'We see an unmatched demand from people who want to acquire goods and store them somewhere.'

The company's method is to acquire an industrial block, level out everything on each floor and refurbish it into units equipped with a storage cabinet system.

'We look for a building that doesn't have too many columns, with a ceiling height of between eight and 10 feet, which allows room for installing equipment such as dehumidifiers and air conditioners,' Ms Leslie said.

While self-storage companies, such as MiniCo, operate on the model of converting a whole industrial block into self-access units, some local operators adopt a horizontal strategy - purchasing or renting several floors in industrial buildings to attract residential customers in close proximity.

'We operate storage facilities in residential districts close to our customers, like a convenience store or supermarket chain,' said Kevin Chan Kai-ho, director of Store Friendly, a local operator with 54 sites across Hong Kong, serving both residential and commercial customers.

Self-storage operators prefer industrial buildings because of their huge usable floor space and low rent. According to Mr Chan, floor space ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 sqft is a perfect choice for a site.

Hong Kong has many industrial buildings satisfying that requirement.

The relatively simple regulatory building requirements that govern the use of industrial buildings have also contributed to the rapid growth of the self-storage business.

According to Mr Chan, an industrial building already allows 70 per cent of its floor space for storage and warehouse purposes. 'You don't have to apply to the government to change its original use if you stick to this guideline and comply with the fire-safety regulations when fitting out the building,' he said.

Tony Leung, information officer at the Fire Services Department, said any self-storage facility in an industrial building needed to comply with the department's code of practice that spelt out the specific fire-safety equipment and systems to be installed.

'Sometimes a sprinkler system may not be required if the building satisfied regulations at the time it was built, but a storage site, like any other type of business, needs to be inspected by the department for certification,' he said.

While the biggest areas of investment for the self-storage business is in the security system and the fitting-out work, operators are usually guided by a myriad of factors when considering the potential of an industrial building.

'We have to take the space efficiency of each industrial building into consideration because the usable space can be marked up or down, and we also have to take into account the rent, ease of access and loading capacity of elevators,' Mr Chan said.

But in most situations the location of the site is high on the agenda. With more operators in the market and people with more choices, Ms Leslie said the location of an industrial building had become more important. Ideally, it should be a site near a railway system or without heavy container traffic that would inconvenience customers.

With the market becoming more sophisticated, people tend to choose chain operators over single operators who, according to Mr Chan, are being phased out in the competition because of poor planning. 'Customers have greater confidence in chain operators who can deliver flexibility and professionalism in their service. For example, we provide a storage facility service between two to three stations on the MTR lines and, if customers request a transfer, we can easily find them another location. Sometimes we can provide a choice of two to three storage sites in one single district.'

The company also runs self-storage facilities in Macau, Singapore and Shenzhen and employs more than 100 staff in its Hong Kong head office, many of whom are responsible for customer services.

'On average, each staff member needs to take care of 130 customers and the best-performing staff in their jobs can be promoted to work in the head office to handle customer complaints and technical issues,' he said.

industry focusstorage

Key players

General manager

Business development manager

Operations manager

Customer service representative

Marketing officer

Administration assistant

Jargon

Good-looking (lan tsai in Cantonese) refers to a unit in an industrial building without pillars which provides a highly usable space.

Hit warehouses (da chong in Cantonese) is a process that converts two adjacent units into one adjoining storage facility or separates an adjoining storage facility into two individual units.

Illegal tenants are people who turn their rented floor area into a makeshift living space.

Storage management system includes functions such as rental and sales status, customer application and blacklist checking, payment analysis, storage availability and occupancy analysis, allowing for efficient operations.