Big Yellow Regulatory News (BYG)

 20 July 2017

Big Yellow Group PLC

("Big Yellow" or "the Group")

Trading Statement

The Board of Big Yellow Group PLC, the UK's brand leader in self storage, is pleased to provide the following update on trading for the first quarter ended 30 June 2017.

Results

(1) Excluding Nine Elms and Twickenham 2 (acquired from Lock and Leave on 28 April 2016).

The 73 Big Yellow stores increased occupancy over the quarter by 183,000 sq ft (4 ppts of the MLA) resulting in a closing occupancy of 82.0%.

Enquiries for storage quotes were broadly in line with the same quarter last year, however with improved conversion rates, move-ins increased by 4% compared to the same quarter last year. There was less churn in the business resulting in move-outs being down by 4% compared to the same quarter last year. The combination of these factors drove the improved occupancy performance over the quarter.

The Group's like-for-like revenue increased by 5% compared to the same quarter last year, all driven by growth in occupancy.

Armadillo

Revenue from the Armadillo portfolio for the quarter to 30 June 2017 increased by 20% to £3.0 million compared to the same quarter last year. Like-for-like revenue, excluding West Molesey and Canterbury (acquired from Lock and Leave in April 2016) and the Quickstore portfolio (acquired in April 2017), increased by 7% compared to the same quarter last year. 

Development

Our new 56,000 sq ft store at Guildford Central, on a prime location on Woodbridge Meadows is under construction and is due to open in March 2018. We are also constructing a 25,000 sq ft extension to our highly occupied Wandsworth store in a vibrant and dynamic area of South West London. The extension will increase the store's MLA to 72,000 sq ft upon completion in April 2018.

We submitted a planning application in June for a proposed 60,000 sq ft MLA landmark store on our site in a prominent location on Water Street, central Manchester. 

We are continuing planning discussions on our other development sites and will provide a further update in November with our interim results.

James Gibson, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"In May, with our final report, we set out our focus on occupancy gain and so it is pleasing to report strong occupancy growth of 4 ppts to 82% across the portfolio. Our long held target of 85% is now within reach and, as we have previously indicated, that target is now under review. Net average achieved rent over the quarter has been flat, but we are confident that, at these higher occupancy levels, our pricing model will deliver growth in net achieved rents in due course.

Big Yellow stores now average more than 50,000 sq ft occupied per store. This represents over 50% more than the industry average of 32,800 sq ft (source: UK Self Storage Association Annual Industry Report 2017). We have no doubt that this is as a result of our market leading brand position. 

Supply remains constrained, particularly in London and other large conurbations where our stores operate. We are aware of only one store opening in London in the next 12 months, but also one closure, resulting in no net increase in supply.

We continue to look to acquire additional land or sites, and our financial strength should allow us to exploit any opportunities that arise."

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Notes to Editors

Big Yellow is the UK's brand leader in self storage. Big Yellow now operates from a platform of 92 stores, including 19 stores branded as Armadillo Self Storage, in which the Group has a 20% interest. We own a further eight Big Yellow self storage development sites (including two extensions sites), of which two have planning consent. The current maximum lettable area of this platform is 5.4 million sq ft. When fully built out the portfolio will provide approximately 5.8 million sq ft of flexible storage space. Of the Big Yellow stores and sites, 96% by value are held freehold and long leasehold; with the remaining 4% short leasehold.

The Group has pioneered the development of the latest generation of self storage facilities, which utilise state of the art technology and are located in high profile, accessible, main road locations. Our focus on the location and visibility of our Big Yellow stores, coupled with our excellent customer service and our market leading online platform, has created the most recognised brand name in the UK self storage industry.