Self storage is most commonly associated with personal use, from moving house to decluttering. However, a less well-known type of customer using self storage are businesses, who are increasingly choosing to move away from the more traditional services. With the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to business operations, and a record numbers of businesses being created in the UK in 2020, the amount of business customers at The Store Room is only set to increase.

For businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to international organisations, renting a storage unit has many benefits:

  1. It offers more flexibility than commiting to your own premises, with no fixed contract;
  2. You can easily alter the size storage unit you need by upgrading and downsizing, so you are not paying for any space you are not using;
  3. Our reception desk can collect and hold your deliveries for no extra charge, as well as acting as a pick-up location for any outgoing deliveries;
  4. All of our units are clean, dry, and secure, making them perfect for storing stock.

At each of our sites, we have a wide variety of businesses using our facilities. In this post, we’ve pulled together some examples of businesses at our Preston storage site, where business customers make up sizeable percentage of the customer base. 

Online Retailers

At The Store Room, we have many online retailers who operate their business out of one of our storage units. The online retail market in the UK has been rapidly increasing in the past decade; according to Statista, in 2019 online retail sales accounted for 19% of all retail sales in the UK, and the growth has been furthered accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

T Lin Logistics operates at our Preston site and uses self storage for receiving stock, storing it in a secure storage unit, and then sending their parcels out. A major benefit of self storage for online retailers is the fact that all of our sites are a despatch location – meaning they can leave their orders at reception and they will be picked-up from there by the customer’s chosen courier.

On, an international online retailer of running shoes, use a storage unit at our Preston site in a slightly different way. A representative uses the unit to store samples, which are then taken to various product testing events and racing events around the country. Renting a storage unit makes perfect sense in this scenario, as they have unrestricted access to the unit during site opening hours, as well as the flexibility to change unit size whenever necessary. Also, they have complete peace of mind as to the safety of their stock, as a result of our state-of-the-art, 24/7 security systems.

Ben from On Running, at our Preston site

Mobile technicians and representatives

For a business that uses a lot of tools and materials, a storage unit provides the perfect additional space.

One example is Hotpoint, who are a well-known home and kitchen appliance company, with customers all across the UK. Their engineers need somewhere to store the spare parts for appliances, and they have found that our facilities perfectly suit their needs. In particular, the fact that our reception accepts deliveries on their behalf is an important reason for them choosing to use self storage at The Store Room.

Charities

Charities are another important customer across all of our sites, and we have a wide range of organisations using our facilities for a variety of reasons.

Preston Community Transport are a charity which support the elderly and vulnerable in the Preston area, through providing transport for those who do not otherwise have access to it. PCT have a number of vans which they use for this purpose, and they store them at our Preston site. They have done so for the last 12 years, and say the reason that they have stuck with us so long is mainly down to the brilliant customer service!

General Manager Dave and drivers Martin and Barry at our Preston site

Additionally, for the past few years, storage space at both our Preston and Leeds storage sites has been donated to be used as Mission HQ for the Cash for Kids charity. They organise an annual Mission Christmas appeal, which involves collecting new and unopened gifts, which they then distribute to families in need. Storage units are the perfect location at which to collect, store, and organise these gifts in the run-up to Christmas.

Document / archive storage

A further common use for business storage is document and archive storage. We provide a Storage by the Box service, which is tailored to suit small to medium sized businesses. Restricted office space can mean that a pile of boxes will be taking up valuable space. Our box storage service allows for businesses to pay on a “by the box” plan to store their documents securely off-site, whilst still retaining easy access when necessary.

There are many more ways that self storage can be used to grow your business, and at The Store Room we are consistently welcoming more and more business customers. If you have any questions about the services we offer, or whether The Store Room would be suitable for your business, simply get in touch with your local site!