Buoyant market makes storage company tick

Published on Thursday 23 May 2002 01:00

AN Edinburgh company has found an opening in the buoyant property market - providing storage for unwanted furniture.

Clockwork Transportation has seen profits and employee numbers rise substantially over the last few years by helping people who find they have no room for their belongings when moving home.

Director Courtenay Morison said he hit upon the idea almost by accident.

He said: "I was providing professional bar services and I had a van which somebody asked if they could use one day to move a sofa. From that I figured out that I could make more money moving and providing storage."

The company began with one full-time employee in 1993 and now runs three business arms including commercial property services and security.

It employs almost 100 staff and has an annual turnover of over 1.5 million with several million pounds in assets.

The storage side of the business uses city centre warehouses, with people leaving their personal items for anything from a couple of days to several years. Furniture is stored for a variety of reasons - some people sell their homes but have nowhere to move into, some are developing or renovating their property and others are moving away from the area long-term.

And Mr Morison said he could see no end to the expansion of the business at present.

"There has been a massive increase in self-storage over the last decade," he added. "Our firm has gone from virtually nil to this huge business."