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Big Yellow Group PLC on Monday expressed confidence in its established strategy as it expects new store openings ‘to make a material contribution to both revenue and earnings in the reasonably near future.’ The Surrey, England-based self-storage company said pretax profit in the financial year that ended March 31 fell 15% to £203.9 million from £241.0 million in the previous financial year. However, revenue advanced 2.4% to £204.5 million from £199.6 million, with this driven by an increase in average achieved rents. Big Yellow Group tied the weaker earnings to a lower revaluation surplus of £79.7 million in financial 2025, down from £131.2 million the prior year. Increased costs also weighed on the bottom line, with cost of sales rising 11% to £62.1 million from £56.0 million. Administrative expenses edged up by 3.6% to £15.8 million from £15.2 million. Executive Chair Nicholas Vetch said the performance was a ‘testament to the underlying resilience of [the] business.’ Vetch continued: ‘The elevated levels of macroeconomic uncertainty since the beginning of April have impacted confidence and led to some softening of demand and some loss of occupancy, however, rate growth materially outperformed the same period last year resulting in revenue growth of 3% since the year-end.’ Average net rent per square foot increased 3.2% to £34.71 from £33.64. Big Yellow Group declared a final dividend of 23.8 pence for financial 2025, up 5.3% from 22.6p. It’s total dividend for the period rose 2.7% to 46.4p from 45.2p. Looking ahead, Vetch expressed confidence in the firm’s prospects, as he said: ‘We expect this next phase of store openings (eight of which are in London) to make a material contribution to both revenue and earnings in the reasonably near future. ‘Our strategy remains much as it was 25 years ago; build the best quality freehold stores in the best locations, with the highest barriers to entry, focusing on operational excellence, with low debt to deliver compounding growth in earnings and cash flow.’ Shares in the firm closed down 1.8% at 1,006.00p on Monday in London. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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