Self-storage delivers as revenues rise
Self-storage company Safestore has reported double-digit increases in revenues, driven by the strength of its UK business.
The business, which is active across Europe, reported revenue up by 10.9% during the quarter to £39.4m. In the UK, revenue was up almost 14% to £29.5m.
Safestore said that the strong UK result was driven by an excellent occupancy performance. Like-for-like average occupancy grew by 14.6% compared to Q1 2020, with like-for-like closing occupancy at the end of April up by 11.8 percentage points to 82.4% (2020: 70.6%).
Self-storage company Safestore has reported double-digit increases in revenues, driven by the strength of its UK business.
The business, which is active across Europe, reported revenue up by 10.9% during the quarter to £39.4m. In the UK, revenue was up almost 14% to £29.5m.
Safestore said that the strong UK result was driven by an excellent occupancy performance. Like-for-like average occupancy grew by 14.6% compared to Q1 2020, with like-for-like closing occupancy at the end of April up by 11.8 percentage points to 82.4% (2020: 70.6%).
The second quarter saw a like-for-like occupancy inflow of 82,000 sq ft compared to an outflow of 118,000 sq ft in Q1 2020, which reflected the impact of the first Covid-19 lockdown in March/April 2020. Like-for-like average rate was up 0.5% for the quarter and 0.1% for the six-month period.
It added that the growth in revenue had been driven by store openings in Carshalton, Gateshead and Sheffield, plus acquisitions of stores in St John’s Wood and Chelsea stores and management fees from its joint venture with Carlyle.
The group has a further 300,000 sq ft of openings in its UK pipeline over the next four years at a total acquisition cost of £53m. Its total portfolio comprises almost 7m sq ft of stores.
Chief executive Frederic Vechhioli said: “We continue to focus on the significant upside from filling the 1.3m sq ft of fully invested currently unlet space in our UK, Paris and Spain markets. While the potential for disruption arising from the current Covid-19 crisis has not entirely abated, the inherent resilience of our business model as well as our recent and current trading allows me to look forward with optimism. The improving momentum in our second quarter performance gives me further confidence in relation to the outlook for the full year.”
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