Storage giant Lock Stock takes over sites near Ludlow

Denbigh-based Lock Stock Self Storage has just signed the contract to acquire Craven Arms Self Storage and Ludlow Self Storage at Brimfield in Herefordshire, between Ludlow and Leominster.

The deals will take Lock Stock, the UK’s largest containerised storage company, up to 30 sites with over 4,600 units providing almost six million cubic feet of space.

Operations manager Mike Trow said: “We have had a presence in the border counties for a while so it has very much been on our radar to expand there.

“We have taken over two existing sites which makes for an easier transition but both will get the Lock Stock treatment with the storage units painted our trademark dark green.

“We are continuing to look for more sites across Shropshire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

The sites were originally developed by Shrewsbury man Mark Carter, who opened a container-based storage park in Craven Arms in 2013 with a second at Brimfield, near Ludlow, following in 2019.

He said: “I have always liked the way Lock Stock operate. They’re a family business just like us and they really value their customers so I know they’re going to be looked after.

“A couple of years ago Lock Stock wrote to me to see if I was considering selling up and I had kept the letter and they were the first I contacted when I decided to finish.”

The latest acquisitions follow openings in Porthmadog, Bangor, and Liverpool, and they have just taken on a new area site manager Richard Warner, to take charge of Lock Stock’s storage parks in Deeside, Wrexham, the borders and Mid Wales.

Lock Stock, founded in Denbigh in 1999, is the UK’s largest containerised storage company with most of its units, including giant 40-footers, originally arriving in Liverpool by ship from China.

The company estimate that 60 per cent of their units are rented by people moving house or keeping treasured possessions but up to 40 per cent, almost 2,000 are used by small businesses for storing materials.