, moved back to Canada and connected with Mahmoud and Naz, with whom he was friends.
Rugged Books started in 2016 with three or four people and grew to about seven by 2017.
“We started building it as a consumer-based business. We started selling on eBay initially, and then opening different channels,” said Kefel, who is board director.
“In 2019, we were like 15 employees. We started expanding to the U.S., selling to the U.S. market.”
Ahmad Nahle, marketing manager of Rugged Books Inc., shows Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and Niagara Falls regional Coun. Bob Gale one of the rugged laptops employees refurbished at the facility.
It was also in 2019 when Rugged Books moved to the Townline Road location, which Kefel said is convenient due to its proximity to the QEW and U.S. border.
“Between 2019 and 2020, we decided, OK, there are two ways you can run this business. You can either run it as just a trading company, you buy and sell, or you make it a proper corporation, with the idea of a long-term business that would have different businesses under it,” he said.
“We said, OK, you know what, we’re going to go professional, we’re going to get an R2 certification — an industry standard in this business where you go through an audit process, making sure that things don’t go into landfill.”
Kefel said also obtaining ISO certification builds “trust in the industry.”
He said while the COVID-19 pandemic hit many small businesses hard in 2020, it didn’t negatively impact Rugged Books.
“We had already built the infrastructure to sell online. Our business went up, so we hired more people during COVID. Then we opened up (more) channels. We sell on Amazon, we sell on Walmart, we sell on Best Buy,” said Kefel.
“Parallel to that, we built our (business-to-business) business, which is selling to businesses. Our main customer base is in the U.S. The bulk of our business now is B2B. The other one is just a channel where … it helps us because it’s marketing.”
He said the company now employs 45 people, with many from Niagara College living in Niagara.
“We have a very talented team. We have a lot of people from different backgrounds — technicians, people in software. We do software development.”
Rugged books, or tough books, are fortified devices that can withstand the punishments and elements of being used outside and in industries such as construction and manufacturing.
“We buy them used, off-market basically. It could be three years, four years old. We also have new, but a lot is used and refurbished. We bring them here. We refurbish them,” said Kefel, adding the company has worked with police and fire departments, paramedic services and mining companies.
Rugged Books Inc. officials gave some media and local politicians a tour of its facility on Townline Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake Tuesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, Rugged Books officials took media and local politicians for a tour of its facility, including an area where technology comes in with scratches, missing keyboards and broken parts, and an area where employees work to restore the equipment to the way it was originally designed and manufactured by Panasonic, Dell and other brands that make such devices.
“Companies buy them, so let’s say a police station has 50 of these and then they’re done with it, they bought brand new ones, they want to get rid of it, so we basically buy them off a lot of companies, we bring them here, we refurbish them because there’s still life in them,” said Kefel.
“A lot of people will use it. In terms of price difference, it makes a big difference for people. Rather than paying $5,000 U.S. for a brand new one, they pay $2,000 U.S. for a refurbished one.”
He said warranties are provided on the products.
Mahmoud Nahle said Rugged Books refurbishes between 8,000 and 10,000 units a year, while Kefel said as long as there are parts available “we can fix anything.”
“We’re putting this company on the right foot to become a large company. We are technologists at heart (including drones and body cams). Mahmoud’s job, primarily, is research technologies, find out how it works, he plays with it, he becomes a subject-matter expert in the technology itself and then we test it out, we put it out in the market, we see who can buy it from us,” said Kefel.
“We follow whatever standards or processes we need to get certified in, in order for us to actually sell it and he’s a pilot now, he’s an advanced drone pilot.”
Mahmoud Nahle is chief executive officer of Rugged Books Inc.
Kefel said Rugged Books has so far mostly focused on the U.S. market because it’s “so large,” but the company also wants to help and support the local community.
“We’re Canadian-based, we’re right here in the region, so why not extend our services,” he said, noting other companies and agencies it has worked with, including Telus, Shaw, Enbridge, ExxonMobil, Brock University and Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Rugged Books also partnered with University of Toronto’s aerospace division, whose student-backed satellite was launched into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket for SpaceX last year, sponsored by a rugged book from the company.
The company is partnering with Crime Stoppers of Niagara on a cybersecurity project.
“We will diversify our business. We will have another type of business that is software based, software and services based. This will be a completely different entity,” said Kefel.
“We want to grow here. We’re so invested in this area that we will give our time. I will volunteer my time to go to Crime Stoppers to talk about cybersecurity.”
He said the company will also talk with the new University of Niagara Falls Canada on potential partnerships.
“When I worked at BlackBerry, I used to sell Canada to the world. Now, I’m in Niagara, I’ll sell Niagara to the rest of the world.”
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