25th Feb 2015 09:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - Self-storage company Safestore Holdings PLC Wednesday said like-for-like revenue in the first quarter was up 8.9% on last year, thanks to improvements in occupancy and an increase in the average storage rate.
The company said revenue in the first quarter to end-January came in at GBP25.6 million, up 7.6% on last year, while like-for-like revenue was up 8.9%.
Safestore said like-for-like revenue increases in both the UK and France were driven by both improved occupancy and storage rate growth, especially in the UK, where it reported double digit growth. Closing occupancy improved 3.0 percentage points to 67.2%, while the average storage rate grew by 3.7% to GBP25.07.
The group said that if exchange rates had stayed the same, revenue and storage rate growth would have been more.
Safestore said it is encouraged by the continued improvements to both occupancy, and in particular, rate trends across the business.
"The strong trading momentum reported at our preliminary results has continued throughout the first quarter of the new financial year. Our UK strategy, which we began to implement last year, of improving the conversion rate of enquiries into new lets whilst at the same time reducing discounting, continues to gain traction and is driving strong revenue growth," said Chief Executive Frederic Vecchioli in a statement.
In the UK, like-for-like revenue was up 12.9% in the quarter to GBP19.2 million, while occupancy levels remained significantly higher than last year.
"Our revised pricing policy continues to deliver rate growth and, for the first quarter, the average rate was up 7.0% on the same quarter last year," the company said.
The group said its Paris business delivered like-for-like revenue growth of 5.1% for the quarter on a constant currency basis, while the average storage rate improved by 3.8% to EUR39.43.
"We have strong market positions in both the UK and Paris and ample scope for further operational upside, with 1.65 million square feet of space to fill... I am confident that the recent momentum in the business and the renewed confidence of our sales team will continue as we progress through the financial year," said Vecchioli.
Safestore shares were up 0.9% at 278.25 pence Wednesday morning.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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