If you’re going to call upon the services of a storage company, you might as well team up with the biggest and best – Safestore.
With more than 80 self storage facilities up and down the country, located in many major cities and towns, Safestore provides a high quality service to customers in both the business and domestic markets.
Put simply, Safestore gives you more space, more solutions and better service than any other UK self storage company.
Safestore started trading in 1998 with the purchase of three freehold properties situated in Alexandra Palace, Wood Green and Edgware, these were converted into self-storage facilities. This was followed by the acquisition of Metrostore, which operated stores at Fulham, Acton and Notting Hill and Reading self-storage, which was a single store operator. The company was floated on AIM.
During 1999 The Prestbury Group made a £10m subscription at 46p per share, this was followed by Soros Real Estate Partners who subscribed for £14.2 million at 62p per share in April 2000. The management at this time were pursuing an aggressive rollout strategy centred on speed of growth of the property portfolio.
In June 2001 Steve Williams joined as Chief Operating Officer.
A full strategic review was undertaken and it decided to divest the interests in poor performing and non-core stores, slow down the rate of expansion, focus on London and the South of England, sweat the assets of the remaining stores and reduce central costs by 25% with the aim of becoming EBITDA positive by October 2003. In January 2002 Giles Clarke was appointed Non-Executive Chairman and Steve Williams CEO.
During the period June 2001 to June 2003 8 poor performing / non-core trading stores and 4 non-trading properties were sold and 8 new stores opened within London & the South.
The company received an un-solicited approach for the business in December 2002, the value of the offer was deemed by the board to be unacceptable and a formal sale process was put in place. The highest bidder was a U.S. operator and they were granted exclusivity, after several months the Independent Directors halted discussions and invited the second highest bidder to re-enter negotiations. This group consisted of the Management team of Safestore and Bridgepoint Capital. The deal was announced in August 2003 and became unconditional in September 2003.
The price paid was 44p-valuing Safestore at approximately £40m.
In June 2004 Safestore, backed by Bridgepoint Capital made an offer to acquire the Mentmore business which was established in 1981, this included – 44 Spaces Personal Storage centres in the UK, 7 Une Piece en Plus storage centres in France, 3 Spaces Business Centres, Stockport Removals and 2 additional non trading properties.
The offer was accepted on 23rd June 2004 and the two Companies merged. This created a chain of 79 stores and made Safestore the No.1 Self Storage provider in the UK as well as the second largest in Europe and a significant player worldwide.
Safestore has invested significant capital into the Spaces stores to improve the facilities and services offered as well as creating a national Company under the Safestore brand.
In April 2005 Safestore acquired the Access Self Stockage business in France, some were sold off to a third party leaving a net acquisition of 10 stores. These were re-branded to the Une Piece en Plus name. Safestore also purchased the 2 Storage World sites in Reddish and Old Trafford in July 2005.
In July 2006 Safestore opened in Feltham (Heathrow), followed by Coventry in October, Slough and Guildford in 2007. Une Piece en Plus opened a store in in Ivry Paris. Another 16 expansion stores are in the pipeline for 2007 and 2008.
Safestore currently have more than 80 Storage centres throughout the UK and 3 Business centres with an additional 20 Storage centres in Paris trading under the Une Piece en Plus name.