Quarterly Trading Update
Big Yellow Group PLC
12 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 470190
Nicholas Vetch, Chairman
James Gibson, Chief Executive
Weber Shandwick Square Mile 020 7067 0700
Louise Robson or Yvonne Alexander
Notes to Editors
Big Yellow Group PLC is one of the leading and most dynamic self-storage groups
in the UK. It was founded in 1998 by Nicholas Vetch, Philip Burks and James
Gibson and listed on AIM in May 2000, moving to the Official List of the London
Stock Exchange in May 2002.
Big Yellow has expanded rapidly and now operates from 34 stores in London and
the South, and one recently opened in Leeds, with a further 10 stores in
development and of the 45, 35 are held freehold and one long leasehold. All the
stores have the distinct yellow branding, are on main roads, with the majority
being located within the M25 or in strong urban conurbations. When fully built
out the portfolio will provide approximately 2.7 million sq ft of flexible
storage space. Big Yellow currently has 26,400 customers.
The Group has pioneered the development of the latest generation of self-storage
facilities, which utilise state of the art technology and are located in high
profile, main road locations. Its focus on the location and visibility of its
buildings, coupled with excellent customer service, has created the most
recognised brand name in the UK storage industry.
As stated in the Preliminary Announcement on 10 May 2005, we will present our
restated results under IFRS for the year ended 31 March 2005 to the market in
September 2005 prior to the announcement of our interim results. We have not
included a pre-tax profit figure in these quarterly results to 30 June 2005 as
we have not completed our IFRS restatement exercise.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange