Be Careful where you Store!!!
You care for your property at home/in business.
What about where you store it?
The financial crisis in Ireland has reached the self-storage business. In recent days a very large storage facility in Dublin has gone into receivership.
A trawl through the accounts of other storage businesses can help you decide where to store as much as the cheapest price. One large firm has written off €29 million following expansion at the height of the Celtic Tiger. Another firms accounts show it has borrowings in excess of €10 million. Other storage firms accounts show serious losses. Some storage firms are highly exposed to their banks including Anglo Irish Bank. Most of our competitors show an excess of liabilities over assets. Be careful where you store your goods; the cheapest price could turn out to be the most expensive!
Why is this?
In recent years a number new firms entered the storage business. Property was purchased at the height of the property market. Some existing firms expanded, borrowed serious money and bought premises at ridiculous prices. They are now caught in the financial crisis with falling rents and unsustainable bank borrowings.
Unsustainable Pricing.
How have they reacted? The firm which has just gone into receivership was offering rents at as low as a €1 a month. Other firms are dropping their rents in a race to the bottom. It is only a matter of time till some of these firms follow the same path as the large firm in receivership here in Dublin.
A complex business.
The operation of a self-storage facility is a complex mix of many things. There is the substantial capital requirement for the purchase of premises. Then there is the fit out cost of the individual rooms and the provision of fire safety requirements. The cost of providing security is massive. In Elephant Self Storage our facility in Tallaght we have invested huge capital in electronic and physical security. We have seven levels of security including over 80 individual CCTV cameras with 24 hour live monitoring and remote security monitoring which will talk live to anyone attempting to enter our compound. Management systems are installed to control the hotel-like facility with numerous different size rooms for clients staying from a day to years with some moving between different size rooms as their businesses change from time to time. Then there is the investment in staff, training, marketing, offices, rates, insurance, maintenance, cleaning, special designed lifts, parking and loading areas and exclusive to Elephant storage, a Business Incubation Centre (www.ebic.ie) to allow business clients not only to store their goods but to run their entire business from the one location.
How can a self storage facility provide that level of professionalism demanded by discerning clients for silly rents? The answer is that it is not possible.
Cheap?
If you just decide to rent from the cheapest storage centre then perhaps you should ask a friend to loan you space in a garage or buy a garden shed. Perhaps you are not worried about damp or theft. Your friend will not mind giving you access when ever you want to visit your goods. Insurance is not important and cleanliness is unimportant. Then that is the way you can save money.
Silly.
On the other hand if you value your possessions you must decide if you want a cut price operator with a very real danger that they will go bust whilst storing your goods or alternatively you decide to store in a facility like Elephant Self Storage that has been run by a family in business for over 50 years and is financially strong. Check us out. Our annual accounts are looked after by KPMG and Smith & Co, Chartered Accountants. Our bank is AIB, Crumlin Road, Dublin 12 and our solicitors are Eversheds O’Donnell Sweeney. Unlike most other self storage facilities our accounts show we are well capitalised, and well financed.
We monitor our competitors to make sure we are highly completive. Our prices offer excellent value but they are not silly. Your goods mean a lot to you and the last thing you want is to find yourself caught up in a receivership. If a price is too good to be true, then most likely” it is too good to be true". Be careful,
( And, we want to be in business for another 50 years! )
NOTE: The sources for the data in this blog are available on request.
More Tips on Decluttering
Appliances and Furniture:
Storing Applicances
There is no point in keeping broken appliances. If you’ve been promising yourself to fix your old toaster but haven’t got around to it a year later then the chances are you never will. The same goes for old furniture that needs to be fixed or re-upholstered. Generally these items end up in the garage, gathering dust. Fix them or get rid of them. However, if you have perfectly good furniture and appliances that you don’t use, consider these tips:
- Working appliances can be swapped or given away over the internet or you can give them away on Dublin waste website FREE Trade Site.
- Smaller electrical and electronic items can be sold on bidding sites such as eBay.
- Young couples moving into a first home often need furniture. Try placing an ad on the internet or in a magazine such as Buy and Sell or try eBay.
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Storeroom for Toys & Boxes
Furniture that you are keeping for children or items that no longer fit in the home, such as a piano, should be put into Elephant self-storage for just €10 per week.
Santa Present Storage
Attention all Santa Helpers!
“We are very excited about welcoming new customers this Christmas and can guarantee that presents will be stored safely in Elephant Self Storage.
(Lockers are just €5 per week*T&C apply)
A number of new customers who have taken up the offer have said ‘it takes away some stress just knowing the presents won’t be found before Christmas day’.
So all you busy Helpers out there who have been checking the lists of boys and girls for the toys they have asked Santa for this Christmas, can now store those special presents in safe, modern storage units and collect them in time for Santa to deliver them to all the wonderful children on Christmas Eve.
Irish Antique Dealers Fair
September 23rd - 27th 2009 RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4Dates and hours of opening.
wed. 23rd 4pm - 9pm
- Preview evening Thurs. 24th 12pm - 9pm
Fri. 25th 12pm - 9pm Sat.
26th 12pm - 7pm Sun.
27th 11am - 6pm
A must see for all!For the 1st time The IADA in collaboration for the first time with the Interiors Association will present an exbihition spectacular, offering a winderful view of antiques in a modernistic setting.
Daly Antique Services will undertake a restoration project which will be on view throught the duration of the fair. They will undertake to restore an 18th C Irish mahogany Tallboy by johnston Antiques of Francis St. From Start to finish all progress will be on view.
Elephant Storage customers included a number Antique dealers who rent all type of store rooms from 10sqft to 1,00sqft. We have recently opened new carpeted display/showrooms, where you can sell or buy antiques by appointment.
Swine Flu
The information about Swine Flu can be very confusing but there seems to be an underlying message that there could be second round later in the year which may be worse than the current one.
If the Swine Flu hits hard have you though about the implications if your supplier/s or transporter/s cannot deliver your stock.
You can use Elephant Storage to keep spare or buffer stock for this possibility and our storage rates are very reasonable. Evn if we all get Swine Flu we can, remotely, give you access to your goods and we use three diffrent security companies.