FOCUS UK 2011 - Q1

In this issue:

• News Features
  • Safestore supports Crisis at Christmas
    • Safestore’s Greater London stores joined forces with homeless charity Crisis to collate food, clothing, toiletries and other items for distributing to homeless and vulnerably housed people over the Christmas period
  • Operation Christmas Child
    • InnerSpaces Self Storage, which is based in the Isle of Wight, acted as a Drop-off Point for Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, in support of Samaritan’s Purse International Relief
  • Cavale announcement
    • Cavale, the leading European manufacturer with over 15 years experience in designing and constructing self storage and car wash projects, recently announced the restructuring of its financial facilities and the continuation of its investment programme in technology, despite the current global economic challenges
  • Reason Global’s training gives clients
    • Reason’s training programme, which in most cases is provided free of charge, gives the necessary skills and background required for removals and self storage clients to sell insurance policies to their customers.
  • HomeStore at the heart of the local
    • Suffolk-based self storage company, HomeStore, has now completed a year of sponsoring one of the area’s local hospices
  • Stars launched toy appeal
    • Coronation Street stars Chesney and Katy (Sam Aston and Georgia May Foote) were  were both at BiG Storage to launch the BiG Storage Christmas Toy Appeal, in support of local charities including: St. Josephs Family Centre, and Jacobs Unique Memory Pot (J-U-M-P)
  • Scope Christmas party for disabled
    • A generous donation from Safestore enabled Scope to run a Christmas party for disabled children
  • Safebox pounds the pavements to raise money
    • A team from Safebox Self Storage in Cambridge added another string to its charity bow in September, 2010 when six members of its team competed in a Chariots of Fire race, raising money for two local charities
  • Award-winning centre now open
    • Keepsafe Storage Centres has recently launched its new, flagship, £3 million storage facility in the centre of Dundee, just off the main Kingsway ring road
  • Big Yellow delivers strong occupancy
    • Big Yellow, the UK’s leading self storage brand, reported strong interim results for the six months to the 30th of September, 2010 driven by an increase in occupancy of 209,000 sq. ft. across its 61 stores in the period.
• Company Features
  • Store & Secure Self Storage
  • Red Self Storage
  • House-It Self Storage
    • House-It Self Storage’s 17,000 sq. ft. facility, which opened in December 2008, is located at the Woodbury Business Park, Woodbury, Exeter in Devon.
  • Strongroom expands in Southampton
    • Strongroom Self Storage is pleased to announce that it has completed the expansion of its Marchwood, Southampton facility and it has also opened a new operation in Salisbury.
• Business News
  • Revision of the Equality Act 
    • The Equality Act 2010 (England, Scotland & Wales) came into force on the 1st of October, 2010. The Act replaced existing anti-discrimination legislation, such as the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975
  • Important reminders about the 2010
    • Default Retirement Age (DRA)
    • Deregulation of Employment Law
    • National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
    • In the pipeline – New Regional Employers to be given bonus exemption
  • New PAYE changes
• Insurance Feature
  • Insuring customers’ goods for the correct amount
• Employment Feature - A flexible approach?
  • The right to request flexible working came into force in April, 2003. This currently applies only to employees with children under the age of 17, or disabled children under the age of 18