INTERVIEW - Lok'n'Store eyes expansion as economy recovers

Self-storage group Lok'n'Store is eyeing expansion after the economic recovery boosted its trading this year.

The group has 24 storage centres in southern England and sees potential for that to rise to about 50 even without moving out of areas where it already trades, chief executive Andrew Jacobs said.

It opened a flagship store in Maidenhead in Berkshire in December and plans to launch others in Reading, Aldershot, Southampton and Bristol in the coming 18 months.

"We'd be happy to go to 50 without expanding the current geographical spread," Jacobs told Sharecast/Digital Look News in an interview.

Jacobs added that the company was relatively immune to peaks and troughs in the economy because of the wide range of users of its storage, such as people moving home, getting married or divorced or storing winter sports gear.

The group's business users include companies storing stock and office furniture and even public authorities such as police storing new speed cameras.

Jacobs said: "People store things with us for all sorts of different reasons which is why the business is so resilient."

Business picked up in December last year and has been strong since, Jacobs said, adding: "We feel very comfortable. All of our year-on-year statistics are well ahead and my feeling is that trading is likely to remain pretty reasonable.

"We don't need the economy to be growing at 5% a year - we just need it not to do what it did in 2008."

Adjusted pre-tax earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation rose 11.6% to £4.6m on a 7.2% increase in revenue to £13.9m. The annual dividend rose 16.7% to 7p per share.

Shares lifted 12p or nearly 6% to 213.5p at 12:38 in London.