Dave Betts, an expert on self-storage, is building up StorageExperts.co.uk

The Storage Experts brand now has 5 stores of which the oldest has been operating for 7 years and the newest for 3.  Dave Betts’ background was working for Steel Storage until 2005 and subsequently working for Storage King in the UK until 2009.

“Storage King was in danger of becoming too corporate, so I decided with Storage Experts to offer something which gives more to independent operators – a bit like Britannia removals has done in the removals market and Best Western has done in the Hotels market.  We will allow people to keep their own successful brand names and to add ours on top.”

As well as giving a chance to share ideas and experience, a larger group allows companies to negotiate better prices on insurance and packaging materials. A grouping of different storage companies also allows for shared marketing and means that once a store becomes full it can refer customers to a neighbouring storage centre with vacancies within the group.

Fierce competition in self storage but no competition in giving away chocolates

Storage Experts have stores in Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Warrington, Dudley and West Bromwich so it has a Midlands and North-West England orientation, but the stores face very different competitive conditions.  In Shrewsbury, Dave is competing with containerised storage and storage in wooden crates (“box storage”) so his staff have to explain to many of its enquirers just how self storage works and why it is generally more expensive.

This contrasts with Nottingham where there are several of the larger operators and this means customers’ expectations are set – they are already looking for purpose-built self storage and it is just a question of which company offers the best service and prices.

In Warrington there is possibly an oversupply of centres and competition is very price-focused, making it more difficult for the Storage Experts stores and to some extent Dave is finding he has to take whatever price that the market dictates.

The job of the people on the front desk is to maximise enquiries and conversions, but Dave has introduced some novel techniques to help bring in business.  For example he has introduced a self storage manager’s calendar so that particular days are used for themed marketing – on St George’s Day his managers visited the local estate agents giving them a St George’s day flag, thanking them for the referrals they have given and handing them a box of chocolates.  It was a huge success.

Dave also uses other innovative marketing techniques, such as dropping letters locally, which works particularly well at Warrington, and for the Dudley store they targeted houses with “for sale” boards outside so that, once these owners have sold their property and need somewhere to put their things, they think of phoning Storage Experts.

Occupancy at the centres varies a lot but Dave Betts’ storage facilities seem to follow the general rule that “storage centres do eventually fill up”.  At Shrewsbury he is 75% full while the newest store in Nottingham is still only 30% occupied, and his view is that the main thing needed to raise occupancy further is an improvement in the housing market.

Storing memories of times past

Sometimes even Storage Experts can be surprised by what people store.  Dave was once helping a man to unload a truck and saw a couple of old tree stumps in the back of the van which he offered to throw out – “oh, no, I’m keeping them as souvenirs,” explained the customer, “those are old Christmas tree bases which I’m keeping to remind me of Christmas”.  Each one was marked on the base with the year to which it related.

Non-paying storage customers are an issue for every self-storage business and Dave says that, if contact can be made, a compromise deal can often be struck.  Sometimes he has to take possession of a storage unit and they sell what they can and dump what can’t be given away.

“We often use charity shops, though they are becoming more choosy and we try to recycle where we can, often using the website “freecycle” for this”.   In some cases the customer is storing an item of value that he wants to sell such as a motorbike.  “In a case like this we have to be flexible over access in order to help the user and of course when the motorbike is sold we get some of the money to pay the back rent which is owed.”

The future of Storage Experts

Asked where he wants to be in 5 years’ time, Dave says that he wants to grow the Storage Experts group so that many other self storage businesses will be part of it.  He plans to build up Storage Experts as an umbrella company for other self-storage operators – he believes in shared branding and in the advantages of working as a group.  “Sometimes new managers are a bit lacking in ideas,” explains Dave, “and by working in a larger team they become different animals”.