Big Yellow sees profits fall £2m

Big Yellow, the 250-listed storage company, suffered a £2m drop in pre-tax profits for the half year ended 30 September.

Comparing like-for-like, profit fell from £8.59m to £6.44m, after finance costs rose by more than £2m.

Revenue for the period, which is the most seasonally strongest, grew slightly, increasing year-on-year from £31m to £32.6m.

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The firm saw the performance as "pleasing", adding that it has "clearly been assisted by our strong brand position, in particular online, and the focus of our stores in London and the South East where overall revenue growth per store outperformed the rest of the portfolio.

"This performance demonstrates the relative resilience of this emerging sector, where new supply has slowed to a trickle and awareness of the product continues to grow."

Wholly owned store occupancy increased from 151,000 sq ft to 176,000 sq ft on a like-for-like basis.

Store revenue was up 7.4% compared to the previous six months and 6.6% on a like-for-like basis.

Basic earnings per share fell from 6.65p to 5p, while basic net assets per share rose to 423.1p from 421.9p.

Cash at the end of the period fell slightly, from £10.5m to £9.3m.

The share price fell 0.08% to 262.8p by 12:49.

NR