REG - Safestore Hldgs plc - Interim Results
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RNS Number : 8478H Safestore Holdings plc 11 June 2026
11 June 2026
Safestore Holdings plc
("Safestore", "the Company" or "the Group")
Interim results for the half year ended 30 April 2026
Strong operational performance and a return to earnings growth as investment
in expansion begins to deliver
H1 2026 H1 2025 Change Change (CER)(2)
(Total)
FINANCIAL METRICS
Total Revenue (£'m) 120.6 112.8 6.9% 5.6%
LFL(3) Revenue (£'m) 117.3 111.9 5.0% 3.5%
Underlying EBITDAR(4) (£'m) 67.9 65.5 3.7% 4.3%
Operating Profit (£'m) 53.3 112.9 (52.8%)
Underlying Profit before Tax(5) (£'m) 44.6 43.6 2.3%
Statutory Profit before Tax (£'m) 36.3 97.0 (62.6%)
Net cash inflows from operating activities(6) (£'m) 47.2 41.2 14.6%
Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS(7) (pence) 19.4p 19.0p 2.1%
Interim Dividend per share (pence) 10.2p 10.1p 1.0%
Balance Sheet Metrics H1 2026 FY 2025
EPRA Basic NTA per Share (pence) 1,120 1,129 (0.8%)
Net Assets (£'m) 2,273.6 2,288.4 (0.6%)
Net debt (£'m) 1,100.8 1,058.6 3.8%
Loan to Value ratio ("LTV")(8)% 29.1% 28.1% 1.0ppt
OPERATING METRICS H1 2026 H1 2025
Maximum Lettable Area ("MLA")(9) m sq ft 9.5 9.1 4.4%
Current Lettable Area ("CLA")(10) m sq ft 8.7 8.6 1.6%
Closing Occupancy(11) (% of CLA) 75.1% 74.4% 0.7ppt
LFL Closing Occupancy (% CLA) 77.0% 76.6% 0.4ppt
Group REVPAF(12) (£ / sq ft) 28.11 26.78 5.0% 3.7%
LFL REVPAF (£ / sq ft) 29.08 27.36 6.3% 5.1%
Financial and operational progress
· Group revenue at constant exchange rates (CER) up 5.6% to £120.6 million,
with 3.5% LFL growth; positive LFL growth across all geographies and
increasing contribution from non-LFL stores:
o UK revenue +3.3% improved through the half year reaching £83.9 million,
with increasing domestic occupancy, unit partitioning and higher average
storage rates13 driving LFL growth of 2.4%;
o Paris revenue of €26.7 million, +4.6% includes LFL growth of 1.8% driven
by an increase in rental rates with decreased LFL occupancy impacted by strong
contribution from new stores.
o Expansion Markets(14) total revenue of €15.4 million, +25.7%; strong
growth in LFL (+16.8%) and non-LFL stores; Spain, Netherlands and Belgium all
performed well;
o Underlying store EBITDAR increased by 5.6% to £78.9 million; inflationary
cost pressures were partially offset by internal efficiencies, resulting in
LFL cost of sales increase of 3.8% at CER, in line with expectations.
· Underlying EBITDAR was £67.9 million, up 3.7%, reflecting higher
administrative costs in the half.
· Operating profit down 52.8% to £53.3 million as a result of stable Investment
Property values in H1 2026 versus a fair value gain in H1 2025 (gain of £49.5
million).
· Underlying net finance costs(15) increased by £1.0 million to £14.0 million
including the impact of increased borrowings to support the store expansion
programme. Refinancing of October 2026-maturing USPPs secured.
· Underlying profit before tax of £44.6 million increased by 2.3% delivering
Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS of 19.4p, up 2.1% on prior year and representing a
return to earnings growth.
· Statutory profit before tax of £36.3 million and Basic EPS of 15.3 pence
declined 62.6% and 57.9% respectively reflecting the stable property values in
the half versus a gain in the prior year.
· Interim dividend per share of 10.20p, up 1.0%, in line with progressive
dividend policy reflecting earnings growth whilst rebuilding of dividend
cover.
· Balance sheet remained strong with £2.3 billion of net assets. LTV ratio of
29.1% and interest cover ratio ("ICR")(16) of 3.9x; capital structure
underpinned by investment property valuation of £3.5 billion.
· Basic EPRA NTA per share of 1,120p, down 0.8% from FY 2025 due to currency
exchange rates.
Strategy on track, with pipeline delivery being executed as planned
· Continued focus on REVPAF to optimise trading in our existing store portfolio
where we see significant potential to drive further EBITDA growth from both
LFL and non-LFL stores.
· Projected incremental EBITDA from development programme unchanged with
openings in FY 2024 moving from non-LFL to stabilising LFL with their growth
potential remaining. Non-LFL (stores opening from FY 2025) and pipeline
projected to add £30-35 million EBITDA on stabilisation.
· Recently opened (non-LFL) stores on track to meet 10% yield-on-cost(17)
hurdle, with stabilised stores opened in 2016-2021 achieving between 10%-20%.
· £33.6 million investment in store development with MLA growing by 2% or 0.2
million sq ft to 9.5 million sq ft in the half year, with the addition of 4
new stores representing a planned reduction in pace of openings from the peak
in FY 2025.
Outlook and guidance
· FY 2026 outlook: Return to earnings growth with projected EPS at the lower end
of consensus(18) range largely reflecting the expected impact of higher
interest rates in H2
o Underlying LFL cost of sales growth now expected to be at lower end of
3%-6% range;
o Underlying net finance costs now projected to increase by £2-£3 million
as a result of higher floating interest rates;
o Capital expenditure for full year on new stores of £86 million;
o 225k sq ft of additional MLA expected in H2 2026 with a further 733k sq ft
MLA in FY 2027 and beyond.
· On track to deliver £30-£35 million of incremental EBITDA from non-LFL
stores and pipeline on stabilisation, in line with expectations.
Frederic Vecchioli, Safestore's Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"Safestore delivered a positive performance in the first half of FY 2026, with
like-for-like revenue growth across all our markets and a return to growth in
underlying earnings. The interim dividend, an important part of the total
return for our shareholders, is up 1% in line with our progressive dividend
policy whilst rebuilding cover as our earnings grow.
Our new and recently opened stores are performing well and, together with the
development pipeline of a further 17 stores, are expected to contribute an
additional £30-35 million of EBITDA to the Group upon stabilisation over the
coming years.
We continued to drive REVPAF and optimise trading across the like-for-like
estate, which remains a key engine of profit growth for the Group, while the
significant investment we have made in our expansion is now clearly
translating into both revenue and earnings growth. As a result Safestore
remains well positioned to deliver further growth in earnings and long-term
value creation."
For further information, please contact:
Safestore Holdings PLC
Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer 020 8732 1500
Simon Clinton, Chief Financial Officer
www.safestore.com (http://www.safestore.com)
FTI Consulting
Dido Laurimore 020 3727 1000
Richard Gotla safestore@fticonsulting.com (mailto:safestore@fticonsulting.com)
Oliver Parsons
Analyst and investor presentation
An analyst and investor webcast will be held at 9:30am BST today, 11 June
2026. Please contact FTI Consulting for further details
Notes to Editors
· Safestore is the UK's largest self-storage group with 215 stores
on 30 April 2026 comprising:
o 140 in the UK (79 in London and the South East, 61 in key metropolitan
areas including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool,
Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, and Bristol)
o 36 in the Paris region
o 17 in Spain
o 15 in the Netherlands
o 7 in Belgium.
o Joint ventures: 9 stores in Germany under a joint venture agreement with
Carlyle and 12 stores in Italy under a joint venture agreement with Nuveen.
· As of 30 April 2026, Safestore had a maximum lettable area ("MLA") of
9.47 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of which 6.55
million sq ft was occupied.
· Safestore was founded in the UK in 1998 and acquired "Une Pièce en
Plus" ("UPP") in France in 2004 which was founded in 1998 by the current
Safestore Group CEO Frederic Vecchioli.
· Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007 and
entered the FTSE 250 index in October 2015.
· The Group provides storage to around 107,000 personal and business
customers and employs over 850 people across the Safestore Group.
Notes
We prepare our financial statements using IFRS but we also use adjusted
measures in assessing and managing the performance of the business. These
measures are not defined under IFRS and they may not be directly comparable
with other companies' adjusted measures and are not intended to be a
substitute for, or superior to, any IFRS measures of performance. These
include like-for-like figures, to aid in the comparability of the underlying
business as they exclude the impact on results of purchased, sold, opened or
closed stores; and constant exchange rate ("CER") figures are provided to
present results on a more comparable basis, removing FX movements. These
metrics are disclosed because management review and monitor performance of the
business on this basis. We also include a few measures defined by the European
Public Real Estate Association ("EPRA"), which are designed to enhance
transparency and comparability across the European Real Estate sector; see
notes 11 and 13 below and 'Non-GAAP financial information' in the notes to the
financial statements.
1 - Where reported amounts are presented either to the nearest £0.1 million
or to the nearest 10,000 sq ft, the effect of rounding may impact the reported
percentage change.
2 - CER is Constant Exchange Rate (Euro denominated results for the current
period are retranslated at the exchange rate effective for the comparative
period. Euro denominated results for the comparative period are translated
at the exchange rates effective in that period, in order to present the
reported results for the current period on a comparable basis).
3 - Like‐for‐like ("LFL") information includes only those stores which
have been open throughout both the current and prior financial years, with
adjustments made to remove the impact of new and closed stores, as well as
corporate transactions.
4 - Underlying EBITDAR is defined as Operating Profit before exceptional
items, share-based payments, corporate transaction costs, change in fair value
of derivatives, gain/loss on investment properties, depreciation, the net
profit from joint ventures and associates, interest and tax. It has been
renamed to ensure the name more closely reflects the nature of the financial
measure. Underlying Store EBITDAR is defined as Underlying EBITDAR before
underlying administrative costs.
5 - Underlying profit before tax is defined as underlying EBITDAR less
leasehold costs(19), depreciation charged on property, plant and equipment,
net profit from joint ventures and associates, and net finance charges
relating to bank loans and cash.
6 - Cash flow before investing activities is defined as net cash inflow from
operating activities less leasehold cost payments.
7 - Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS is based on EPRA's definition of Earnings and is
defined as profit or loss for the period after tax but excluding corporate
transaction costs, change in fair value of derivatives, gain/loss on
investment properties and the associated tax impacts. The Company then makes
further adjustments for the impact of exceptional items, IFRS 2 share-based
payment charges, exceptional tax items, and deferred tax charges. This
adjusted earnings is divided by the diluted number of shares. The IFRS 2 cost
is excluded as it is written back to distributable reserves and is a non-cash
item (with the exception of the associated National Insurance element).
Therefore, neither the Company's ability to distribute nor pay dividends are
impacted (with the exception of the associated National Insurance element).
The financial statements will disclose earnings on a statutory, EPRA and
Adjusted Diluted EPRA basis and will provide a full reconciliation of the
differences in the financial year in which any LTIP awards may vest.
8 - LTV ratio is loan to value ratio, which is defined as net debt (excluding
lease liabilities) as a proportion of the valuation of investment properties
and investment properties under construction (excluding lease liabilities).
9 - MLA is Maximum Lettable Area. Measured in square feet ("sq ft").
10 - CLA is Current Lettable Area excludes space not yet fitted out and space
which is operationally unavailable from MLA (Maximum Lettable Area). Measured
in square feet ("sq ft").
11 - Occupancy excludes offices but includes bulk tenancy.
12 - Revenue per Available Square Foot ("REVPAF") is an alternate performance
measure used by the business and is considered by management as the best KPI
of economic performance of a mature self-storage asset as it is the net
outcome of the occupancy/rate mix plus ancillary sales. It is calculated by
dividing revenue for the period by weighted average available square feet for
the same period.
13 - Average storage rate is calculated as the revenue generated from
self-storage divided by the average square footage occupied during the period
in question.
14 - Expansion Markets comprise Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium plus income
earned in relation to the associate in Germany and the joint venture in Italy.
15 - Net underlying finance costs represent the net finance expense before
interest on obligations under lease liabilities, changes in fair value of
derivatives and exceptional finance costs.
16 - ICR is interest cover ratio and is calculated as the ratio of underlying
EBITDA after leasehold costs to underlying finance charges.
17 - Yield-on-cost is defined as incremental EBITDA divided by the initial
investment in a new store.
18 - Company compiled consensus of analysts from May 2026: Adjusted Diluted
EPRA EPS 42.4p with range 41.5p - 43.7p
19 - Leasehold costs reflect the rental expense and therefore include both the
lease liability interest element and the fair value re-measurement of lease
liabilities.
20 - EPRA's Best Practices Recommendations guidelines for Net Asset Value
("NAV") metrics are EPRA Net Tangible Assets ("NTA"), EPRA Net Reinstatement
Value ("NRV") and EPRA Net Disposal Value ("NDV"). EPRA NTA is considered to
be the most relevant measure for the Group's business which provides
sustainable long term progressive returns and is now the primary measure of
net The basis of calculation, including a reconciliation to reported net
assets, is set out in note 15 to the financial statements. The basis
of calculation, including a reconciliation to reported net assets, is set out
in note 15 to the financial statements.
Reconciliations between underlying metrics and statutory metrics can be found
in the financial review and financial statements sections of this
announcement.
CEO REVIEW
Group Summary
Safestore delivered a positive performance in H1 2026, with LFL revenue growth
across all markets and further delivery of our store expansion programme.
These results reflect the two advantages that set Safestore apart:
disciplined, low-cost investment and an operating model built to drive
sector-leading REVPAF. Revenue growth and underlying store EBITDAR performance
showed progress across all our geographies, notwithstanding the anticipated
inflation-driven cost challenges and the profit drag impact of new store
openings. Underlying profit before tax and adjusted diluted EPRA EPS both
returned to growth despite higher net finance costs as a result of development
capex which will contribute significantly to future earnings growth. Overall,
the results for the period reflect good progress against our strategy to
optimise the trading performance of the existing store portfolio including the
benefit of growth from developments in recent years, whilst maintaining a
strong balance sheet.
Financial summary
Group revenues grew 5.6% (CER) to £120.6 million, with LFL sales growth of
3.5% and newly opened (non-LFL) stores contributing £3.2 million of revenue,
up from £0.9 million in the prior year. Underlying store EBITDAR was £77.8
million, up 4.1% (CER), a robust performance as we absorbed inflationary cost
increases and the incremental costs of rolling out new stores. The underlying
LFL cost of sales increase of 3.8% was mitigated by savings in store employee
costs and utilities. Underlying LFL store EBITDAR margins remained strong at
66.6% (H1 2025: 66.7%).
Underlying central administrative costs increased by £1.7 million (CER) or
18.5% to £10.9 million due to investment in Group capabilities and the
phasing of variable cost recognition in the prior year. This resulted in
underlying EBITDAR of £67.9 million (CER), up 2.1%. Net underlying finance
costs(19) rose by £1.0 million to £14.0 million due to an increase in
average borrowings to fund the store expansion programme and lower capitalised
interest reflecting the planned development openings, partially offset by
lower average interest rates in the first half of FY 2026. Overall underlying
PBT increased by 2.3% to £44.6 million with Adjusted Diluted EPRA EPS growing
by 2.1% to 19.4 pence.
Statutory profit before tax was £36.3 million (H1 2025: £97.0 million)
reflecting a stable investment property valuation compared to a gain in the
prior year. Basic EPS was 15.3 pence (H1 2025: 36.3 pence).
Cash flow before investing activities(12) increased to £42.2 million (H1
2025: £36.1 million). We incurred total capex of £46.2 million, including
£33.6 million on new store development compared to £58.0 million of new
store development in H1 2025. FY 2025 represented the peak MLA opening year
for the current development pipeline which runs to FY 2028 and beyond. Net
debt excluding lease liabilities increased by £38.2 million since year-end to
fund the store programme as planned. The average blended cost of debt
decreased from year end FY 2025 by 0.12ppt to 3.34% due to lower base rates.
Since the balance sheet date, we have taken steps to manage the upcoming USPP
maturities in October 2026 with €150 million of new USPPs arranged with
their draw timing matching the refinance dates.
Our balance sheet remains strong: interest cover was 3.9x (FY 2025: 4.0x) and
LTV stood at 29.1% (FY 2025: 28.1%) with our capital structure underpinned by
the stable valuation of our investment properties which was £3,283.6 million
(FY 2025: £3,245.9 million) at 30 April 2026 This reflects the steady
valuation of the LFL estate and growth from the value created by our new store
development less the impact of currency movements.
Trading summary
Stores in our LFL portfolio (> two years old and 91% of MLA) delivered
revenue growth of 3.5% year on year in the first half. LFL closing occupancy
was 77.0%, up 0.4ppt, and LFL REVPAF at a Group level was up 5.1% to £28.74
(CER) reflecting our relentless focus on optimising trading in our existing
store base.
Within the LFL estate, our mature stores (> five years old and 79% of MLA)
delivered 2.1% revenue growth through improvements in average storage rate.
Also within the LFL estate, our stabilising stores (sites two-five years old
and 12% of MLA), delivered good occupancy and REVPAF growth, contributing
1.6ppt of the total 3.5% LFL revenue growth. Their performance underlines the
opportunity to drive highly profitable growth as they trade towards more
mature occupancy levels.
Non-LFL stores (< two years old and 9% of MLA) delivered strong revenue
growth, contributing an additional £2.3 million of sales to the Group (CER)
as they quickly grow their occupancy and build REVPAF.
In the UK our performance was driven by robust domestic customer demand and
the continued conversion of space to smaller units that command higher rates.
The UK business produced encouraging LFL revenue growth of +2.4% and largely
offset inflationary cost pressures to achieve a broadly stable underlying LFL
store EBITDAR margin for the half year. In Paris, notwithstanding the already
flagged and expected cannibalisation following the 20% increase in our store
numbers, the business still produced robust revenue and 1.1% underlying LFL
store EBITDAR growth. Our stores in Expansion Markets (Spain, the Netherlands
and Belgium) delivered a strong trading performance and also a significant
increase in underlying store EBITDAR with revenue growth in newer stores.
Portfolio and pipeline
We continued to deliver successfully on our new space programme with four new
stores - in Paris (2), London and Madrid - opened in the first half of the
year adding 192,000 sq ft of MLA. New stores are trading in line with our
expectations and are on track to meet our hurdle yield-on-cost return rate of
10%, the highest in the industry. Looking ahead, we are on track to deliver an
additional 224,600 sq ft in the second half of FY 2026, which will give a
total 4.5% uplift to Group MLA for the year, in line with our planned
reduction in pace of openings from the peak in FY 2025. The remaining pipeline
of new space to be delivered in subsequent years is expected to add 1.0
million sq ft with one site added to the pipeline since the FY 2025 results.
Platform and technology highlights
We made good progress in building our digital scale and the value of our
proprietary 28-year data set of over two million lets, further strengthening
our competitive advantage. In FY 2025 we accelerated the integration of
advanced AI across marketing, pricing and property development capabilities
that smaller operators cannot replicate and continued to build on that in the
first half. Major initiatives in marketing - including refining expenditure
allocation through a proprietary AI-driven Customer Value Model that optimises
pay-per-click spend, the use of Google reviews sentiment tracking and SEO
search visibility partnerships - helped to maintain our overall marketing
spend at a broadly flat percentage of revenue year on year, whilst enhancing
enquiry capture. In pricing architecture, we developed our predictive
modelling which anticipates occupancy trends and churn risks. This enables
more proactive revenue management, for example through targeted discounting
for low conversion segments. The operational productivity of our sales teams
continued to improve with the use of enquiry conversion scoring models and
automated sales calls transcript analysis to drive performance coaching and
ultimately revenue generation. In Europe, we believe that very few operators
have a structured historical data set of comparable depth available to perform
the kind of analyses and AI activity we undertake. This represents a
distinctive and durable advantage.
Our priorities in FY 2026
We continue to grow REVPAF across all our stores, to deliver further cost
efficiencies that mitigate inflationary cost growth, and to deliver the
pipeline of new stores on time and on budget, whilst maintaining our
disciplined approach to investment. Together, we expect these ongoing, core
elements of our strategy to generate long term, sustainable growth in
earnings.
Dividend
The Board is pleased to increase the interim dividend by 1% to 10.20 pence in
line with our progressive dividend policy whilst rebuilding dividend cover
over the medium term.
Outlook
We are confident about the remainder of the year, in which we expect earnings
per share growth to continue. With fewer store openings than in FY 2025, we
also anticipate reducing earnings drag from new stores this year and beyond,
as recent openings mature and contribute to earnings.
In FY 2026 we expect:
· LFL cost of sales growth at lower end of 3%-6% range;
· Underlying net finance costs increasing £2-£3 million - an increase
from previous guidance due to elevated floating interest rates;
· Year-on-year MLA growth of 4.5% (0.4 million sq ft) in FY 2026 with a
further 7.6% MLA in FY 2027 and beyond; and
· Capital expenditure on new stores of £86 million.
Looking ahead, the Board is confident that the market dynamics for
self-storage in the UK and Europe remain positive with our unique portfolio
well positioned to deliver growth. We will continue to leverage and finesse
our marketing and operational expertise to drive REVPAF and earnings. Growth
will be driven by:
· EBITDA growth from LFL stores:
o Mature LFL stores (>five years old), which represent 79% of MLA,
through rate improvements, benefits from UK partitioning, and cost inflation
easing.
o Contribution from fully invested stabilising LFL stores (between two and
five years old), which currently represent 12% of MLA, as they continue up the
maturity curve, increase occupancy and build profitability.
· Increasing contribution from our non-LFL stores (< two years old)
which represent 9% of MLA) and our current pipeline of 1.0 million sq ft
projected to open over the next few years. This 1.8 million sq ft of space
will contribute increasingly to earnings as stores fill occupancy and cover
their fixed costs. These stores are expected to generate an incremental
£30-£35 million of EBITDA upon stabilisation (a reduction from FY 2025
projections as stores opened in FY 2024 now reclassified into LFL).
· Our joint ventures in Germany and Italy present an opportunity to
expand from a small footprint of stores with a lower initial capital outlay
and management fee income. We see the potential for other opportunities with
this model to drive longer term portfolio growth.
Trading and Operational Review
Trading Data TOTAL LIKE-FOR-LIKE
REVENUE METRICS H1 2026 H1 2025 Change H1 2026 H1 2025 Change
Revenue
Group (GBP) £120.6m £112.8m 6.9% £115.9m £111.9m 3.5%
UK (GBP) £83.9m £81.2m 3.3% £82.7m £80.8m 2.4%
Paris (EUR) €26.7m €25.5m 4.6% €26.0m €25.5m 1.8%
Expansion Markets (EUR) €15.4m €12.2m 25.7% €13.7m €11.7m 16.8%
Average Rate (per sq ft)
Group (GBP) £31.38 £29.98 4.7% £31.51 £30.05 4.9%
UK (GBP) £32.26 £30.36 6.3% £32.36 £30.39 6.5%
Paris (EUR) €41.75 €42.24 (1.2%) €43.26 €42.31 2.3%
Expansion Markets (EUR) €24.71 €24.43 1.1% €25.57 €24.56 4.1%
REVPAF (per sq ft)
Group (GBP) £28.11 £26.78 5.0% £28.74 £27.36 5.1%
UK (GBP) £29.66 £28.44 4.3% £29.84 £28.60 4.3%
Paris (EUR) €35.11 €37.16 (5.5%) €38.24 €37.91 0.9%
Expansion Markets (EUR) €21.97 €18.25 20.4% €23.51 €19.72 19.2%
SPACE AND OCCUPANCY METRICS H1 2026 H1 2025 Change H1 2026 H1 2025 Change
Closing Occupancy (million sq ft)
Group 6.55 6.38 2.6% 6.27 6.32 (0.8%)
UK 4.37 4.44 (1.4%) 4.31 4.41 (2.4%)
Paris 1.16 1.12 3.4% 1.07 1.11 (3.4%)
Expansion Markets 1.02 0.82 23.2% 0.89 0.80 11.8%
Closing Occupancy (% of CLA)
Group 75.1% 74.4% 0.7ppt 77.0% 76.6% 0.4ppt
UK 76.7% 77.0% (0.3ppt) 77.1% 77.6% (0.5ppt)
Paris 74.0% 79.2% (5.2ppt) 78.7% 81.8% (3.1ppt)
Expansion Markets 69.9% 58.6% 11.3ppt 74.6% 66.0% 8.5ppt
CLA (million sq ft)
Group 8.72 8.58 1.6% 8.14 8.25 (1.3%)
UK 5.70 5.76 (1.1%) 5.59 5.68 (1.8%)
Paris 1.57 1.41 10.7% 1.36 1.36 0.5%
Expansion Markets 1.45 1.41 3.4% 1.19 1.21 (1.0%)
In the above table, Total Group figures are converted at Actual exchange
rates, LFL Group figures are converted at CER
Geographic underlying performance - P&L in Local Currencies
H1 2026 H1 2025
Underlying performance (CER) UK Paris Exp Mkt Total (CER) UK Paris Exp Mkt Total (CER)
£'m €m €m £'m £'m €m €m £'m
LFL 82.7 26.0 13.7 115.9 80.8 25.5 11.7 111.9
Non-LFL 1.2 0.7 1.7 3.2 0.4 - 0.5 0.9
Total Revenue 83.9 26.7 15.4 119.1 81.2 25.5 12.2 112.8
LFL Store EBITDAR 54.1 19.1 8.4 77.2 53.3 18.8 6.8 74.6
Non-LFL Store EBITDAR 0.4 (0.4) 0.6 0.6 0.1 - - 0.1
Total Store EBITDAR 54.5 18.7 9.0 77.8 53.4 18.8 6.8 74.7
LFL Store EBITDAR margin 65.4% 73.5% 61.3% 66.6% 66.0% 73.7% 58.1% 66.7%
UK (64% of MLA, 140 stores)
Our operational performance in the UK reflects a continuation of the growth
seen in FY 2025. Total revenue was up 3.3% to £83.9 million with LFL growth
of 2.4% to £82.7 million.
Driven by increased product adoption, demand from domestic customers remained
robust throughout the year, with LFL space occupied broadly flat year on year
(down 0.1%), with our continued partitioning programme converting larger units
into smaller units which are better suited to domestic customer demand.
The programme is reducing our historical overweight to larger units (>250
sq ft) within our UK portfolio, resulting in smaller and higher yielding
configurations and enabling a more typical 70/30 domestic/business customer
split in terms of space occupied. We intend to convert a total of 500,000 sq
ft (out of an initial total of approximately 1 million sq ft) of larger units
into smaller units over two years and maintained our good progress in the
period with a further 80,000 sq ft completed taking the total to 280,000 sq
ft. As smaller units have a higher rental value/sq ft, this has a positive
impact on the average rate we achieve and ultimately will drive REVPAF growth.
LFL occupancy closed broadly flat year on year at 77.1% with occupied space in
units smaller than 250 sq ft increasing 0.6% and occupied space in larger
units decreasing by 127,000 sq ft (16.4%). Business customer LFL occupied
space is down 5.9% on FY 2025, with the level impacted by the unit
partitioning programme described above. This change in mix to smaller units
and domestic customers contributed to the increase of 6.5% in the achieved
rate for LFL stores, reflecting the Group's strategy to optimise REVPAF.
In the period there were ten UK stores still stabilising and included in LFL.
These stores, which are between two and five years old, saw improved occupancy
and provided a meaningful contribution to LFL revenue growth. We expect
stabilised occupancy of 85%-90% in our UK LFL portfolio, compared to the 77.1%
achieved at the close of H1 2026, with further occupancy growth in stabilising
stores expected to be a contributing driver in closing this gap.
In addition to our LFL portfolio we have three stores opened since the end of
FY 2024 which are currently classified as non-LFL. These stores contributed
£0.8 million to year-on-year revenue growth in the half year and are
performing in line with their expected maturity curve.
The UK underlying LFL store EBITDAR margin was stable year on year at 65.4%
(H1 2025: 66.0%). This was due to an increase in the LFL cost of sales base of
4.0% driven largely by inflation-linked increases in business rates and
marketing costs partially offset by savings from integrating call centre
activities in stores and improved insurance costs. As a result, UK underlying
LFL store EBITDAR increased by £0.8 million to £54.1 million for the
financial year.
The strong growth in revenue from non-LFL stores in the UK led to store
EBITDAR for the UK to increase £1.1m, or 2.1%, year-on-year.
The mix of our customer base is depicted in the table below. The combined
impacts of stronger demand from domestic customers and the partitioning of
larger units, resulted in the proportion of domestic customers in the UK
increasing to 63% of occupied sq ft at the end of H1 2026 (H1 2025: 62%).
Business and Domestic Customers H1 2026 UK Paris Exp Mkt
Domestic Customers
Numbers (% of total) 79% 83% 90%
Square feet occupied (% of total) 63% 67% 84%
Average Length of Stay (months) 17.7 22.1 21.2
Business Customers
Numbers (% of total) 21% 17% 10%
Square feet occupied (% of total) 37% 33% 16%
Average Length of Stay (months) 26.0 26.3 31.7
Paris (19% of MLA, 36 stores)
Our Paris business delivered revenue of €26.7 million, a 4.6% increase year
on year. LFL stores grew 1.8% and non-LFL delivered an additional €0.7
million of revenue. This result in the context of the continued weaker
economic conditions in the region demonstrates the ongoing resilience of the
business.
On a LFL basis, occupancy declined versus prior year over the period to close
at 78.7% at the end of April, down 3.1% reflecting the previously flagged and
expected cannibalisation from a concentrated phase of expansion. The LFL
average rate achieved was up 2.3% and as a result LFL REVPAF increased
slightly (+0.9%) as we focused on optimising income.
Since the start of FY 2024, we have opened six new stores and one extension in
Paris, with a further two in the pipeline which will take the number of stores
in the market to 38. Non-LFL stores contributed €0.7 million to year-on-year
revenue growth in the half. With the new space added to date, our portfolio
density within central Paris has increased substantially and, whilst we expect
that the new stores will be significant contributors to growth as they mature
in the years ahead, we believe that performance of LFL stores has been
impacted in the half year due to our approach of giving customers choice of
storage locations and prices with cross-network space allocation.
The underlying LFL store EBITDAR margin was stable year on year at 73.5% with
LFL cost of sales in Paris increasing 3.0% year on year. This reflected a
slightly elevated bad debt provision and increases in business rates partially
offset by continued tight cost control, particularly in the dynamic management
of staffing.
As a result, underlying LFL store EBITDAR for Paris increased 1.6% year on
year to €19.1 million for the half. Total underlying store EBITDAR was
broadly flat on last year (-0.5%) reflecting an initial profit drag from new
store openings.
Expansion Markets (17% MLA, 39 stores)
Our Expansion Markets continued to be a strong contributor to Group growth
with LFL revenue increasing 16.8% year on year to €13.7 million and total
revenue increasing 25.7% to €15.4 million for the half year.
Performance in each market was strong. In Spain (17 stores in total) revenue
grew 21.2% on a LFL basis to €4.7m, through both occupancy and rate
improvements with growth supported by eight stabilising stores. LFL revenue in
the Netherlands (15 stores) of €5.4m and Belgium (7 stores) of €2.8m grew
by 14.0% through both occupancy and rate increases and 5.2% due to rate
increases respectively.
LFL closing occupancy increased from 66.0% to 74.6%, with the growth in
particular coming from stabilising stores in the Netherlands and Spain as they
fill up towards the Mature LFL store average level of 80.4% (H1 2025: 81.6%).
New stores and expansions contributed €1.7 million of non-LFL revenue, with
growth of €1.2 million in the half year, largely through openings in Spain.
Management fees from our joint ventures in Germany and Italy contributed
€1.4 million to Expansion Market revenue (H1 2025: €0.8 million).
The underlying LFL store EBITDAR margin increased to 61.3%, up 3.2ppts. LFL
costs of sales for Expansion Markets increased 8.2%, reflecting a mix of
normal inflationary increases and the timing of maintenance expenses. As a
result, Expansion Markets underlying LFL store EBITDAR increased 23.5% with
underlying store EBITDAR for the period including non-LFL stores increasing
32.4% year-on-year.
Joint Ventures and Associates
We have an associate investment with Carlyle in Germany and a joint venture
with Nuveen in Italy. These joint ventures represent a route for the Group to
access new geographies and expand our managed portfolio with diluted risk and
with lower capital deployed. We earn management fees which are recorded in
Expansion Market revenue together with our share of the results of the joint
ventures themselves.
Our associate in Germany has nine stores totalling 455,000 sq ft including two
new stores in H1 2026, with a further three under development. Safestore owns
10% of the associate. The underlying share of losses for H1 2026, a €0.1
million loss (H1 2025: €0.2 million loss), includes the impact on store
EBITDA from new store openings in the joint venture.
We entered into the joint venture in Italy in December 2024 through the
acquisition of a 50% share in EasyBox at a cost of £38.9 million. EasyBox
comprises 12 stores (of which two opened in FY 2025) and is a leading platform
in the emerging Italian storage market where the supply of self-storage is
equivalent to 3% of that in the UK. The stores are located in the key economic
centres of Rome and northern Italy and total 821,675 sq ft and are performing
in line with our expectations. The underlying share of profit for H1 2026, a
€0.1 million gain (H1 2025: €0.2 million gain) reflects the profit for the
six months to March 2026. This includes the impact on earnings of the two new
stores which are progressing in line with plan but have not yet reached
break-even.
MLA and CLA space and occupancy by geography
When developing new stores, we occasionally delay the full fit out of the
interior of our stores to reflect the phasing of occupancy increases. In
addition, through the partitioning programme, space can be held as unavailable
until it is converted. Together these areas which are still to be fitted out
are not available to be leased and are hence excluded from CLA.
MLA (m sq ft) To be fitted out (m sq ft) Operationally unavailable (m sq ft) CLA (m sq ft) % Occupancy of MLA % Occupancy of CLA
UK 6.0 (0.1) (0.2) 5.7 72.5% 76.7%
Paris 1.8 (0.2) (0.0) 1.6 65.0% 74.0%
Exp Mkt 1.7 (0.2) (0.1) 1.4 61.5% 69.9%
Total 9.5 (0.5) (0.3) 8.7 69.1% 75.1%
Pan-European platform for growth
Safestore's development strategy reflects the reality that, increasingly
shaped by modern technology and scale-enabled expertise, our stores are best
managed at a European level. Our core strategic functions - Marketing, IT,
Revenue Management, Pricing, Data and analytics, AI, Finance and Construction
Analytics, and Sales Learning and Development - are run from our UK
headquarters, serving all 236 stores under management. We retain legacy head
offices in France and Spain, where local expertise enhances asset performance,
while Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy run without one.
In self-storage, the investment is made almost entirely upfront, for assets
that must perform across decades and unpredictable economic cycles. Safestore
has never varied its double-digit yield-on-cost target and has maintained its
discipline throughout, including through historically low interest rates. Our
strategy combines this discipline with high REVPAF.
Development sites that meet our stringent criteria are rare, arising
unpredictably across Europe's principal markets. Safestore has therefore built
a presence across several markets, letting us stay highly selective on any
single opportunity while keeping a sizable pipeline. There is always an
attractive opportunity somewhere, and our geographical reach gives us access
to it over time. This contrasts with strategies confined to a single geography
and timeframe, which rarely achieve the lowest entry cost, forcing operators
to trade at high local rates to meet value-add return thresholds.
A unique combination
Safestore's position combines two reinforcing advantages. On day one, our
capital discipline lets us invest at a lower cost: we are under no pressure to
deploy a defined amount of capital in a defined period or geography, and our
reach gives us access to the right opportunities as they arise.
We then achieve a higher REVPAF through operational strengths that are hard to
replicate: technology combined with sales expertise and 28 years of operating
experience, the scale of our digital operations, proprietary data that new
entrants cannot acquire, and the learnings of running every type of store,
location and asset, from fully automated to staffed.
We let customers decide how they wish to interact with us: a unit can be
chosen, contracted, paid for and ID-verified entirely online, then accessed
via a code, unassisted. Nevertheless, our data consistently shows staffed
interactions drive superior financial outcomes, including higher conversion
and rental yields. In the UK, spontaneous adoption of the fully automated
journey by our online customers has held stable at approximately 15%, and
while 60% of our customers contract remotely, most, particularly first-time
users, prefer our teams beforehand. Consultative selling helps them choose the
right unit size and goods protection, supporting yield. The result is an
industry-leading ancillary sales contribution (15% of total revenue in H1
2026) and REVPAF among the sector's highest, up 5.1% like-for-like -
delivering value well in excess of our store teams' cost.
Our digital platform is a critical differentiator for new lease enquiry
generation and revenue optimisation. Our centralised, in-house specialists,
together with our proprietary dataset of many years of leasing history,
develop advanced marketing tools and machine-learning algorithms to drive
performance. This gives us a distinct advantage over a market of smaller
operators lacking the data depth to replicate our price and occupancy
optimisation.
We continue to accelerate the utilisation of Artificial Intelligence across
our key functions to drive efficiency, optimise revenue and enhance investment
rigour. In marketing, a proprietary AI-driven Customer Value Model refines
expenditure by feeding enquiry value data back to Google to optimise
pay-per-click spend, while generative AI scales multi-lingual content. We also
strengthened our digital presence through Google reviews tracking, SEO search
visibility partnerships and AI-led campaign tools on emerging platforms. In H1
2026 this held marketing cost broadly stable at 4.2% of revenue (H1 2025:
4.2%).
We also improved our pricing architecture through predictive modelling that
anticipates occupancy trends and churn risks, enabling proactive revenue
management, including targeted discounting for low-conversion segments and
elasticity modelling to optimise rate changes. Sales-team productivity
improved through enquiry conversion scoring and automated analysis of
sales-call transcripts for coaching, while custom AI agents will streamline
internal queries and credit control authorisations. Demand and rate prediction
models now validate new site selection, mitigating risk in untested markets
and ensuring robust capital deployment.
Portfolio Review
Development programme progress
In recent years we have stepped up our organic development programme to take
advantage of new space opportunities and ensure longer term earnings growth
for the portfolio. Since FY 2023 we have delivered 34 new stores totalling 1.6
million sq ft of new space with investment of £258 million in new store
capital expenditure, expanding the Group's MLA by 21.0% to 9.5m sq ft.
As part of this programme, in H1 2026 we opened four new stores, adding 0.2
million sq ft to the portfolio and reaching 215 stores. The openings in the
period comprise two in Paris and one each in London and Madrid demonstrating
the focus on key metropolitan areas in each country.
With these openings, we now have 39 stores in Expansion Markets reflecting our
investment in countries where there are relatively low levels of supply and
positioning our portfolio to capture the opportunity as these markets grow
with revenue from the segment now reaching 11% of Group total.
H1 2026 Stores Opened FH/LH MLA('000 sq ft) Development Type
London - Wembley FH 55.3 New Build
Paris - Colombes FH 65.2 Conversion
Paris - West 4 (Orgeval) FH 53.0 New Build
Madrid - Perseo FH 18.5 Conversion
Total openings in H1 2026 192.0
Our portfolio at the end of H1 2026 is shown in the table below.
Store Portfolio Number of stores MLA (m sq ft) % of Group MLA H1 2026 % increase in MLA (sq ft)
London & South East England 79 3.24 34% 1.7%
Rest of UK 61 2.80 30% 0.0%
UK Total 140 6.04 64% 0.9%
Paris 36 1.78 19% 7.4%
Expansion Markets 39 1.65 17% 0.7%
Total Group 215 9.47 100% 2.0%
JVs (Italy & Germany) 21 1.28 11.0%
Total group managed MLA (inc JVs) 236 10.75 3.0%
The valuation of our portfolio of investment properties was broadly flat since
the FY 2025 year end primarily driven by development capex and revaluation of
completed stores, with a valuation at 30 April 2026 of £3.5 billion. We
continue to finance our development programme through a combination of
retained cash flow and debt and as a result Net Debt increased in the half
year by £42.2 million to £1,100.8 million, with the balance sheet remaining
strong and comfortably within our covenants. This disciplined approach to
capital allocation has allowed us to add 2.5 million sq ft to the portfolio
over the last ten years without the need for any equity increases.
Development pipeline
There is a further 1.0 million sq ft of space (17 stores) in the current
development pipeline to be delivered with total associated capex of £192
million (of which £103 million remained at 30 April 2026). Within this is one
new site that has been identified and secured since the FY 2025 year end
results. The pipeline continues to reflect our focus on key metropolitan areas
across our markets and includes ten stores in London and SE England, two
stores in Paris and one in Barcelona. In FY 2026 to date, four stores have
been opened with two in Paris and one in each of Madrid and London.
Our pipeline prioritises acquiring sites subject to planning, ensuring that
capital for land or building acquisition is deployed only when construction is
imminent, which significantly shortens the investment cycle and accelerates
payback timing. The pipeline reflects an average facility size of 55,000 sq ft
and avoids the development of oversized stores, which we believe offer
materially lower returns on capital due to lower rental rates (a stabilised
rate c. 20% less than our portfolio average), higher construction costs and
longer permitting timelines.
On completion of the existing pipeline the total investment since the start of
FY 2023 will be £453 million funding 2.6 million sq ft of space and 51 new
stores. In addition, we have invested a total of £51.2 million in joint
ventures in Germany and Italy, which are generating management fees and
provide us with the opportunity to access at scale two large European markets.
Our development hurdle rate is 10% yield-on-cost (defined as incremental
EBITDA/initial investment) upon stabilisation, which is usually five to six
years from opening with earnings break-even (after the cost of financing)
achieved between 18 and 24 months. Consistent with our investment model, new
stores typically follow a clear 'J-curve' trajectory: while year 1 reflects
the impact of a fixed cost base whilst sales ramp up, stores typically achieve
operational break-even towards the end of the first year, followed by rapid
yield acceleration in years 2 to 5 as occupancy and rate move towards
stabilisation.
Recent vintages of new stores, including those opened in FY 2022 and FY 2023,
are tracking in line with these established historical benchmarks towards our
hurdle rate, underpinning our confidence in the future revenue contribution
from our development pipeline. We expect our non-LFL stores (stores Recent news on Safestore Holdings
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