(Alliance News) - Big Yellow Group PLC on Thursday reported an increase in revenue in the first quarter but cautioned that high occupancy rates may be short-lived, as the self-storage provider benefits from the UK's frenzied housing market.
The company reported revenue of GBP36.6 million in the quarter ended June 30, up 15% year-on-year from GBP31.8 million. The occupancy rate increased to 90% from 84%, while average rent per square foot was up 2.7% to GBP29.04 from GBP28.28.
Big Yellow shares were up 0.9% to 1,405.00 pence in London.
Sales to domestic customers were strong, partly because of the stamp duty holiday on house sales, which led to an acceleration of storage demand in June. Demand from students was also stronger than expected.
But Big Yellow warned these may be short-term trends, saying: "We expect the current quarter to be impacted by these customers moving out." The stamp duty holiday started tapering off from July 1.
Chief Executive Jim Gibson said: "We are pleased to have delivered a strong trading performance in the first quarter and we have now achieved our long-held goal of like-for-like occupancy of 90%.
"However, we would caution that this is during our normally strong summer trading period, short term uncertainties remain, and we do expect a return to more normal seasonal trading patterns over the remainder of the year."
By Ivan Edwards; ivanedwards@alliancenews.com
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Big Yellow (BYG)