History

We opened our first store in May 1999, listed on AIM in May 2000 and moved to the full list on the London Stock Exchange in 2002. We are a constituent member of the FTSE 250.

Big Yellow is the leading self storage group in the UK. We have pioneered the development of the latest generation of self storage facilities, which use state of the art technology and are located in high profile, convenient, main road locations.

We have developed a strong presence across the UK, with a focus on London and the South, and other large metropolitan cities.

As part of our strategy to dominate our local markets our stores tend to be much larger than our competitors. Our average store size is approximately 60,000 sq ft net lettable area and our largest stores at Staples Corner, Fulham and Bow are over 100,000 sq ft. The average size of UK self storage centres is approximately
45,000 sq ft.

1998

October

Formation of Cubic Self Storage

1998

December

Acquisition of Big Yellow Self Storage Company at Staples Corner

1999

May

Opening of Richmond store

2000

May

Listing on AIM, raising £40 million

2002

June

Full listing on LSE

2003

January

Opening of 25th store in West Norwood

2003

March

First national TV advert

2007

January

Conversion to a REIT

2007

June

First green roof
First rain water harvesting system

2007

November

Establishment of Big Yellow Limited Partnership with Pramerica

2008

March

Opening of our flagship 139,000 sq ft Fulham store with wine storage.
First solar panel

2008

October

Opening of 50th Big Yellow store at Sheffield Hillsborough

2009

February

Big Yellow signs contract to manage ten Armadillo Self Storage stores

2009

March

Big Yellow named as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for (and again in 2010, 2013, 2016)

2010

March

Big Yellow named as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for

2011

September

Mobile website launched

2013

March

Big Yellow named as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for

2014

April

Big Yellow and Australian Investors acquire Armadillo Self Storage

2014

December

Acquisition of Pramerica’s stake in Big Yellow Limited Partnership

2016

March

Group revenue exceeded £100 million for the first time,

Big Yellow named as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for

2018

February

Launch of Big Yellow Foundation

2019

February

Big Yellow named as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for

2020

July

Opened our store in Camberwell, London

2020

November

Opened our store in Battersea, London

2021

July

Acquired the remaining interest in Armadillo Self Storage

2022

January 

Opened new a store in Hayes

2022

March

Opened a new store in Hove

2022

June

Acquired a trading store in Aberdeen

2022

August

Opened a new store in Harrow

2022

September

Opened a new store in Kingston North

2023

June

Opened a new store in Kings Cross

2024

July

Opened a new store in Slough Farnham Road and started transferring existing customers from Slough

2025

July

Opened a new store in Staines

2025