Member Article

Wakefield self-storage centre celebrates second anniversary with expansion of facilities

A Wakefield self-storage centre is celebrating its second anniversary with the fit out of an extra 100 units due to customer demand.

McCarthy’s Storage World first opened its doors in May 2015, after renovating the 40,000 sq ft building on Kirkgate. £2million was spent on the purchase and renovation.

The Wakefield facility is the largest operated by McCarthy’s, which also has self-storage sites in Leeds and Harrogate.

The 100 new units will be in a variety of sizes and will mean 75 per cent of the building is now occupied with storage facilities for customers.

Mike McCarthy, managing director of McCarthy’s, said: “We’ve been delighted with how well things are going at our Wakefield storage centre. We’ve got a great location on one of the main roads into and out of the city and we’re finding that we’re attracting a wide range of people. Businesses account for about 30 per cent of our customers. We have a lot of archiving and document management clients from, for example, professional services firms. But, in addition, with the increase in online businesses, we’re finding more and more organisations have decided they don’t need a traditional office, and can instead work from storage space when needed. It’s more flexible and cost effective, as units can easily be scaled up and down in size as needed and there’s a one off monthly fee including rates, rent and utilities, with no hidden extras and no fixed term contracts.

“The largest unit we currently let is 1,000 sq ft although we’re always happy to be flexible around a customer’s requirements. Most domestic users opt for around 100 sq ft, and often they’re using it to declutter ahead of a house move or renovations, or they’re using it as an extension to their garage or loft facilities. Houses are getting smaller, but we seem to accumulate more ‘stuff’ than ever before!”

Alistair Black runs a franchise of Plan-it Cards, and has had a storage unit at McCarthy’s in Wakefield since July 2015. He added: “We supply greetings cards, gift wrap and gift bags, to convenience stores, garage forecourts, post offices, and so on, and we use the storage unit to store the products and prepare the orders. My experience of McCarthy’s has been superb. The staff are very pleasant and extremely helpful and it’s a clean and safe environment to work in. The unit is very accessible, so it’s easy to transport stock to and from my vehicle with the trolleys provided. It helps the business as we can come and go as we please, and we know everything is kept safe and secure even when we’re not there. The location is also great as we can pick up the motorway network within 10 minutes.”

McCarthy’s opened its first self-storage centre in Leeds more than 10 years ago, and in 2012 that was followed by Harrogate. A family-owned business which has been running for almost 50 years, McCarthy’s also offers residential and commercial removal services, and a range of business services including serviced offices, archived storage and confidential document shredding.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Shona Nutter .