First Quarter Trading Update

22 February 2024

Safestore Holdings plc

("Safestore", "the Company" or "the Group")

 

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"As expected, the early trading trends indicated in our January 2024 announcement have continued through to the end of our first quarter. The good continental European performances, combined with a reduced seasonal outflow driving resilient UK trading in the context of challenging economic conditions, resulted in the Group delivering like-forlike revenue marginally down 0.9% on a CER basis. We continue to believe that the REVPAF delivered by the Group is the strongest in the European industry.

We opened three new stores in the period in the UK and the Netherlands and our pipeline, at 1.4m sq ft, now represents 17% of our existing portfolio's MLA underpinning our future growth. We anticipate the pipeline will continue to grow further over the months ahead. Our balance sheet has significant funding capacity, allowing us to continue to consider and execute strategic, value-accretive investments as and when they arise.

As seen in the first quarter, we will continue to be agile in managing rate and occupancy to drive the optimal total
revenue performance, building out our industry leading REVPAF. Strong performances from our European operations are expected to mitigate the impact of a weaker market in the UK. Looking beyond any potential short-term volatility we believe the industry continues to have significant long term growth potential. There remains a substantial undersupply of high quality self-storage capacity across the UK and Europe which provides a structural growth driver for the industry. New locations feed awareness which subsequently drives demand and the Group's three newest geographies are growing according to plan. Safestore's industry leading business model remains unchanged and we have substantial growth to deliver both from filling the 2.1m square feet of fully invested, currently unlet space, and from the new sites in our pipeline, across major cities in the UK and continental Europe. Safestore has a proven track record, and the returns we deliver are significantly ahead of our cost of capital, so we look to the future with confidence".
 

Highlights

• Group revenue for the quarter in CER¹ was down 0.4%
• Like-for-like⁵ Group revenue for the quarter in CER¹ down 0.9%
• Like-for-like⁵ average rate for the period up 0.2% in CER¹
• Like-for-like⁵ closing occupancy at 77.3% (2023: 78.8%)
• Openings of three new stores since the 17 January 2024 FY2023 announcement adding 75,400 sq ft of MLA
• Group Property Pipeline of 1.4m sq ft representing c. 17% of the existing portfolio to be funded from existing financial resources and expected to generate £25-£30m of stabilised EBITDA.
• Simon Clinton appointed as Chief Financial Officer and will join the Group on 11 March 2024. Simon succeeds Andy Jones as CFO following the announcement of his decision to retire on 28 September 2023. Andy Jones will remain with Safestore to affect a smooth transition. A separate RNS announcement has been made today on Simon's appointment.

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For further information, please contact:

Safestore Holdings PLC     
Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer           via Instinctif Partners
Andy Jones, Chief Financial Officer     
www.safestore.com

Instinctif Partners     
Guy Scarborough/ Emma Baxter   0207 457 2020
  Notes
1 - CER is Constant Exchange Rates (Euro denominated results for the current period have been retranslated at the exchange rate effective for the comparative period, in order to present the reported results on a more comparable basis).
2 - Q1 2023 is the quarter ended 31 January 2023.
3 - Occupancy excludes offices but includes bulk tenancy. As of 31 January 2024, closing occupancy includes 18,000 sq ft of bulk tenancy (31 January 2023: 24,000 sq ft).
4 - MLA is Maximum Lettable Area.
5 - Like-for-like information includes only those stores which have been open throughout both the current and prior financial years, with adjustments made to remove the impact of new and closed stores, as well as corporate transactions.
6 - The Benelux business was acquired in March 2022 with the 15 stores now considered like-for-like.
7 - REVPAF is an alternative performance measure used by the business. REVPAF stands for Revenue per Available Square Foot and is calculated by dividing revenue for the period by weighted average available square feet for the same period.
8 - Where reported amounts are presented either to the nearest £0.1m or to the nearest 10,000 sq ft, the underlying variance presented may be significantly different to the variance calculated on the rounded numbers
9 - Store Protect has replaced our customer goods insurance programme from 1 November 2023, attracting VAT rather than Insurance Premium Tax (IPT). When comparing the first three months of the 2024 financial year, the 2023 comparative included revenue of £0.5 million representing 12% IPT on insurance sales for the three months. For 2024, VAT is not included in the revenue. The overall impact of these changes is neutral at EBITDA. With the LFL revenue figure adjusted to remove the IPT from the prior year, LFL revenue is down 1.2% as reported. Including the IPT in revenue in the PY would result in a variance of -1.8%.