Big Yellow finishes 2009 in the pink

14th Jan 2010 08:06

The fourth quarter is typically the weakest of the year at storage company Big Yellow but the group was encouraged that performance in December was ahead of expectations.Total revenue for the group’s 51 wholly owned stores in the fourth quarter was £14.3m, up 1% from the £14.2m seen in the final quarter of 2008 but down 2% from the £14.6m recorded in the three months to the end of September.The occupancy rate at the end of 2009 was 54% of total available capacity, little changed from a year earlier but down from 56% in the third quarter of 2009.Net rent at the wholly owned stores averaged £26.79 per square foot, versus £26.37 a year earlier and £26.38 in the third quarter. The nine Big Yellow partnership stores achieved an average net rent over the quarter of £17.85 per square foot, up 7% from £16.63 a year earlier and 1% higher than the £17.75 seen in the third quarter of 2009.The company said that Lloyds Banking, which joined Big Yellow’s core banking syndicate last year, has upped the size of its commitment from £75m to £100m of the company’s £325m facility.HSBC has also committed to taking an initial £25m participation in the group’s core banking facility.‘The performance in the month of December was ahead of our expectations, where we lost only 6,000 sq ft across all stores which was significantly better than the same month in 2008 and 2007 (when the occupancy falls were 31,000 sq ft and 28,000 sq ft respectively),’ said James Gibson, chief executive officer of Big Yellow.‘January has started reasonably well with modest occupancy growth and a significantly higher level of reservations than at the same time last year, in what is historically a slow trading month,’ Gibson added.