Global Self Storage

Although a bit of a sweeping generalisation, most people associate the UK with: the Queen, the ability for its residents to form an orderly queue, and rain 363 days of the year.  With New Zealand, it tends to be; sheep, volcanoes, earthquakes, and sunshine.  These nations couldn’t be physically further apart if they tried.  On the flip side, they are remarkably similar notably their spectacular scenery and surprisingly, self storage.

There are many self storage operators within the UK – mainly found within areas where the population density if high such as Birmingham, or Bolton.  This is reflected in New Zealand’s storage industry, with many storage centres being found on the outskirts of central Auckland including areas such as Mount Eden, Onehunga and Parnell: you’re not stuck for choice!  So, what do people use self storage for?

Self storage is defined as a business which rents storage space to tenants.  The storage space can be used by home-owners to store prized possessions, but can also be used by businesses to store products.  A recycling and disposal business in New Zealand, ‘Junk Run’ uses a self storage facility for a number of reasons.  The main reason the company uses an independent storage facility is because they are secure.  In order to reach their secure container, to which they are the only key holders, a pass is needed.  The security system within the self storage facility ensures all items stored are safe and secure.  The use of CCTV, and entry passes ensures only registered members of the storage facility can access the premises. 



Although there are many different things between the UK and New Zealand, one thing they do have in common is the awareness of the security protection given to their storage centres to bring peace of mind to customers.  The UK storage industry is also big on security with the use of digital CCTV and entry systems in place. 



However, one of the few distinguishing factors between the UK and New Zealand is the set-up, or layout of the storage facilities themselves.  UK storage centres tend to be one large building, fitted out with a variety of different sized rooms.   New Zealand’s self storage offering tends to be in the format whereby customers can drive-up to their storage unit.  The UK is much more urbanised and ground is of a much higher premium: New Zealand can take advantage of the abundance of space which allows their buildings to be spread out, enabling customers to “drive-up” to their storage units.

Although New Zealand and the UK are thousands of miles apart, the provision of self storage within each country is amazingly similar.