Industrialising Electronics Repair to Accelerate European Recommerce

As Europe's recommerce industry continues to expand, demand for scalable, specialist repair and refurbishment infrastructure is growing alongside it. Remalab, an industrial electronics refurbishment business based in Istanbul, Türkiye, is helping recommerce platforms, refurbishers and ITAD operators scale their operations through outsourced, white-label technical services.

Founded in 2021 by Kerim Makzume, Remalab has rapidly established itself as a specialist processing partner for businesses across Europe. Operating from a 2,000 m² facility in Istanbul's Trakya Free Zone, the company employs approximately 100 skilled technicians and processes between 8,000 and 12,000 devices every month, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches and earbuds.

Strategically positioned within the EU–Türkiye Customs Union, Remalab offers European businesses access to specialist technical capacity, competitive operating costs and managed cross-border logistics, combining the benefits of nearshore outsourcing with internationally recognised quality and compliance standards.

Take a look inside Remalab’s industrial refurbishment facility:

Remalab's capabilities extend well beyond conventional testing, grading and cosmetic refurbishment. Through advanced board-level repair and microsoldering, the company is recovering devices that might otherwise be dismantled for parts or scrapped, reporting an estimated 80% success rate on board-level repairs.

Its comprehensive lifecycle services include diagnostics, certified data erasure, component replacement and screen reglassing. Operations are supported by R2v3 certification and ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 and 27001 standards, helping customers outsource technical operations while maintaining stringent quality, environmental and data security requirements.

Transparency is equally central to the offering. Remalab's proprietary Lifecycle Management Suite provides customers with real-time, device-level visibility across diagnostics, repair histories, replacement parts and available inventory, helping partners manage their operations with greater confidence and control.

Between 2023 and 2025, Remalab expanded its technical workforce from approximately 10 to 100 technicians, reflecting growing demand for specialist refurbishment capacity across Europe. The company is now introducing dedicated refurbishment cells and automated screen lamination to increase throughput and operational efficiency.

Looking ahead, Remalab plans to expand its facility by approximately 1,000 m², alongside investment in robotics, automated disassembly and AI-assisted diagnostics. The business also intends to leverage its growing repair dataset to improve diagnostics, repair costing and residual-value predictions.

We asked Founder & CEO Kerim to share his perspective on the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of repair and recommerce:

CC: What’s changing fastest in the recommerce market?
KM: Recommerce platforms are growing faster than their own workshops. They are strong at buying and selling devices, but testing, grading and especially deep repair are hard to scale in-house. So the market is splitting: platforms own the customer, and industrial partners like us do the technical work behind them.

CC: What are customers increasingly asking for?
KM: Proof. Device-level traceability, certified data erasure, R2v3, a clear repair report for every unit. Price still matters, but no serious client signs today without seeing exactly what happened to each device.

CC: What does the industry need to do better?
KM: Repair more, waste less. Too many devices are graded down, parted out or scrapped because repair capacity is missing, not because they can’t be fixed. Board-level repair should be the standard, not the exception.

CC: Where do you see the market in five years?
KM: Repair data will be as valuable as the devices. Whoever knows the real repair history of a device will price it better, lease it longer and prove its impact.

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Looking to increase device recovery rates, reduce refurbishment costs or scale your operations without investing in additional infrastructure? Remalab is ready to explore how it can support your business.

Get started with a pilot batch or discuss a tailored solution with Kerim at [email protected], or visit remalab.com.

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