Archive Attic: a successful farm-based container storage business

Archive Attic was set up in 2003 by George Matts’ father and uncle with the idea of supplying archive storage services (hence the name of their company), but they have broadened out to providing space for all sorts of items, mainly furniture and household goods.

George took over the managing of the storage business in 2006 and has to make sure that it isn’t too time-consuming as he also works as a chartered surveyor and manages extensive light industrial buildings on the farm. Their farm is in Northampton, so it is well placed for self storage customers in Northampton, Market Harborough, Kettering and Rugby, all within a 20 minute drive.

Over 90% occupancy and up-front pricing

Archive Attic has 82 containers and they are virtually always over 90% occupied, and often completely fully let.

The company policy is to be very up front about their prices: they charge £94 per calendar month per storage unit/container — but they will be putting this up shortly to £100, or £1,200 per year (£1000 if you pay up front). Even at the higher level this is only £7.50 per square foot per year, which compares very well with purpose-built storage units in warehouses (typically charging about £25 per square foot per year), although there are obviously quite a few differences between the two types of storage.

George explains it simply: “The reason for the increase is that container prices have gone up 20-25% since the beginning of the summer.” One way they have kept their prices down is by having an unmanned site, but for the sake of security they lock it at night; the site is also fully alarmed outside the times when users have access (from 7am until 7pm during the week). “This seems to be what customers want,” says George, “and there’s extra security with both me and one of the farm workers living onsite.”

New containers, debt-free and financing new boxes from cash flow

Their running costs include business rates and a cross charge in rent but they have no debt so there is no financing charge. After the costs have been paid, they regularly buy new containers — George says it’s much better to buy new (or after a single journey only from the Far East) as you can be confident that the storage units won’t let in water.

Archive Attic did explore splitting containers but decided to keep to the standard unit of 20 foot long by 8 foot wide, which saves a lot of organising and extra administrative effort. Expanding their storage offering to another location is a possibility for the business but it would have to be both good value and quite close by to make it worthwhile.

Trouble with self storage and the law

Despite Archive Attic having a range of users, some of their storage tenants do still store archives, which led to an interesting experience for George Matts this summer when a solicitor using eight storage units went bust.

George contacted the Law Society who pointed out that he wasn’t free to destroy or sell the legal documents. Eventually, after a frustrating delay, and while new tenants were being turned away, he arranged to have all these files taken by the Law Society, but not before checking in some detail what the law is on the subject.

It turns out that although the files were indeed protected, Archive Attic were entitled to take possession of the cartons and the filing materials (ring binders etc), which of course were still usable. On the strength of this, a deal was reached for part payment of the outstanding storage space charges.

Contacting Archive Attic: their website is at www.archiveattic.co.uk or you can phone George on 01604 505715 / 01604 505050 or on his mobile 07894 336626.