OUR BUSINESS

what we do

Our Trading Portfolio comprises 43 self storage properties across South Africa.

Stor-Age owns and operates 31 of these properties, covering 233 000 m² GLA – our Listed Portfolio. Stor-Age’s other 12 properties cover 67 000 m² GLA, and make up our Managed Portfolio from which we receive property and asset management fees. Stor-Age holds a pre-emptive right to acquire all properties in the Managed Portfolio, representing a significant growth pipeline. We manage over 18 500 individual leases with a churn rate of 5 – 6% per month and over 1 100 new tenants moving in each month.

We continue improving our operating platform and infrastructure to maximise revenue, reduce costs and ultimately deliver enhanced returns. At a property level, our people and the high-quality, secure and convenient space attract and retain a diverse customer base.

STOR-AGE AT OUR CORE

Put simply, Stor-Age exists because we solve people’s and business’ space problems.

We aim to actualise within a number of dimensions simultaneously for maximum value creation. Stor-Age aims for purpose and profit; continuity and change; freedom to innovate; and responsibility. We strive to respect our colleagues, our customers, ourselves and the organisation, which is greater than the sum of its parts.

Our four Core Values guide and inspire every single thought, action and decision: Excellence, Sustainability, Relevance and Integrity.

SOPHISTICATED OPERATIONS PLATFORM

We have invested significantly in developing a sophisticated and scalable management platform to provide centralised services and support across the portfolio. This offers economies of scale and cost efficiencies.

Our web-based tenant management system provides real-time information on the operating and financial performance of each property. The system also has a unique built-in client relationship management (CRM) tool which allows all enquiries to be logged and tracked (until closed) and management to remotely monitor employees’ efforts in this process. Every month, more than 4 400 enquiries are recorded and followed up on.

The Stor-Age website – whether accessed by desktop, tablet or smartphone – accounts for 55% of all enquiries. The telephone accounts for 28% of enquiries as the first point of contact and walk-in enquiries, where we have had no previous contact with a customer, accounts for 17%.

Pricing is dynamic and varies according to unit size, demand, the stage of lease-up, and location. In Stor-Age’s Big Box properties, the internal space can be reconfigured to produce variations of unit sizes in order to meet the demand profile and optimise the revenue streams from the property.

Operationally, Stor-Age consists of two elements: systems and people. Our approach to each is summarised below.

SALES, MARKETING AND E-COMMERCE

We have embraced the digital age and regard our online platform (management and tenant) as a key competitive differentiator.

We see digital as enabling a cohesive, previously unavailable, brand experience by creating unique and specific touch points based on where the customer is located and which specific online search term is used.

Our search engine optimisation (SEO) results maintain our leading ranking for the most popular and searched terms by using both paid for and organic listings.

In January 2017, we launched our new interactive website, which is gaining traction and encouraging web prospects to enter our ‘digital sales funnel’ and convert into a sale. More than 40% of total web enquiries originate from smartphones and tablets. Taking this into account, our new website is designed to be simple and uncluttered.

Our e-commerce platform encompasses an online reservation system and real-time pricing model which allow our online customers to seamlessly transition from obtaining a quote to moving in. This has improved the user experience and reduced move-in time for improved productivity.

With regards to marketing, we continued executing our IDEA campaign in the year. This is predicated on simple ideas about storage space in order to educate consumers on the convenience and benefits of the product. The ongoing roll-out across all marketing mediums is supported by a number of larger regional and store based activations.

Social media remains a key marketing and CRM medium for the group. We are mainly active on Facebook (66 000+ followers, ranking us as the third highest followed self storage business in the world) and Twitter, but also on Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Plus and YouTube. Through specific Call-To-Action buttons, we are able to engage with our customers in real time. Our well-established, active, online brand personality and presence plays a crucial role in maintaining Stor-Age as the top of mind choice for a space solution.

We further use our social media presence to support community projects, such as The Color Run South Africa and the Santa Shoebox Project. Refer to the social sustainability section for more detail on our corporate social investments.

We measure customer service standards through a programme of mystery shoppers and customer satisfaction surveys using our in-house ’My Experience Surveys’ portal.

OUR PEOPLE

Stor-Age has a flat operational structure that recognises that our operations employees are pivotal to achieving our strategic objectives, including driving occupancy, revenue and cash flow growth in the portfolio.

To foster a partnership culture within the business, management spends significant time at each property and is accessible to all employees. Our learning, development and training programme delivered both online and in person, develops both core and soft skills to promote individual advancement, and our performance management system supports this through regular appraisals and feedback sessions.

OUR PROPERTY

Our portfolio is predominantly purpose built with a national footprint. The 49 properties are split between 43 trading properties and six new developments in our pipeline. Our 43 trading properties will offer an estimated 320 000 m² GLA once fully fitted-out, and provide for a further 20 000 m² of approved development bulk. Our pipeline of six new properties offers further developable GLA of 39 000 m² on full build-out.

In defining our property strategy in South Africa, we identified the four main cities on which to focus and then the specific suburbs (including arterial routes) where we would like to establish a presence. This is not a restrictive or instructive strategy, but rather a guide that supports our full business growth strategy.

Maintaining our properties

As a customer-facing real estate business, it is paramount to maintain the quality of our assets by investing in a rolling programme of preventative maintenance, store cleaning and the repair and replacement of essential equipment.

We have a dedicated intranet for operational employees to log maintenance requests. Our national facilities manager manages property maintenance with the assistance of facilities management teams in each city in conjunction with store operations and area managers.

Cyber security

We have noted the global increase of ransomware and other cyber security attacks. During the year a number of enhancements have been made to the layered network security systems in order to strengthen defences.

We have chosen reputable, specialist service providers as business partners to ensure continued cyber security measures are maintained at the highest level. Together with a cloud based approach for essential services, our Information Communication and Technology (ICT) objectives of avoiding redundancy, enhancing security and ensuring continuity, remain strategic priorities.

Users (both internal and external) are continuously monitored to ensure the most effective use of resources and to limit the opportunity to breach the company’s cyber defences.

Our strategy, suppliers and network design are reviewed on a regular basis in order to stay abreast of leading best practice and remain relevant in the use of technology.