According to data from property consultancy and estate agent Savills in this week’s Retail Week “the closure of ‘non-essential’ stores because of the coronavirus pandemic and the associated surge in home delivery heralded record warehouse space expansion in 2020.”

This meant that more than 50.5 million square feet of new storage space was leased in 2020, around 12 million square feet more than the previous record increase, in 2016,

Behind the figures lies retailer Amazon and a switch from short term and emergency use of storage space to more permanent use of storage as part of operations. Many small retailers could no longer afford expensive high street space and went on-line. Amongst them, many have preferred this new model and thrived.

As is to be expected, grocery businesses, retailers developing ‘multichannel’ strategies (allowing consumers to buy online OR in-store) and purely online businesses accounted for the bulk of the increased space demand.

This, of course, has lead to a demand for space, and increased warehousing prices. Whilst overall, according to Savills, the South West remained the cheapest place to rent warehouse space (average rents were just £4.67 per square foot, but a record sum for the region), and the next cheapest region was Yorkshire and the Humber (at £5.90 per square foot), in the South East prices surged (to £10.20, also the highest on record for the region), and in London (to £16.13 per square foot).

And that’s if you can find somewhere to store – the South East and London are showing just 3.5% of space as being available.

This is great for a company like Savills, the people who produced the report, as it’s their job to rent those spaces for the best possible price on behold of the landlords. Their figures will, of course, include spaces where people take a huge warehouse and then spend to fit it out themselves, so those prices are almost certainly understated for smaller business needing to use traditional self/storage options.

What many businesses forget is that not everything needs expensive traditional self-storage space. Certain items can be put away for several months or more n a far cheaper ‘mobile storage’ solution such as that offered by easyStorage. These might include:

• seasonal stocks such as Christmas and Hallowe’en

• unused office furniture

• paper documents and records kept for legal reasons

• accounts

• electronic devices waiting for reuse

• seasonal furniture like outdoor tables

• seasonal decorations and shop fittings

• exhibition stands and posters

If you run an operation that needs constant access to goods, day and night, traditional storage is a great option. But in reality, a lot of storage is only accessed once or twice a season, if not merely to dispose of it at the end of its legal lifespan.

For these things, mobile storage - where we come and both collect and return your goods – is a really cost effective option, keeping that expensive self-storage for what it’s most  needed for, and using the convenience and price savings of a service like easyStorage for everything else: swapping a storage unit for an easyPod may be the smartest thing many have done when it comes to keeping business costs and hassle to a minimum.

Click here for a no-obligation quote and even booking online: https://book.easystorage.com/.

We did mention it was easy, didn’t we?

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