Spacemaker

Spacemaker

Investment type: Turnaround

Spacemaker was a medium sized self storage business, with 12 stores across the UK.

Bluebird acquired the Spacemaker business in 2010 from an administrator after the business and it’s parent had fallen foul of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Our investment strategy was borrowed from the Hotel sector, and was centred on introducing a third party manager, in the form of Safestore PLC, on a five-year management contract. The intent being to give the business the immediate stability and marketing scale associated with a larger brand.

The strategy paid dividends and after six years the business’s EBITDA had almost doubled, despite a few market shocks. In early 2016 Spacemaker was sold outright to Safestore PLC in a deal that was well received by all parties.