LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Safestore reported a strong start to the year driven by improved occupancy at the self-storage company's UK and Paris operations.
Revenue rose 7.3% to ?39.9m in Safestore's first quarter with revenue at established facilities increasing 4.8% to ?39m. Excluding currency fluctuations, total revenue rose 8.3% and like-for-like revenue rose 5.9% in the three months to the end of January.

Like-for-like occupancy rose to 75% from 72.2% as UK occupancy rose 2.9 percentage points to 74%. UK revenue increased 6.1% to ?29.7m, the FTSE 250 company said.

Total UK revenue growth of 8.2% to ?30.3m included the addition of sites at Heathrow in 2019 and St John's Wood and Chelsea in 2020. All acquisitions and new stores are performing in line with or ahead of plans.

In Paris, occupancy rose 2.7 points to 79.3% and revenue increased 5.8% to €11m (?9.2m). A business in Barcelona bought at the end of December is trading in line with expectations, Safestore said.

Chief executive Frederic Vecchioli said: "It has been a pleasing start to the financial year. Our first quarter performance has been strong, driven by our core markets of the UK and Paris ... We remain confident in the future and our strong start to the year means the company is on course to meet the board's full year expectations."

Safestore provides secure space for households to store furniture and other belongings, often during house moves, renovations and events such as deaths and births. The company has also capitalised on people working overseas and households that want to declutter or simply have too much stuff.

Safestore shares, up by 42% in the past year, rose 0.3% to 812p at 0845 GMT.

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