A COMPANY is helping new businesses by turning unwanted office furniture into bargain buys.

Simple Enviro Ltd, has been set up to recycle office furniture to be sold for discounted rates.

And with more people than ever setting up on their own – in light of the current economic climate – more and more new businesses are buying the goods.

Between August and October 2011, the number of self-employed workers increased by 166,000 to 4.14 million.

Don Wilson, Simple Enviro's managing director said: "We set up in April last year when there were a lot of redundancies going on.

"And with redundancies and business shutting down, there is a lot of unwanted furniture.

"A lot of people who were losing their jobs couldn't find work, so they were forced into a position of setting up their own company.

"It seemed a shame all the office furniture was going to waste when it would be needed by new companies.

"I contacted Hull City Council when it was making redundancies and it went from there."

The team, which is based in east Hull, collects redundant furniture.

It is then transported back to the warehouse off Chamberlain Road, where the items are inspected for safety, refurbished and cleaned, then placed into storage.

Furniture is then sold on at a discounted rates to charities, students, the public and new businesses.

To keep things simple, each item just has one price, regardless of style or size. For example, all desks are £45 and chairs are £25.

Office manager Lynn Richardson said: "Keeping everything one price makes things a lot easier.

"If we had different prices we'd have to unpack everything again to see what style it was."

Although the company offers furniture to a range of organisations, new businesses are the most typical customers.

Mr Wilson said: "Some are small, expanding businesses, some are people working from home, some are people looking for desks and chairs for the children to play on computers – we get a mixture.

"But about half are corporate and half are private.

"The beauty is we appeal to a lot of people – more and more people have computers at home now and want the spare room to be a study."

Although the company's warehouse base has an area to show products off to customers, they are currently looking for a retail outlet.

Mr Wilson said: "One of the big problems of a retail outlets is that it would have to be in an area where we would get passing trade and have good access for deliveries and collections.

"What would probably be more ideal is a warehouse with showroom facilities.

"Warehouse space is cheaper than retail and we would have easier access for lorries and vans.

"We're still looking for spaces – it is an ongoing project."

Visit www.simplenviro.com for details.