MANAMA, 22 June 2007 — Big Yellow B.S.C, a franchise of UK-based Big Yellow Group plc, on Wednesday announced plans to build a $15 million state-of-the-art self-storage facility at the Bahrain Investment Wharf (BIW), comprising of four buildings with a total storage space of 210,000 sq ft.
An agreement to lease the land for the facility in BIW was signed by Big Yellow B.S.C Chairman Ryan Cornelius and chairman of BIW Ahmed Al-Qattan in the presence of James Gibson, chief executive officer of Big Yellow plc.
Two of the four storage buildings will be allocated for general commercial self-storage. The other two will be for residential and specialized needs. It will be designed, and built by Steel Storage Australia, who are one of the leading self-storage construction companies in the world, and will all have the latest fire protection systems.
The climate-controlled storage units at the new facility can be leased on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis at competitive rents.
Al-Qattan said: “Our partnership with Big Yellow marks a milestone in the development of the BIW community. Storage is a critical requirement for our partners and our tie-up with Big Yellow enables us to extend a comprehensive infrastructure to both our business and residential communities”
The landmark facility will provide round-the-clock storage for both personal and business use. Customers will be able to lease storage space upwards of 1 sq. m for any kind of goods.
Security systems offered by the Big Yellow facility will be a first for Bahrain, and each unit will have an individual alarm system. All access points into the building will be monitored by CCTV and have individual access-control keypads.
Gibson said “this will be the second Big Yellow facility outside the UK and we see a great potential for the growth of Big Yellow in the GCC region,” adding a “phased expansion of our business in the region over the next few years” is planned.
The facility will not only cater to the needs of companies in Bahrain and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, but also to the residential communities. The storage facility is expected to open in March 2008, and regular updates on the building process will be on the company website www.bigyellowme.com.
Cornelius said “the key ingredient for success in the storage industry is location and service standards. We have secured the ideal location in the BIW, and we are confident that our service standards will become the regional benchmark.”
