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* Rocket Internet start-up enters self-storage market,starting in UK
* Self-storage incumbents include Safestore, Big Yellow,Lok'n Store
* UK self-storage market turnover 355 mln pounds last year
By Eric Auchard
VIENNA, July 3 (Reuters) - German startup backer RocketInternet is entering the British market for self-storage, with apick-up and store business that seeks to eliminate the need forcustomers to rent their own locker space.
SpaceWays, as the new company is called, will launch inLondon on Thursday, with plans to expand to other British citiesand around the globe in the near future, said one of the threeco-founders hired by Rocket Internet to create the service.
In effect, it is looking to transform the self-storagemarket into an on-demand business more like package deliverywith an online twist.
It aims to remake the market for storing excess goods, whichtypically offers rented locker space in low-rent locations,leaving customers to pick up and deliver their goods themselvesas well as cover the cost of insuring them.
"We are bringing technology and added customer service to anold-fashioned industry in hopes of expanding the market," RobRebholz, a SpaceWays co-founder said in a phone interview fromRocket Internet's Berlin headquarters.
The SpaceWays concept was only conceived of eight weeks ago,in keeping with Rocket Internet's philosophy of rapid businesscreation and execution.
It will provide customers with heavy-duty boxes for storingaway old clothes, odd-sized items or other personal goods plusfree pick-up for delivery to a secure storage warehouse rentedby the company outside London.
Space-constrained Londoners, from students to mobile youngprofessionals to growing families and small businesses, will pay6 pounds ($10.21) a month per 80 litre-sized box.
Any number of boxes can be picked up by the company'sdedicated delivery service for a flat fee of 19 pounds, it said.The service is available online at http://www.spaceways.co.uk.
EXPANSION PLANS
Britain's self-storage market currently comprises a handfulof national brands including Safestore Holdings Plc,Big Yellow Group Plc and Lok'n Store Group Plc.
The British market had 355 million pounds in turnover lastyear, according to trade group Self Storage Association UK, butthe top six brands account for less than 30 percent of themarket, with the rest run mostly by 400 independent, localoperators.
SpaceWays' offering is aimed at customers with small lots ofodds and ends rather than whole rooms or houses to pack up.
"If you store your entire household you wouldn't do thatwith us," Rebholz says. However, he says SpaceWays eventuallyplans to handle larger lots of goods and removal services, bothfor consumers and businesses.
Its parent, Rocket Internet, run by online entrepreneurOliver Samwer and covering online shopping to taxis, groceries,domestic cleaners and financial services in more than 100countries, plans an initial public offering later this year thatcould value the venture funder at between 3 billion ($4.09billion)and 5 billion euros ($6.82 billion).
SpaceWays will take advantage of the warehousing skills offellow Rocket Internet company Zalando, Europe's top onlinefashion retailer, and partnerships with established warehouseand delivery firms it declines to name, Rebholz said. It willalso use Rocket Internet's centralized back-office technicalfunctions run from Berlin.
David Fuchs, one of the three co-founders who all met at topGerman business school WHU's Otto Beisheim School of Management,will run the business from London.
"Our vision is to be the No. 1 storage company worldwidethat provides logistics or storage services to end users,"Rebholz said. ($1 = 0.5877 British pounds) ($1 = 0.7331 euros) (Editing by Susan Fenton)
