When an organisation closes a building, the IT is almost never the thing anyone is thinking about. The lease end is the deadline, the furniture has a removal company booked, and somewhere in a comms room there is a rack nobody has a plan for. It holds data, it has value, and it cannot go in a skip.

This national media group was closing twenty sites nationwide over about eighteen months, while refreshing the equipment at the sites that were staying open. Surplex UK Limited handled both, which mattered more than it sounds, because the same estate was losing equipment in one place and gaining it in another, and splitting that across two suppliers would have meant two sets of records for one asset register.

The Challenge: The Date Moves

A closure programme is a property exercise before it is an IT one, and property dates slip. A supplier who can only work to a fixed date booked eight weeks out becomes the reason a building is handed back late, and a building handed back late costs more than everything inside it.

The Surplex Solution: A Schedule That Moved With Them

The collection plan was agreed a quarter at a time and revised continuously. When a lease date moved forward, that site was pulled forward with it. When a handover slipped, the collection slipped and the slot was given to another site. Over eighteen months that kept one asset register intact across closures and refreshes happening at the same time.

  • 1. Comms Rooms Destroyed On Site

    Drives from the comms rooms were shredded at each closure, before the rack left the building. Those carry the most data and the least documentation, and they are where an organisation is least comfortable with anything travelling first. Comms room and infrastructure decommissioning was carried out to BS EN 15713:2023, the Destroy method defined by NIST 800-88.

  • 2. The Office Estate Processed at Gloucester

    Desktops and laptops were collected under GPS-tracked transport by an Environment Agency licensed carrier and processed at the Gloucester processing centre, where certified data destruction was completed. Where value was recovered from hardware, the data was erased with Certus certified software, the Purge method under the same NIST standard.

  • 3. Documentation Issued Per Site

    Each closure produced its own certificate set rather than one report for the programme. Property and finance close each site out separately, and a single report covering twenty buildings is unusable to the person signing off one of them.

  • Sector

    Media

  • Location

    Twenty sites nationwide

  • Assets

    Around 2,000 units, 1,150 of them data-bearing

  • Key Win

    No handover date missed because of the IT

"Lease dates moved constantly and they moved with us. Not once were we waiting on IT to hand a building back."

Head of Property Services, national media group

The Results: Eighteen Months, Twenty Buildings

Around 2,000 assets came out of service across the programme, of which roughly 1,150 held data. Monitors and peripherals hold none, and the reporting separated the two, because an asset report that does not draw that line invites the question of what was really destroyed.

Metric
Outcome
  • Scale

    20 site closures over about 18 months

  • Data-Bearing Devices

    1,150 of around 2,000, each recorded against its serial number

  • Scheduling

    Rolling quarterly plan, sites pulled forward when lease dates moved

  • Cost

    Free. Recovered value covered the programme in full

Why Organisations Closing or Consolidating Sites Trust Surplex

Surplex UK Limited collects across England, Wales and Scotland, and works with organisations of every size, from a single office to a national estate. There is no minimum quantity. Most customers find their collection is free, because the value recovered from redundant hardware is set against the cost of collection, destruction and recycling. Where it does not cover that cost, a small logistics and processing fee is payable, agreed upfront.

Team Meeting 1

Frequently asked questions

Yes, and it is the normal case rather than the exception. Collection plans are agreed a quarter ahead and revised as lease and handover dates change, with sites pulled forward or pushed back and slots reallocated. Fixing a date eight weeks out and refusing to move it is how a supplier becomes the reason a building is handed back late.

Yes. Each site receives its own certificate of destruction naming every device serial number, its own itemised asset report, WEEE evidence notes and confirmation of zero to landfill. Property and finance teams close sites out one at a time, so a single report covering the whole programme is no use to them.

Yes. The mobile unit shreds drives at the site, so data never leaves the building, and it can be witnessed. Destruction is carried out to BS EN 15713:2023, the Destroy method defined by NIST 800-88.

Yes, and keeping both with one supplier is usually the point. An estate shutting some sites while re-equipping others is losing and gaining assets at once, and splitting that across two suppliers produces two sets of records for one asset register.

Capabilities Used in This Project

Get in Touch About Your IT Recycling Needs

We provide IT recycling services for organisations of all sizes across England, Wales and Scotland.

Whether you’re recycling a few old laptops, decommissioning a data centre, or need secure data destruction, our team will help you dispose of IT equipment compliantly and responsibly.

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Call: +44 (0)1684 252583
Email: info@surplex.co.uk
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