Safestore shares enjoyed modest price gains on Thursday, after the self-storage business announced accelerating fourth-quarter revenues.
At 724.5p per share, Safestore’s share price was last 1.7% higher on the day.
During the 12 months to 31 October, Safestore’s turnover was £234.3 million. This was up 4.9% and 5% at reported and constant exchange rates respectively.
For the fourth quarter, revenues rose 7.1% to £62 million, the self-storage giant said. Growth came in at 6.1% at stable exchange rates.
The FTSE 250 company said it enjoyed “positive contributions from both like-for-like and new stores across all markets.”
On a like-for-like basis, full-year revenues rose 3.1% at constant currencies, to £228.7 million. For the fourth quarter these were up 3.3%, at £59.4 million.
UK Trading Picks Up
Results showed that Safestore’s revenues were driven by strong demand at its core UK unit.
It said like-for-like sales rose 2.4% and 3.4% over the financial year and fourth quarter respectively, to £42.9 million and £164.8 million.
The company said last quarter’s strong performance “[continued] our improving quarter to quarter trajectory with robust demand from domestic customers.”
It added that revenues accelerated thanks to “rate improvements supported by the positive impact from unit partitioning (with temporary reduction in CLA as space held for conversion).”
UK average storage rates rose 6.6% in the last quarter, lifting growth for the full year by 2.5%
Some 139 of the company’s 211 stores are located in the UK, with another 34 situated in France.
Across the English Channel, like-for-like revenues rose 2% in the last quarter to €13.4 million. Over the whole year growth was 1.3%, driving sales to €51.9 million.
However, average storage rates in France dropped 1.8% in the fourth quarter, reducing full-year growth to 0.4%.
Occupancy, Rates Rise
Safestore said its closing occupancy was 6.67 million square feet as of October, up 4% which it attributed to new space. As a percentage of current lettable area (CLA), occupancy ticked up to 78.1% from 78% a year earlier.
Average storage rates improved 1.2% over financial 2025 a reported basis, to £30.20. At constant currencies this was up 1.3% year on year.
Rate growth ricked up to 4% and 3.1% on headline and like-for-like metrics respectively during quarter four, to £30.84.
Safestore opened four new stores over the course of the year – three in Paris and one in London – pushing its total maximum letting area (MLA) to 9.3 million square feet.
The company said “our development programme has added 0.7 million square feet of new MLA in the 2025 financial year, and a further 0.1 million square feet so far in 2026, with the remaining pipeline totalling 1 million square feet on track.”
Encouraging Results
Safestore chief executive Frederic Vecchioli said “we are encouraged by our continued momentum across the business,” noting that “we have seen a continuation of the improving trajectory in UK performance driven by robust domestic customer demand and the benefits from our space partitioning programme.”
The business said it expects full-year earnings per share (EPS) to hit City forecasts. These are tipped at 40.3p per share, down from 42.3p in financial 2024.
Safestore said it will unveil its full-year report on 15 January.