The golden hoard

摘要

The best businesses take unpromising inputs and conjure from them a stable stream of profits. Self-storage firms fall into this category. They offer space-strapped customers a secure nest in which to store things they don't need right now but can't bring themselves to throw away. They invest in land most developers would shun and use tenancy contracts that would make other landlords shudder. Yet they are big business in America, where one family in ten uses one of the countries' 50,000 facilities. It's a sector that has seen robust performance and rapid growth, according to the Self Storage Association, an industry body. It is popular elsewhere too: Britain has seen an 8% growth in the number of stores in the past year.