Third Quarter Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 5037L

Big Yellow Group PLC

12 January 2016

 

12 January 2016

Big Yellow Group PLC

("Big Yellow" or "the Group")

Interim Management Statement

The Board of Big Yellow Group PLC, the UK's brand leader in self storage, is pleased to provide the following update on trading for the third quarter ended 31 December 2015.

Results

	Quarter ended  31 December 2015	Quarter ended 31 December 2014	%
Store maximum lettable area ("MLA")	4,404,000	4,275,000	3
Closing occupancy (sq ft)	3,240,000	3,041,000	7
Closing occupancy (% of MLA)	73.6%	71.1%	2.5 ppts
Like-for-like closing occupancy(1)	74.1%	71.1%	3.0 ppts
Revenue	£25.7m	£21.3m	21
Like-for-like revenue(2)	£22.3m	£20.3m	10
Like-for-like closing net rent per sq ft(1)	£26.21	£25.31	4

(1) Like-for-like occupancy and net rent excludes Enfield (opened in April 2015) and Chester (acquired January 2015).

(2) Like-for-like revenue excludes the 12 Big Yellow Limited Partnership stores (acquired December 2014), Chester and Enfield.

In what is always a seasonally weaker quarter for the Group, the 70 stores fell in occupancy by 138,000 sq ft (3.1% of MLA) compared to a loss of 128,000 sq ft (3.0% of MLA) in the same quarter last year (the prior year figure excludes a one-off short term 25,000 sq ft national account customer that moved in during November 2014).

The number of move-ins was down 1% on the quarter to 31 December 2014.  

Armadillo Self Storage

Occupancy in the Armadillo 1 and Armadillo 2 portfolios decreased over the quarter by 24,000 sq ft to 462,000 sq ft of the total MLA of 673,000 sq ft, representing occupancy of 68.6%. 

The revenue from the two portfolios for the quarter to 31 December 2015 increased by 5% to £2.3 million compared to the revenue achieved by these portfolios in the same quarter last year. 

Store update

Our new 55,000 sq ft store in Cambridge is scheduled to open next week on Monday 18 January. The opening is on time and within the original budget.

We have acquired the adjoining parcel of land to our development site at Camberwell for £1 million, bringing the total site area to approximately one acre.  Given the quality of the location, we will now look to develop a larger 65,000 to 70,000 sq ft store.

James Gibson, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"The seasonal occupancy performance is in line with last year and we are also pleased to have delivered net rent per sq ft growth of 1.6% over the quarter with year-on-year net achieved rental growth of 3.6%.

Furthermore on a like-for-like basis over the quarter, year on year revenue growth of 10% is slightly ahead of the first half of the year, and our earnings guidance for the full year remains in line with current consensus.

Whilst it is early in the quarter, we have had a positive start to January with an improving book of reservations and look forward to delivering occupancy growth over this quarter and continuing into our seasonally stronger spring and summer trading period."

For further information, please contact:

Big Yellow Group PLC	01276 477 811
Nicholas Vetch, Executive Chairman
James Gibson, Chief Executive Officer
John Trotman, Chief Financial Officer
Teneo Strategy	020 3603 5220
Ben Foster
Rosie Oddy

About us

Big Yellow Group PLC is the UK's brand leader in self storage.  Big Yellow now operates from a platform of 84 stores, including 14 stores branded as Armadillo Self Storage, in which the Group has a 20% interest.  We own a further eight Big Yellow self storage development sites, of which two have planning consent. The current maximum lettable area of this platform is 5.1 million sq ft.  When fully built out the portfolio will provide approximately 5.5 million sq ft of flexible storage space.  Of the Big Yellow stores and sites, 96% are held freehold and long leasehold (by value); with the remaining 4% short leasehold.

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, accessible, main road locations.  Our focus on the location and visibility of our Big Yellow stores, coupled with our excellent customer service and our market leading online platform, has created the most recognised brand name in the UK self storage industry.

 

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