An Aberdeen University graduate has launched his own self-storage business, introducing keyless units to the city for the first time.
Brian Barbour has invested £140,000, plus undisclosed property costs, in getting Storage Den up and running.
The 31-year-old spent six years studying at Aberdeen University and despite moving back to his hometown of Edinburgh, saw potential for his business idea in the Granite City.
Storage Den, based in Bridge of Don Industrial Estate, has 70 storage units ranging in size from 25 sq ft to 200 sq ft, and are all individually alarmed with motion sensors and monitored with CCTV.
Customers can access through an easy-to-use tailored app, making the need for a key redundant.
Gap in Aberdeen storage market
Brian, a former lawyer, said: “Aberdeen is somewhere I know well from my days of studying and thought it was a an ideal location.
“There was a lack of competition compared to other cities and affordability was better than Edinburgh or Glasgow.
“I had acted on behalf of banking clients providing finance to self-storage companies and realised that despite the UK being the third-largest self-storage market in the world behind the States and Australia, there is still a lot of room for growth.
“My parents have their own business, which I’ve always found really motivating, and I realised that I had spotted an opportunity to start up one of my own.”
Storage Den customer base growing
The Storage Den site was previously occupied by Autospray but had been empty since 2019.
Since opening the business two months ago Brian has seen “steady” growth with a mixture of business owners, families, offshore oil workers and students making use of the space available and is currently sitting at 33% occupancy.
He has left his job as a lawyer to fully concentrate on developing the business.
Brian, who was given support from Business Gateway, said: “I left law as there was lots to deal with and I wanted to get a gauge of how much time I need to spend on the business.
“I want to build up a customer base and once it’s up to a good level I’ll probably look towards hiring someone.
“Eventually I’d like to expand into other cities in Scotland and take Storage Den to countries in mainland Europe.
“It’s been a busy year or so working to get my ideas for Storage Den off the ground. The industry standard for a storage facility to become mature is two years, and I’m trying to do this within the year.”
Storage Den a ‘bold step forward’
Storage Den was recently named out of more than 350 applicants as one of five finalists at Storers’ Den, a UK wide competition which encouraged self-storage operators under three years old with bold ambitions for growth to pitch for investment.
Sean Cowie, Business Gateway adviser, said: “The launch of Storage Den not only marks a significant milestone for Brian, but it also represents a bold step forward for the local community.”
