There has been a big rise in demand for space at Lok’nStore’s sites, in part thanks to remote workers needing to make room for home offices.
The AIM-listed firm said occupancy across its 37 self storage properties, of which many are in the home counties, was 81.6% in the six months to January 31. That was up from 67.1% a year earlier.
Andrew Jacobs, chairman of the group, said: “I think a lot of people have been working from home and needed to clear out to make space for home offices. Meanwhile, we have seen some businesses clearing out some desks and chairs in offices so that social distancing can be achieved more easily.”
He added that surgeries and hospitals had also been storing PPE in some cases.
Lok’nStore said first half revenue increased 13.9% to £10.2 million and pretax profits improved to £2.9 million from £2.3 million.
It raised the interim dividend by 8.25% to 4.33p per share.
The shares rose 8.1p to 601.1p.
