CEO’s statement
“Safestore’s performance in FY 2025 reflects strong operational execution and investment in future growth. I want to thank our teams across the business for their hard work and commitment throughout the year. We continued to drive REVPAF and optimise trading across the like-for-like estate, which remains a key engine of profit growth for the Group. We also demonstrated good cost control, and this continues to be a focus. The dividend was up 1%, an important part of the total return for our shareholders.
Our new and recently opened stores are performing well across the portfolio, and, together with the development pipeline of a further 20 stores, are expected to contribute an additional £35–£40 million of EBITDA to the Group upon stabilisation.”
We have entered the new financial year with confidence, and on the back of solid trading in the first quarter to date. Safestore is now at an inflection point, where the significant investment we have made in MLA expansion is driving revenue growth and is set to translate into meaningful growth in earnings and long term value creation.
Safestore delivered an encouraging performance in FY 2025, with LFL growth improving through the year, a strong non-LFL revenue contribution and further delivery of our store expansion programme. We achieved this against a backdrop of lacklustre GDP growth, demonstrating the resilience of the underlying demand for our self-storage offer. Revenue growth and store EBITDAR performance were robust across all our geographies, notwithstanding the anticipated inflation-driven cost challenges and the profit drag impact of a higher number of new store openings. The slight decline in underlying profit before tax and adjusted diluted EPRA EPS was driven by increased debt to fund the store development programme, which we are confident will contribute significantly to future earnings growth. Overall, the results for the year reflect progress against our strategy to optimise the trading performance of the existing store portfolio and take advantage of selective expansion opportunities, whilst maintaining a strong balance sheet.
Stores in our LFL portfolio (>two years old and 89% of MLA) delivered revenue growth of 3.1% year on year. LFL closing occupancy was 81.2%, up 1.2ppt, and LFL REVPAF at a Group level was up 2.9% to £28.93. This is a pleasing performance and reflects our relentless focus on optimising trading in our existing store base.
Within the LFL estate, our mature stores (>five years old and 79% of MLA) delivered 1.9% revenue growth through improvements in average storage rate. Also within the LFL estate, our stabilising stores (sites two-five years old and 10% of MLA), delivered good occupancy and REVPAF growth, contributing 1.2ppt of the total 3.1% LFL growth. Their performance underlines the opportunity to drive highly profitable growth as they trade towards more mature occupancy levels.
Non-LFL stores (< two years old and 11% of MLA) delivered strong revenue growth, contributing an additional £4.4 million of sales to the Group (CER) as they quickly grow their occupancy and build REVPAF.
From a geographic perspective, in the UK our performance was driven by higher domestic customer demand and the continued conversion of space to smaller units that command higher rates. The UK business produced encouraging LFL revenue growth of +2.4% and successfully offset inflationary cost pressures and the impact of new store investment to achieve a stable store EBITDAR margin for the year. In Paris, economic conditions remained tough, but the business still produced robust revenue and store EBITDAR growth and demonstrated excellent cost control. Our stores in Expansion Markets (Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium) delivered a strong trading performance and also a significant increase in store EBITDAR as newer stores started covering their costs.””
Overview - Chairman's Statement
"Safestore delivered a strong operational performance and invested to drive future growth, with earnings at an inflection point."
Overview
- Operational performance strong despite inflation driven cost pressures.
- Portfolio continues to add additional new space at pace.
- Stable Board in place implementing recommendations from its prior year evaluation.
- Good progress on social and environmental responsibilities.
- Progressive dividend policy maintained with a rebuild in cover over the medium term.
Introduction
It is pleasing to report a year of further progress and that Safestore continued to deliver a strong operational performance in FY 2025 in the context of inflation-driven cost pressures and the short term earnings impact from our accelerated development programme. Our stores experienced positive LFL sales growth throughout the estate, which now spans seven European countries and presents attractive prospects for multi-year growth. Revenue growth in the financial year included encouraging LFL performance from our mature UK and Paris sites and these stores continued to produce the strong cash flow key to funding a large part of our development programme. 0.7 million sq ft of new space was opened in FY 2025 and this represents the largest area of development the team has ever delivered in a single year. We also invested in a new joint venture with Nuveen in Italy which has started well and provides a footprint for growth in an underdeveloped market. These are great achievements from our dedicated and experienced Safestore team, at every level of the business.
Financial results
Group revenue and underlying EBITDAR grew by 5.0% and 1.3% respectively (CER), while underlying PBT and EPS declined 4.2% and 4.7% as inflationary cost headwinds, new store expenses and higher interest payments from financing our expansion impacted our earnings. The dividend, an important part of the Safestore investment opportunity, was increased by 1% to 30.70 pence per share, reflecting our robust operating cash flow. Our balance sheet remained strong with LTV at 28.1% and ICR at 4.0x, still comfortably within our internal thresholds. Net debt increased as anticipated by £159.1 million to fund the development programme. EPRA NTA grew 3.5% to 1,129 pence per share, a significant underpin reflecting the value generated by store developments and the unique, and hard to replicate, attractions of our property portfolio.
Strategic progress
Safestore’s strategy remains unchanged with management’s relentless focus on optimising the trading performance of existing stores and ultimately Safestore’s reputation as one of the best operators of self-storage assets across Europe. We leverage property and operational know-how to generate strong, sustainable returns in a growing industry. These skills, built over decades, are deeply embedded in how Safestore does business. Importantly in FY 2025, we continued to invest in our capabilities – whether human capital or technology – that enable the Safestore teams to deliver strong REVPAF, margins and high levels of customer satisfaction.
Our portfolio continues to evolve and strengthen. We added 13 stores in FY 2025 (incurring £80 million of new store capex), continuing the delivery of the development pipeline. New stores help drive future earnings growth by leveraging Safestore’s property expertise, technology platform and financial firepower to build occupancy and cover start-up costs quickly. Following this well-established ‘modus operandi’ also reduces operational risk as we expand into new geographies and joint venture partnerships such as in Italy.
It is encouraging to see the consistency of sales performance of new store opened over the last 24 months, something the business monitors closely, and this provides reassurance the stores are on track to reach our targeted returns. It is equally important that as Safestore continues along its growth path, it maintains a lean operating cost base so that once stores stabilise (at around five years old), they achieve sustainably high store EBITDAR margins with strong cash conversion.
Our pipeline of future new stores is secure and we will be opening a further 1.1 million sq ft of space in FY 2026 and beyond. We expect this pipeline, together with non-LFL stores (those opened in the last two years), to deliver incremental EBITDA of £35–£40 million upon stabilisation. With the completion of recent openings, we expect the rate of new store development will moderate in FY 2026 with the potential to take advantage of further Joint venture opportunities for growth over time.
Capital allocation and financial discipline are of course fundamental to the returns that our portfolio delivers. The Board provides regular oversight on investment opportunities and funding options taking into account the market environment. This reflects our desire to generate earnings growth, preserve a strong balance sheet and deliver a progressive dividend.
In the year, investment was funded by operating cash flow of £89.6 million and £129.7 million of new financing split between a new USPP and a new term loan, demonstrating the Group’s continued ability to access debt capital. Net debt stood at £1,058.6 million at the year end, with the balance sheet retaining comfortable headroom to covenants for ICR 2.4x and LTV 60%. We are pleased to see our average cost of debt fall to 3.46% over the period, a strong reflection of our management team’s success in pro-actively managing the debt.
Board developments and governance progress
I am grateful to be supported by a strong and capable Board. The past year has benefited from a welcome period of stability, with the composition of the Board remaining consistent following several consecutive years of change. This continuity has enabled us to build on our collective experience and maintain a clear focus on our strategic objectives.
Following the Board evaluation in FY 2024, we undertook a refresh of our Committee structures, making changes to their composition to distribute responsibilities and time commitments optimally among Directors. In FY 2025, we conducted an externally facilitated Board performance review, which confirmed that the Board remains well aligned on key priorities and demonstrates a strong commitment to close engagement with the business.
Our social and environmental responsibilities
- We have made progress on net zero initiatives and carbon, embedded in day-to-day operational activities.
- Our people are key to our operational delivery and those in our stores, helping customers each and every day, are the face of our business. I am pleased to see the focus on ongoing training and other initiatives to ensure we attract and retain the best people.
- Colleague engagement through our formal workforce advisory panel is now fully embedded.
- My fellow Board members and I thank our Safestore colleagues wholeheartedly for their hard work, dedication and passion for the business each and every day.
Dividend
In line with the Group’s progressive dividend policy, the Board is pleased to recommend a final dividend of 20.60 pence per share (FY 2024: 20.40 pence) resulting in a full year dividend up 1% to 30.70 pence per share (FY 2024: 30.40 pence).
With this distribution we will have returned £448 million to shareholders in the last ten years, reflecting the strong cash generation of the business.
The full year dividend is covered 1.3x by earnings per share which is below historical levels. The Board retains its commitment to a progressive dividend whilst recognising the need to gradually rebuild dividend cover as growth in earnings resumes.
Shareholders will be asked to approve the dividend at the Company’s Annual General Meeting on 18 March 2026 and, if approved, the final dividend will be payable on 14 April 2026 to shareholders on the register at close of business on 13 March 2026.
Summary and outlook
The Board is confident that Safestore will continue to leverage its operational and financial strengths to generate returns that are both sustainable and in excess of our cost of capital. We have undergone a period of elevated investment since FY 2022, successfully expanding our estate to 211 stores to generate long term growth. As the pace of development moderates and headwinds from inflationary cost pressures ease, the Board has conviction that the business is at an inflection point. The Group will reap the rewards from these actions, delivering earnings growth and building on our track record of delivering outstanding total shareholder returns, well into the future.
David Hearn
Chairman
14 January 2026
