30 YEAR PROFILE

Garth Davidson, Fort Knox Queensland

Garth Davidson‘s name and his company’s brand, Fort Knox Storage has been synonymous with self storage in Queensland since the early 1990s’

Garth spent the early part of his life as a grazier in central Queensland but always had a strong interest in real estate. After moving to the coast, he operated a furniture hire business on the Gold Coast. He stored a lot of his equipment at the Millers, Gold Coast facility and in doing so started to learn about the self storage industry.

A name synonymous with self storage in Queensland since the early 1990s.

His first purchase was a facility in Greg Chapel Drive, Burleigh Heads. He had worked out that he could buy the facility at a yield of 13%. Garth knew a good thing when he saw it and jumped into the self storage industry. He says that those days are past but wishes that he could still buy self storage facilities at those yields these days.

Garth proved to be an astute purchaser and pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy. He combined that with investing in the upgrade and further development of key sites. Garth and Fort Knox drew from a diverse pool of investors. Over close to 30 years of self storage industry involvement, he has built a portfolio of 28 Fort Knox facilities on the Gold Coast, Brisbane and North Queensland.

Garth was a regular attendee at the yearly conventions and toured the US on a Self Storage Association Study tour in 1995. He says that the companionship he enjoyed and the ability to share the experience with other self storage operators was the best feature of the self storage industry and the SSAA.

Garth remembers the early days in the industry when as he says “the Banks and insurers just did not want to know you”. They were the hard days, and he recognises the important role that the Self Storage Association and the larger operators have played in establishing a strong industry. He now says that these days “the banks come to him”.

While Garth sees the consolidation of the industry into the larger investment fund as a positive feature of the industry, he believes that there are still excellent opportunities for small operators.

He remembers the early years where holding top position in the Yellow Pages was the place to be. He now recognises that this is a thing of the past and now management of social media is one of the most significant challenges for self storage operators.

Gath says the most significant reward he has had in his career is the many firm friendships that he has established within the staff that worked with him in Fort Knox Storage.

In 2019 Garth stepped aside as CEO and Managing Director of the Fort Knox Storage Group in Queensland. His daughter Katrina and son Mark (Shorty) now hold senior roles with Fort Knox Group. Garth remains active in the industry and is out there negotiating the purchase of additional self storage facilities. l