ERS Names Sam Borgia Vice President of New Wireless Division
ERIE, Pa. – Environmental Reclamation Services’ Sam Borgia has moved into a new role as vice president of the new wireless division.
Borgia began with ERS in 1995 as vice president of marketing before spending two years overseeing the cartridge warehouse as vice president of operations. His new position managing the wireless division entails defining the needs of wireless customers and ensuring the ERS wireless division is capable of responding to those needs. Borgia also reviews market demand and pricing for every handset kept in inventory at ERS. In addition, Borgia has been working with the in-house IT department at ERS to integrate the systems to devise a renewed system that will allow access to the new cell phone division.
"The innovative technology systems that facilitate the cartridge processing have been refined over the years to suit that portion of our business," said Borgia. "Now we are working to bring the wireless division up to speed with the efficiencies allowed by the proprietary system."
ERS utilizes a custom-developed, proprietary inventory management and logistics application. The Web-based system allows ERS to work off a common real-time inventory for current distribution centers located in Erie and Mississauga, Ontario.
The need for a separate wireless division within ERS became increasingly evident over the past year as the market continued to grow. That growth in the cell phone operation, along with similar growth in the cartridge industry, led to the creation of the separate wireless entity within the company.
"Considering the growth of the two departments within ERS, it was a natural move to separate them, each with its own management and organizational structure," said Mike Welton, senior vice president and general manager. "The establishment of the wireless division has enabled ERS to provide greater service to cell phone customers and quicker response to the current cell phone market."
The new wireless division is structured to accommodate the collection of cell phones through end-user programs and bulk purchases. Phones are delivered five days a week to ERS’ wireless facility. The handsets are visually inspected to pass a cosmetic test, sorted by manufacturer model number and packaged in custom-designed boxes to eliminate damage in shipping to the customer.
ERS wireless also provides call-tested phones if required by the customer.
"The wireless division is a closed-loop system for wireless products, providing environmentally sound solutions to the ever growing problem of the increasing number of used handsets, obsolete handsets, accessories and batteries," said Borgia.
In addition to Borgia, the wireless division is managed by Peter Middleton, wireless sales manager, and John Schultz, wireless warehouse supervisor.
Environmental Reclamation Services has been dealing empty cartridges since 1990. During the past 14 years, the company has processed and sold more than 30 million empties to the remanufacturing industry.
Contact ERS at www.ersusa.com.
This article originally appeared in the November 2004 issue of Recharger.