12th Jul 2005 07:00
Big Yellow Group PLC12 July 2005 12 July 2005 Big Yellow Group PLC Quarterly Trading Update The Board of Big Yellow Group PLC, the self storage company, is pleased to provide the following update on trading for the quarter ending 30 June 2005. - Turnover for the quarter was £9.6 million - Up 32% from £7.3 million for the same quarter last year - Up 7% from £9.0 million for the quarter to 31 March 2005 - Annualised revenue is now £39.8 million - Up 29% from £30.9 million at the same time last year - Up 9% from £36.5 million at 31 March 2005 - 75,000 sq ft was added in the quarter,including 20,000 sq ft from the acquisition of an existing store in Richmond on 24 June 2005 - 1,545,000 sq ft occupied at the quarter end - Up 12% from 1,378,000 sq ft at the same time last year - Up 5% from 1,470,000 sq ft at 31 March 2005 - The number of customers increased to 26,400 compared to 22,900 at 30 June 2004 and 24,600 at 31 March 2005 - Packing materials, insurance and other sales were £1.20 million for the quarter to 30 June 2005 (quarter to 30 June 2004: £0.99 million and quarter to 31 March 2005: £1.05 million) - In June we acquired the only other self storage facility in Richmond (freehold) and we now have two stores located on the A316 with a total capacity of 60,000 sq ft - In addition, we opened a 70,000 sq ft store in Beckenham on 3 May and a 72,000 sq ft store in Leeds on 4 July 2005. We now have 35 stores open with a total self storage capacity of 2.1 million sq ft - There are ten stores in development or planning, which will provide an additional 650,000 sq ft of self storage capacity when fully developed. Detailed Planning Consents were granted during the quarter on Kingston and Bristol South and we now have planning permission for six of the ten stores James Gibson, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This is an encouraging performance given the slow start to the quarter and the current housing market and economic backdrop. It reinforces our view that our formula of large, well located, highly branded, urban stores, with excellent customer service is the right one. "We continue to believe that trading conditions will remain more testing than in previous years over the next 12 months, particularly in the winter period. However, these results bear out our often stated view that the Big Yellow business model, whilst not immune, is relatively resilient to economic slowdown. Current trading is in line with market expectations." - Ends- For further information, please contact: Big Yellow Group PLC 01276 470190Nicholas Vetch, ChairmanJames Gibson, Chief Executive Weber Shandwick Square Mile 020 7067 0700Louise Robson or Yvonne Alexander Notes to Editors Big Yellow Group PLC is one of the leading and most dynamic self-storage groupsin the UK. It was founded in 1998 by Nicholas Vetch, Philip Burks and JamesGibson and listed on AIM in May 2000, moving to the Official List of the LondonStock Exchange in May 2002. Big Yellow has expanded rapidly and now operates from 34 stores in London andthe South, and one recently opened in Leeds, with a further 10 stores indevelopment and of the 45, 35 are held freehold and one long leasehold. All thestores have the distinct yellow branding, are on main roads, with the majoritybeing located within the M25 or in strong urban conurbations. When fully builtout the portfolio will provide approximately 2.7 million sq ft of flexiblestorage space. Big Yellow currently has 26,400 customers. The Group has pioneered the development of the latest generation of self-storagefacilities, which utilise state of the art technology and are located in highprofile, main road locations. Its focus on the location and visibility of itsbuildings, coupled with excellent customer service, has created the mostrecognised brand name in the UK storage industry. As stated in the Preliminary Announcement on 10 May 2005, we will present ourrestated results under IFRS for the year ended 31 March 2005 to the market inSeptember 2005 prior to the announcement of our interim results. We have notincluded a pre-tax profit figure in these quarterly results to 30 June 2005 aswe have not completed our IFRS restatement exercise. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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