curiosity

A company that had posted an increase in revenue in 2009. And although the increase was very modest, such achievements these days command curiosity. The company was a Surrey-based self storage specialist – Big Yellow PLC (BYG). The London-listed, £481m-Cap provides self-storage facilities to domestic and business customers around the country, with particular emphasis on London (69% of stores are within the M25).

The 273 employees of the company labour on 54 sites renting out storage rooms ranging in size from 10 to 500 sq ft (92% of these are freehold). Big Yellow has another sixteen stores in its pipeline. A typical store would be around 60,000 sq ft, with average room rented being 60 sq ft bringing in some £27 per sq ft per year. To complement the storage revenue the company offers packing materials as well as insurance to its customers (around £8m in revenue in 2009