More than 10 years ago, when I first got involved in this new business, I honestly knew very little about self-storage. I felt a bit like Don Abbondio in that famous passage from ‘I promessi sposi’ when he asks: “Carneade, who was this man?”. It was certainly a sector unknown to me – and to most people – but it intrigued me greatly and seemed, in any case, an interesting solution for redeveloping our warehouse, which had been lying idle for far too long.

Even to the general public – potential customers – the term ‘self-storage’ didn’t mean much; only a few, perhaps because they had travelled to or regularly visited the United States, were familiar with the service and actually called it ‘self-storage’, rather than a ‘storage facility’ or ‘warehouse’. This evolution is also evident in the search terms and phrases used online. Ten years ago, only 1 in 10 people used the term ‘self-storage’, preferring instead ‘storage’, ‘warehouse’, ‘cellar’, ‘extra space’ or ‘unit’, whereas today that figure has risen to 50 per cent. Times change, and so do we.