Space Station
In entering its 40th year , Space Station has a lot to celebrate . The founder , Alastair Caldwell , formulated the business based on the innovative self-storage facilities that he encountered whilst touring the US as the McLaren Formula One Team Manager . Upon returning to the UK , he decided to emulate the American examples by bringing their business model back over the pond to fill a glaring gap in the British market .
As one of the earliest pioneers in selfstorage in the UK , Alastair procured a plot of land in Colnbrook , which he emptied out himself , and filled with a number of shipping containers . This modest enterprise has grown over the last four decades to house over 5000 units nationwide , and in 2020 , was acquired by Heitman , a global real estate investment management firm . Supply
Chain World catches up with Kevin Prince , Chief Executive Officer , to hear more about what keeps Space Station orbiting success .
“ It was never Alastair ’ s ambition to build such an empire ,” Kevin begins . “ He wasn ’ t interested in being like Safestore or Big Yellow , he wanted to start a solid business that would provide a reliable service and ultimately give him a decent lifestyle . When I joined in 2007 as CEO , we had just opened our fifth store . Over the next ten years we opened three more and then Alastair decided that he ’ d like to work towards finding a buyer to support our growth ambitions . It is during this journey that we met Heitman , which is one of the largest investors in self-storage solutions in the world . We felt aligned with Heitman and their philosophy , so we agreed on a price and completed in October 2020 . “ Prior to this we ’ d been operating as a self-funded , small family business does , but Heitman ’ s investment provided the opportunity for a transformation of the business platform . We have been actively seeking new opportunities to drive growth and build economies of scale . To that end , since 2020 we have acquired two trading assets and
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