It’s not just our big easy-orange coloured vans that create a little sunshine – it’s our franchisees.  This holds doubly true in the case of new franchisee Tariq Din, the Sales and Operations Director of easyStorage Scotland. He will be delivering easyStorageself-storage to Glasgow, Edinburgh and the surrounding area, as far north as Fife, and has ambitions to expand further north as soon as the current operation is atfuller capacity.

Although well aware that orange has certain political football connotations in Glasgow, he felt it was a bit much to ask Stelios to change the whole bright orange coloured easybrand to something neutral at this stage. And Tariq’s not getting drawn into football discussions – he’s a rugby man himself, and whilst he’s Glaswegian, his partner is from Edinburgh.

As he waves furiously at everyone from the van, it’s clear that people of all types, football fans or not, and from whatever team, aren’t so much strangers as friends he hasn’t yet met. In this, he embodies the easy philosophy: fun, fresh and upbeat.

It gets repaid with lots of tooting and waving from passers-by, brightened by both the van and Tariq himself.

Nowhere did that show more than with his first easyStorage customers Rachael and Patrick, a lovely couple moving in together. Or rather, Patrick was moving in with Rachael, and to give them a little space and time to sort themselves out, many of Patrick’s possessions are now in storage. Warehouse and Transport Manager, Toby, was on hand to help.

To celebrate their first customer, Tariq and team caught the couple by surprise with a bottle of champagne, luxury chocolates and a personal card. What the couple didn’t know is that it’s an easyStorage tradition to name each sunshine orange vehicle with the first customer it serves. Given the characters in the TV soap, Friends, we think Rachael is atruly appropriate name for the easyTruck, one of the most important parts ofthe easyStorage team.

That’s not to say that the business is all light-hearted. Tariq’s family run a large care business, so his personal values matter to him, greatly. His search for a new role after more than a decade as a senior manager with DFS furniture,latterly in Wales, drew him to easyStorage. (Well, that and the big bright orange van on the easyStorage stand at the Franchise Show in Birmingham where he was given a warm welcome by the easyStorage team).

He had been there looking into franchises, and wanted one that was service based.He was looking for a business that truly values customer service but with a strong online presence, especially with COVID affecting so many businesses.  (easyStorage customers can get quotes and book easyStorage online.) He saw the synergy in values, and is loving it so far.

He’s determined that that his franchise is all about community, about raising a comforting smile for those who are putting things into storage for less happy reasons, such as a death or illness. He’s well aware that, going into people’s homes, he represents not just a blind storage service, but that there may be sentimental (or other) values in everything that people hold onto in storage. He’s relayed this to his own team – alongside their boundless enthusiasm, treat others as you want yourself or your loved ones to be treated.

They were recently employed by a woman whose parents were having tough time. The family had a gorgeous dining table that sat eight people, which came with many happy family memories. Sadly, the family needed space to put a hospital bed on ground floor for dad. Tariq empathised (and indeed he passed them the details of his own father’s carers to help them out), and even offered special help protecting the table.

Against a tough commercial environment and COVID, Tariq gets a feelgood factor being able to open now and provide jobs in the community. He will be recruiting locally, and anyone interested in joining should keep an eye on opportunities that arise on the easyStorage website’s ‘Vacancies’ page. (easyStorage Scotland is soon likely to need more qualified drivers and loaders.)

More about Tariq? His parents live in Scotland. He’s a huge ‘petrol head’, who loves driving the orange truck, movies and eating out, although for obvious reasons that’s a little restricted just now.

He has a ‘flurry’ of nieces and nephews, all of whom proudly wear easyStorage T-shirts. Let’s hope he can get us some pictures to share.

Tariq has stopped short of painting his face orange, but easy orange seems to be running through his veins. We’re proud to say that he and his team, including Rachael, really are a ray of sunshine in a grey COVID World.