A containerised self-storage company has invested £100,000 in an articulated lorry and a crane to launch a new arm of the business – selling and delivering the iconic steel boxes.
As part of their expansion plans, Lock Stock Self-Storage, which is based in Denbigh, are now offering a range of containers for sale starting at £400 for a second-hand 10-foot container.
Steel shipping containers are eight foot high by eight foot wide and come in 10 foot, 20 foot and 40 foot lengths and are ideal for durable, safe, secure storage.
They have helped the company grow from an offshoot of well-known ceramic design and installation company Craig Bragdy into a storage giant in its own right with 18 sites and 3,000 containers providing over four million cubic feet of storage across North and Mid Wales and the border counties of Cheshire and Shropshire.
Nick Powell, who founded the company with his brother, Shon, in 1998, said: “Shipping containers are incredibly useful and versatile – at our sites they are increasingly used by businesses and now we want to put them within reach of anyone.
“At one of our sites a businesswoman runs a thriving café from a converted container and the popular property programme Grand Designs showcased an amazing property built by an architect in Northern Ireland.
“Another enterprising self-build was a floating home which was featured on TV’s Amazing Spaces and we’d be delighted if we could inspire this sort of imaginative design across North Wales and the border counties.
“But many will just want a container for storage and they’re ideal. They’re tough, durable, they don’t leak, they’re secure and they’ve been tested by being shipped to the UK on a 12,000-mile seven-week sea journey via the Suez Canal.”
Container sales and the means to deliver them is the latest diversification for Lock Stock, a company that was born out of diversification in 1998 when brothers Nick and Shon Powell launched it as an off-shoot of the family’s well-known Craig Bragdy ceramic design and installation company.
They bought shipping containers to store material from the ceramic business and after receiving enquiries from other businesses about renting storage space they decided to open their first self-storage park in Denbigh.
Since then the operation has grown so that they have opened new sites in Wrexham and Holyhead already this year, taking the number of storage parks to 18 with the company on course to have 3,000 containers with a storage capacity of four million cubic feet by the end of 2017.
Stuart Bowker, the company’s operations manager, said: “The advantage of having our own lorry and trailer is that not only can we deliver containers to our sites rather than have to rely on other haulage contractors but we can also start selling containers ourselves.
“We see them as an increasing market and being able to guarantee delivery is of course an important part of the service.
“When someone orders something they want it as soon as possible and we have the capacity to provide that.”
Nick Powell added: “We are always looking to diversify and to react to the market.
“The business started because we reacted to a demand and it has grown in response to demand and that’s bene the case here as well because customers asked us about buying containers.
“We are always looking at ways we can diversify and maximise the resources we have – you can’t afford to stand still in business.”
Lock Stock now has 18 sites across North and Mid Wales and the Border Counties and also operates a van-hire business, Take Stock, from three hubs at Llandudno, Chester and Rhyl – they also sell fireworks at Chester, Rhyl and Llandudno and on-line.
Their existing sites stretch from Bangor along the North Wales coast at Llandudno and Rhyl, on the Dee at Flint and Chester and inland at Denbigh, Mold, Wrexham and Newtown in Powys, and at Oswestry and Shrewsbury in Shropshire.
For more information about Lock Stock go to http://www.lockstock.biz/
