Occupancy growth boosts Lok'n Store's revenue

The self-storage group recorded revenue of £8.5m for the six-month period ended 31 January, an increase of 10% compared to the same period a year beforehand, which drove profit before tax up by 20% to £2.7m.

Consequently, the business increased its interim dividend by 10% to 3.67p per share.

This came as unit occupancy rose by a healthy 8%, up 2.4% from the same period last year, and unit pricing was up 1.4%, while the AIM-traded company's ninth managed store opened in Dover during the period.

Andrew Jacobs, chief executive of Lok'nStore, said: "Lok'nStore's trading is strong and our outlook remains confident. With low gearing helped by capital recycling, we will continue to build more landmark stores in a structurally under-supplied market."

"In the first half of this year we opened a new store, acquired an existing operation and added two more sites to our pipeline. We have opened two more sites since the period-end and two more sites are currently with lawyers."

The company acquired an existing trading store in Hedge End, Southampton, snapped up two new sites in Stevenage and Wolverhampton and said its current pipeline of eight contracted stores will add 27% of extra trading space to the overall portfolio, 32% to its owned portfolio and 10% to the managed portfolio.

This pipeline is intended to contribute towards the business' strategy of filling stores and improve pricing to increase cash flow from the existing stores, acquiring sites on which to build landmark stores, and increasing the number of stores managed for third parties.

Lok'n Store Group had cash and cash equivalents of £11.2m at the end of the period, up from £5.4m at the same point the year before.

"Our objective is to open more landmark stores while remaining conservatively geared delivering sustainable growth and consistently increasing dividends," said Jacobs.

Lok'n Store Group's shares were up 0.15% at 495.75p at 0855 BST.