Janus International Corp., a manufacturer of steel roll-up doors and hallway systems for the self-storage industry, named its 2009 Sales Award recipients:

• Overall Salesperson of the Year: Richard Lillie
• Commercial Salesperson of the Year: Scott Garland
• Self-Storage Salesperson of the Year: Benjamin Riehm
• Inside Salesperson of the Year: Shannon Archer

Awards were presented by Ramey Jackson, vice president of sales, Dan Beckley, vice president of rolling-steel division, and David Curtis, president.

    From Left: Ramey Jackson, Benjamin Riehm, Scott
    Garland, Richard Lillie, Shannon Archer, David Curtis
    and Dan Beckley

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Regardless of a steady increase in customers, declining property value caused Safestore, one of the United Kingdom’s largest self-storage companies, to report a full-year loss for 2009. With 95 facilities in the U.K. and 22 in Paris, Safestore reported a pre-tax loss of £9.4 million for the year ending Oct. 31, 2009. The company had made a £14.9 million pre-tax profit the previous year.
 
The group reported strong occupancy growth of 57,000 square feet in 2009 vs. an occupancy loss of 195,000 square feet in 2008. Rental rates increased 4.9 percent to £25.24 per square foot. Total revenue from Safestore’s U.K. and French operations increased 1.9 percent, from £82.9 million to £84.4 million.
 
Even still, a £41.6 million loss in Safestore’s investment properties outdid its performance, with a sharp drop in property values during the first half of the year.

Source: Financial Times, Safestore reports full-year loss

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Police are investigating a string of self-storage unit burglaries that have taken place in Fargo, N.D. As many as six units have been broken into at a time at facilities that have been hit. The locks on the units were cut or the hasps pulled apart. According to police, the thieves took items that were expensive and easy to carry, such as power tools.
 
Fargo PD has offered locals tips to prevent their units from being victimized. They have also offered residents the opportunity to protect their goods through Operation ID, in which the can mark and register their personal property, making it harder to re-sell and easier to track. Interested parties can bring their goods to the police station and register anything they believe to be valuable.

Source: KVLY - KXJB Fargo, String of storage unit burglaries

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Police in Santa Ana, Calif., are looking for a man who allegedly tried to drug two 13-year-old girls and held them in a self-storage unit for several hours. On Wednesday, the 20-something-year-old man offered the girls a ride, and then took them to a Public Storage facility, where he tried to get them to take illegal drugs.

One of the girls escaped and ran to her friend’s family, who went the storage facility and confronted the suspect. He got away, but police were notified.
 
The news report indicated that the girls knew their captor. If caught, the suspect will be charged with false imprisonment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
 
Source: KTLA.com, Cops: Man Held Teen Girls for Hours at Storage Facility

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After returning from military deployment, Lt. Cmdr. Paul A. Feikema will resume his post as head of operations for Hide-Away Storage Services, which has self-storage facilities throughout southwest Florida.

Feikema has been the operations manager for Hide-Away Storage since 2005, but spent the last year serving on the staff of U.S. Central Command, the headquarters command responsible for overseeing all U.S. military activities in the Middle East.

Feikema joined the Navy in 1993, while attending Florida State University. After graduating with an engineering degree, he served as an officer in the Seabees, the Construction Battalions of the United States Navy. After serving on active duty for eight years in Guam, Philadelphia and Puerto Rico, Feikema moved to Bradenton, Fla., but continued to serve in the Navy Reserves, including a previous recall to active duty and deployment to Iraq in 2004. He was recently promoted to commander.

“We are extremely pleased to have Paul back at Hide-Away,” says Steve Wilson, managing partner at Hide-Away Storage. “But we are also very thankful for the contribution and sacrifice he has given to our country in his last two tours of active duty.”

Hide-Away Storage operates 10 self-storage facilities and two mobile-storage warehouses in St. Petersburg, Ellenton, Bradenton, Sarasota, Ft. Myers and Naples, Fla. Hide-Away delivers portable storage units in Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Lee and Collier Counties. The company also provides full-service moving of household goods. Headquartered in Sarasota, Fla., the company has approximately one million square feet of storage space.

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The Arizona Self-Storage Association (AZSA) has launched its new auction website at www.selfstorageauctionsaz.com, which allows self-storage facilities to post notices and information about upcoming auction sales. Members and non-members are permitted to post free auction listings on the site from Feb. 1 to April 1. After that, members can continue to list auctions for free; non-members will be charged a nominal fee per listing.
 
Buyers can always access the website for free and view a comprehensive list of upcoming auctions throughout the state. They can also sort the list of upcoming sales by date, city, ZIP code, facility name and more.

Founded in1996, the AZSA was created to strengthen the self-storage industry in Arizona, promote professional standards and quality, and present a unified voice on issues affecting the industry. The association has more than 500 facility and vendor members.

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Lackland Self Storage and several other commercial businesses in New Jersey are taking advantage of federal stimulus money to install solar panels.

New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities says 210 solar projects were installed on commercial buildings in 2009, generating 34.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 4,600 homes for a year.

Lackland Self Storage plans to install solar panels to provide electricity to its 23 self-storage facilities in New Jersey. With a completion goal of July, the system will generate 2.5 megawatts of power. The $15 million project could save the company half a million a year, according to company CEO Mike Lackland.

Source:  APP.com,  Sunny Days

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A fire at Sensible Self Storage in Wakefield, N.H., Thursday left eight storage units damaged, and two firefighters suffered minor injuries. One was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Fire investigators believe the cause of the two-alarm fire was accidental. Route 16 was closed to one lane shortly after the fire as several fire crews from nearby towns responded.

The fire call came in around 10 a.m. Firefighters had the blaze under control in about an hour. The items in the storage units, including a car, were destroyed.

Source:  Firehouse.com,  Fire at N.H. Storage Unit Hurts Two FFs 

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