CEO's report

A significant decision was made to reschedule the 2020 Convention originally planned for August. The new dates are 9-11th March 2021. The venue and all other details remain the same.

Well, where has the last two months disappeared to?

For lots of people it has meant working from home and managing the business remotely or working in the business and distancing ourselves from work colleagues and customers. We have introduced new cleaning regimes and how many more times have we all washed our hands!

At the time of writing New Zealand and Australia are now on Level 3 restrictions and life returning to what we might consider normal still seems some way off. However, our industry sector is weathering the storm better than most. Occupancy rates vary, box shop sales have increased for some, interaction with customers is at an all time high as facilities alert their storers to their new hygiene practices and continue to help some who may be struggling with their monthly fees.

Susan Phillips, CEO SSAA

Some of our service members have experienced delays due to closed state and international borders. Others have been impacted by the availability of imported products. No one has escaped the effects of COVID-19

But what does the future hold? Will occupancy and rates return to previous levels? Will working from home become the new norm, leading to an increase in demand from the domestic market searching out storage options to free up the back room as their new home office? Perhaps more retailers will continue to trade online and not return to their previous business model where expensive rents were demanded by shopping centre management or high street landlords.

One thing is certain, change is upon us and so is opportunity for those who are open to it.

As for your association, we have pushed ahead with many projects whilst balancing out the need to keep members informed with COVID-19 updates.

Some events have been rescheduled. The previously planned South Australian networking function to be held in Adelaide in April has now been moved to 19th November. A significant decision was made to reschedule the 2020 Convention originally planned for August. The new dates are 9-11th March 2021. The venue and all other details remain the same. In future our annual convention will be held in the first week of March which will make it the first self storage conference globally.

Some of our current projects have been delayed due to recent events, however work has resumed on finalising the suite of six storage agreements for Australia which will be released very soon. The review of New Zealand agreements will follow a little later in the year. We will also release an updated Customer Storage Agreement Guidelines (previously known as the MAP) at the same time. Another project that has been delayed is our legal online training. Work has resumed and the corresponding updates from the Agreements review will be reflected in the online training modules.

The SSAA/Urbis Storage Interactive Platform (SIP) project has been released. Refer to page 11 for more detail. The project brings together data gathered by SSAA and Urbis and presents a thorough picture of the six major cities selected – Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Access to the platform is available in the members only section on the website.

At the most recent board meeting the Directors approved funding for a comprehensive industry study in Australia and New Zealand. The main objective is to understand the market demographic and macroeconomic factors that drive storage demand and to explore current and future market supply. Analyse the relationship between historical demand drivers and current performance, help members understand operational best practice, create a benchmark for standard industry and operational metrics and review industry consolidation and analyse the impacts. The research will also profile the consumer and their attitudes towards self storage, understand consumer perceptions and attitudes which includes brand awareness. Explore future trends that may impact the industry.

The project has commenced, and all members are requested to participate in the online survey that came your way in May. The more input we get from members will result in a comprehensive picture of your industry.

The release of research results will commence in September this year.

So, it’s back to work (at home). l

Stay well Susan Phillips