The COVID-19 pandemic touched all corners of the globe and brought new challenges to all industries.
But some industries experienced opportunities because of the pandemic. For instance, the self-storage industry was already on the uphill, and the pandemic saw transformational growth, despite the economic downturn. From Squab Storage’s perspective, both our self storage Leamington Spa facility, as well as our self storage Evesham facility both continued doing well.
Below are the five ways the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the self-storage industry.
Remote access
On March 23, 2020, all non-essential retail and businesses were forced to close—including our operations at Squab.
A number of our customers were running essential businesses themselves, and thanks to our access control system, we were thankfully able to stay open and facilitate access to our units for NHS providers and other essential businesses.
Other self-storage companies who didn’t have access control systems in place had to implement the technology quickly; a change that ultimately improves customer satisfaction by providing them with more flexibility.
Remote move-in
During the height of lockdown, we were also able to help customers move into our units remotely.
Many individuals and businesses found that they needed storage space at short notice during this lockdown period. We were able to help both businesses and domestic customers with their emergency storage needs by conducting our move-in procedures without even being on-site.
Increase in housing transactions
As a result of the stamp duty deduction, housing transactions increased. And, regardless of what was happening with the pandemic, many families still managed to move home. As you’d guess, they often required additional storage space for the interim period, too.
Spending more time than ever indoors during lockdown also made people realise how important their homes were.
This resulted in an abundance of home improvements, renovations, and extensions, and those who were brave enough to get their hands dirty often needed places in which to store both new and old furniture and belongings while undertaking the work.
If you didn’t find yourself going quite to that extent at the height of the pandemic, there’s a good chance you ended up decluttering your home instead during your time ‘inside’.
Business supply chains crumbling
In the face of both Brexit and the pandemic, whole industries were disrupted to the point of supply chain backups and shortages.
There was a huge reduction in global trade, and businesses often needed extra space to store their surplus of stock and inventory. We certainly saw an upturn in requests of that kind at Squab – and it’s not over yet.
Launches of new small businesses
Now for some happier news.
More entrepreneurs than ever are starting out on their own and developing small businesses. Nowadays, with the opportunities available for digitally native brands and products, one can operate an entire business from home—providing you have a place to store inventory.
That’s where self-storage units come in, and it’s why we’ve seen an explosion in their use for small businesses and start-ups.
Overall, the self-storage unity has never seen growth like this before. Awareness of self-storage as an industry has increased considerably. Even as the world slowly returns to some semblance of normality, the self-storage industry is expected to see continued growth.
With that development in mind, Squab Storage is continuing to grow! Our new self storage site in Rubery is expected to open in Q1 of 2022, and two more sites are expected in 2022 and 2023. Just get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how we can help you.
