History of the Industry
Self Storage facilities first appeared in the United States of America in the 1960’s and since that time the industry has grown to account for nearly 53,000 facilities across the country.
Self Storage did not arrive in the United Kingdom until the early 1980s, initially in the London area, but today there are more than 1500 facilities found across the country and this equates to approximately 44.6 million square feet of rentable space. The industry continues to grow steadily in the UK and has done for the last five years, fuelled by the growth of multi-site operators as well as smaller businesses looking to diversify into the sector.
There are a number of reasons why both consumers and businesses are increasingly turning to self storage, but the primary reasons remain social factors such as moving home, marriage, divorce, retirement and for businesses self storage proves useful for a number of reasons including storing archive, stock or office equipment. In addition to this, public awareness of the industry (often because of high visibility centres found on major arterial roads around most of the country’s leading cities and towns) has also contributed to its growth.