RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

RNS Number : 2691J

Big Yellow Group PLC

19 May 2025

Big Yellow Group PLC

("Big Yellow", "the Group" or "the Company")

Results for the YEAR ended 31 MARCH 2025

HIGHLIGHTS

Financial metrics	Year ended 31 March 2025	Year ended 31 March 2024	Change
Revenue⁽⁴⁾	£204.5m	£199.6m	2%
Store revenue⁽¹⁾	£203.1m	£197.1m	3%
Like-for-like store revenue^(1,2,6)	£200.7m	£196.2m	2%
Store EBITDA⁽¹⁾	£143.2m	£143.0m	0%
Adjusted profit before tax^(1,7)	£115.6m	£107.3m	8%
Adjusted earnings per share^(1,8)	57.8p	55.9p	3%
Dividend - final - total^(4,5)	23.8p 46.4p	22.6p 45.2p	5% 3%
Profit before tax⁽⁴⁾	£203.9m	£241.0m	(15%)
Cash flow from operating activities (after net finance costs and pre-working capital movements)⁽³⁾	£111.9m	£110.1m	2%
Basic earnings per share⁽⁴⁾	103.2p	127.1p	(19%)
Store metrics
Store Maximum Lettable Area ("MLA")⁽¹⁾	6,421,000	6,419,000	-
Closing occupancy (sq ft)⁽¹⁾	5,056,000	5,029,000	1%
Closing occupancy⁽¹⁾	78.7%	78.3%	0.4 ppts
Closing occupancy - like-for-like stores (%)^(1,2,6)	79.1%	79.0%	0.1 ppt
Average net rent per sq ft⁽¹⁾	£34.71	£33.64	3%
Closing net rent per sq ft⁽¹⁾	£35.17	£34.14	3%

¹ See note 28 for glossary of terms

² Excluding Kings Cross (opened June 2023)

³ See reconciliation in Financial Review on page 18

⁴ Statutory metric

⁵ The dividend paid in the year is all Property Income Distribution ("PID")

⁶ See reconciliation in Portfolio Summary on page 13

⁷ See reconciliation in note 10

⁸ See reconciliation in note 12

Highlights

·	Store revenue growth of 3.0%, with like-for-like store revenue up by 2.3%, driven by increases in average achieved rents
·	Like-for-like occupancy increase of 0.1 ppt to 79.1% (March 2024: 79.0%). Closing occupancy up 0.4 ppts.
·	Average achieved net rent per sq ft increased by 3% year on year, closing net rent up 3% from March 2024
·	Like-for-like store operating cost increase fell from 10% in the first half to 4% in the second half, averaging 7% for the year
·	Overall store EBITDA was up £0.2 million compared to the prior year, with the growth in revenue largely offset by the increase in store operating costs
·	Cash flow from operating activities (after net finance costs and pre-working capital movements) increased by 2% to £111.9 million
·	Adjusted profit before tax up 8% to £115.6 million, adjusted earnings per share up 3% to 57.8p reflecting the dilutive impact of the equity raise in October 2023
·	A 3% increase in full year dividend to 46.4 pence per share in line with adjusted eps growth
·	Statutory profit before tax of £203.9 million, down from £241.0 million in the prior year, due to a lower revaluation surplus in the year
·	£4 million invested in the year on solar retro-fit, 78 stores now have solar with a 29% increase in capacity in the year to 8.5 Megawatts. All directly owned stores will have EPCs of A+, A or B by the end of 2026
·	Opened a new 65,000 sq ft freehold store in July 2024 in Farnham Road, Slough, and closed the existing leasehold store, saving £0.4 million annual rent. The new store achieved 81% occupancy at 31 March 2025, and is trading at the same revenue as the previous store
·	Acquired freehold sites in Leamington Spa and Coventry (the latter post year end), taking the pipeline to 13 development sites and one replacement store of approximately 1.0 million sq ft (16% of current MLA), of which 10 are in, or within close proximity, to London. 1.4 million sq ft of fully built vacant space is currently available for future growth
·	Planning consent granted for key London proposed stores at West Kensington, Kentish Town (both at appeal) and Staples Corner; we now have 10 of our 14 pipeline stores with planning
·	Disposal of land adjacent to our Battersea store for £30.9 million, combined with post dividend cash flow, this largely offset capital expenditure of £58.3 million; closing net debt £388.7 million (2024: £385.4 million).

Nicholas Vetch CBE, Executive Chairman of Big Yellow, commented:

"We are pleased to have reported another set of results that are testament to the underlying resilience of our business. We delivered another year of revenue growth and achieved a return to growth in adjusted earnings per share, even when considering the dilutive effects of the placing in October 2023.

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. We expect our underlying store operating cost inflation to fall further from the 4% seen in the second half of the year, notwithstanding the impact of the recent rise in employer's national insurance.

The Group maintains a low absolute level of debt, which allows flexibility in our hedging strategy, with £210 million of floating rate debt, hence we are, and expect to continue, benefiting from short-term interest rate reductions.

Our decision a decade or so ago to develop the next phase of new stores, with a focus on London, continues to bear fruit. Ten stores have opened in the last five years, with three due to open this year and five the year after. We are in the process of clearing the pre-start planning conditions on our site in Kensington Olympia, following which we will commence demolition of the existing building and construction of its replacement. This will be the most important project the Group has embarked on, close to one of the wealthiest and most densely populated areas of Central London.

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."

ABOUT US

Big Yellow is the UK's brand leader in self storage and operates from a platform of 109 stores. We have a pipeline comprising 14 proposed self storage facilities (including one replacement store). The current maximum lettable area of the existing platform is 6.4 million sq ft. When fully built out the portfolio will provide approximately 7.4 million sq ft of flexible storage space. 99% of our stores and sites by value are held freehold and long leasehold, with the remaining 1% short leasehold. Currently by revenue 75% of our stores are in London and its commuter towns, with the balance in larger regional conurbations.

Our stores utilise state of the art technology for our digital and operating platforms including security, and we focus on locating our stores in high profile, accessible, main road locations. We also focus on providing excellent customer service, a highly engaged employee culture, and with significant and increasing investment in sustainability.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Big Yellow Group PLC ("Big Yellow", "the Group" or "the Company"), the UK's brand leader in self storage, is pleased to announce its results for the year ended 31 March 2025.

Financial results

We have delivered a resilient operating performance in the year to March, with occupancy stabilised and further growth in net rents. This resulted in a 3% increase in store revenue, and a return to adjusted eps growth for the year.

We are pleased to have delivered a significant reduction in like-for-like store operating expense inflation from 10% in the first half of the year to 4% in the second half. Additionally, given our flexible hedging strategy, the Group has benefited from a 9% fall in annual interest expense from the previous year.

Revenue for the year was £204.5 million (2024: £199.6 million), an increase of 2%, with store revenue up 3%. Like-for-like store revenue (which excludes new store openings) was up 2% driven by improvements in average net rent. Store EBITDA was £143.2 million, an increase of £0.2 million from the prior year (2024: £143.0 million).

The adjusted profit before tax in the year was £115.6 million up 8% from £107.3 million in 2024. Adjusted earnings per share increased by 3% to 57.8p (2024: 55.9p), with the additional shares in issue following the October 2023 placing impacting the first half of the year.

The Group's cash flow from operating activities (after net finance costs and pre-working capital movements) increased by £1.8 million (2%) to £111.9 million for the year (2024: £110.1 million).

The Group's statutory profit before tax was £203.9 million, a decrease from £241.0 million in the prior year. There was a revaluation surplus for the current year of £79.7 million, compared to a surplus of £131.2 million in the prior year.

Development pipeline

During the year we opened a new 65,000 sq ft freehold store in Farnham Road, Slough and closed the existing leasehold store, saving £0.4 million annual rent. The new store achieved 81% occupancy at 31 March 2025, and is trading at the same revenue as the previous store. Slough Farnham Road is our first net zero store, with a solar PV installation of 200 kWp (our largest to date), battery storage for the energy we generate resulting in an EPC rating of A+.

We have acquired two development sites since the last year end. In May 2024, in Leamington Spa for £3 million, that will also serve the university town of Warwick, and in April 2025 in Coventry for £2.5 million.

We have been successful in achieving three key planning consents in London during the year; at West Kensington, Kentish Town and at Staples Corner. The store in West Kensington will be only the second purpose-built self storage facility in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, alongside our Fulham store, with Kentish Town being the first purpose-built store in the London Borough of Camden. These, along with the other sites in the pipeline, are very high-quality locations, and will help consolidate our market-leading platform. We now have planning consent on 10 of our 14 development sites.

We are currently constructing nine new stores all in London or its conurbation towns at an approximate cost of £161 million which can comfortably be funded from cash flow, surplus asset sales and our existing debt facilities.

The projected net operating income of the increase in our total capacity of 1.0 million sq ft when stabilised, at today's prices, is £32.5 million representing an approximate 15% return on the incremental capital deployed. If we include the replacement store at Staples Corner, due to open in Summer 2026, the proforma net operating income increases to £36.6 million, a return of approximately 8.7% on the total development cost of approximately £422 million, including land already acquired. The total cost to complete is £232 million.

Capital structure

It remains our view that elevated levels of debt over cycles destroys value and hence our strategy is to maintain debt at modest levels. The Group's interest cover for the period (expressed as the ratio of cash generated from operations pre-working capital movements against interest paid) was 6.1 times (2024: 5.6 times), with the Group's net debt to EBITDA ratio now 3.1x (2024: 3.0x).

Net debt was £388.7 million at 31 March 2025 (2024: £385.4 million), and the Group has undrawn committed facilities of £175 million. Approximately 47% of our debt is fixed, with the balance floating, in line with our hedging policy, and our current average cost of drawn debt is 5.0%, with any further cuts in interest rates benefitting next year.

The Group owns its assets largely freehold, representing some 99% by value of our portfolio (including long leasehold stores) which has shielded us from the significant rise in industrial and warehouse rents that has occurred over the last decade or more. We view rent liabilities as quasi-debt. Following the closure of Farnham Road, Slough last summer and Staples Corner in due course to a new freehold store we expect our total rent liability to fall to approximately £1.1 million per annum.

Dividends

The Group's dividend policy is to distribute a minimum of 80% of full year adjusted earnings per share. The final distribution of PID declared is 23.8 pence per share. This brings the total distribution declared for the year to 46.4 pence per share, an increase of 3% from the prior year (2024: 45.2p).

Our people

As we announced last year, John Hunter joined the business as COO in April 2024 and has made a very successful start to leading day-to-day operations and I am pleased to confirm that John will be formally joining the Board with effect from the Group's AGM this July.

We believe that any successful business requires the creation of fully engaged employee culture, and this remains a key focus within Big Yellow. Our resilient performance is a testament to our highly committed and motivated employees who operate throughout the business, whether in the stores or in head office.

Delivering outstanding customer service is a key success factor in our historic and future growth. Our customer net promoter scores ("NPS") were an average of 82.8 (2024: 80.5) over the year and demonstrated a further improvement on already high standards. NPS scores at those levels are exceptionally unusual and reflect the strong culture within this business.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank all our people for their dedication and support, which has been instrumental in driving our performance and sustained growth.

Outlook

We are pleased to have reported another set of results that are testament to the underlying resilience of our business. We delivered another year of revenue growth and achieved a return to growth in adjusted earnings per share, even when considering the dilutive effects of the placing in October 2023.

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.

Nicholas Vetch CBE

Executive Chairman
19 May 2025

CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S STATEMENT

Trading

We are pleased to have delivered another year of revenue growth and achieved a return to growth in adjusted earnings per share, even when considering the dilutive effects of the placing in October 2023. The first half of the year saw subdued activity levels as we navigated uncertainty created by the general election and the resulting change in government. However, we saw stronger trading in the second half, which resulted in a recovery in like-for-like occupancy (up 0.1 ppt by March 2025).

We delivered rental growth, both to new and existing customers, albeit moderated compared to the prior year. This resulted in closing net rent growth of 3% in the year, which, based on a stable occupancy position, translated into 3% growth in store revenue. After a period of inflationary pressure on our cost base in recent years, we have seen underlying increases in our operating costs moderate through the year, down to a 4% increase in the second half. If we look back over the past three years, the business has navigated through the Russian invasion of Ukraine and resultant energy crisis, high inflation and the impact on the cost of living, higher interest rates and periods of political instability. Through this three-year period, after absorbing increasing interest rates and operating costs we delivered growth in revenue and adjusted profit of 19% and adjusted earnings per share growth of 10%, the latter impacted by the dilutive effect of the issue of new shares. This demonstrates the resilience of our business and validates our continued investment in further growth in our store portfolio.

We continue to see demand spread across a diverse set of drivers. However, the largest driver of demand remains from domestic customers renting storage space whilst moving home (41% of move ins during the year). We saw some increase in activity in our last quarter as house buyers sought to complete their purchase prior to the changes to the Stamp Duty thresholds from 1 April. We also saw an increase in move-ins from business customers (up 2% year on year), many of whom are online retailers or B2B traders looking for flexible mini-warehousing for e-fulfilment. Demand from national customers (5% of our occupied space) continues to be robust, with revenue growth of 11% year-on-year. Businesses occupy 36% of our occupied space overall.

Investment in our operating platform and systems

Providing our customers with a safe and secure space for their possessions is our core purpose. Accordingly, we continue to invest in the technology and physical security of our stores, whilst recognising the important role our store teams play in providing a reassuring presence during normal opening hours. This is a dual approach to achieving an accessible and secure environment for our customers.

In addition to physical security features, such as perimeter fencing, keypad-controlled gates and lighting enabled by motion detectors, we provide individually alarmed rooms, 24-hour CCTV and overnight monitoring of our stores. We are increasingly using data and AI to help detect unusual behavioural patterns that alert either our store teams or overnight monitoring service to suspicious activity. We continue to restrict access outside of normal trading hours to approximately 15% of our customers, the majority of whom are business customers. Most of our customers are happy to access the store during normal opening hours when our store teams are present. Our store teams play an important role as the final check on who we accept into our buildings as customers and importantly allow access to out of store opening hours. We believe this is critical to maintaining the security of our stores, as it cannot be replicated online.

We are trialling a mobile-based access system in three of our stores, as an alternative to the traditional pin code access system. This enables customers to unlock gates and entry points to the store via their Bluetooth enabled smartphone device. This has the potential to provide a seamless and contactless experience and reduces the risk of pin codes being forgotten or misappropriated. Should this trial prove to be successful, we will then roll this out to the wider store estate.

We continue to develop our website to drive the conversion of customers seeking self storage (over 90% of customers come through our digital channels), whilst enabling new customers to complete more and more of their onboarding journey online. As in most retail and consumer service businesses, there is a continuing trend of customers engaging digitally with self storage operators. We continually work to identify friction points in our online journeys, tackle these and thereby drive-up digital conversion and engagement levels. This ensures our store teams are focussed on dealing with any customer service issues and help drive revenue from ancillary services in the store. For example, accepting deliveries for business customers, packing material sales and optimising contents cover are all revenue generating activities that rely on our store teams to complete.

We continue to automate operational tasks performed by our store teams. We have developed our performance dashboard reporting to allow our store managers to identify issues more easily and speed up decision making. We have made improvements to our customer refund processes and sped up the onboarding journey in store for new customers. We have launched a new customer service platform, which aggregates customer feedback, whether from our internal surveys or from external sources (for example, Google and Trustpilot reviews). This allows us to easily see trends in customer feedback and address any service delivery issues even more promptly. Our use of an external data supplier to automatically track competitor pricing has allowed us to become more efficient and reactive to pricing adjustments. All of this has allowed us to operate more efficiently, whilst focussing our store teams on value-adding activities.

We continue to review and invest in our cyber security platform. We maintain our digital security standards by training our teams, implementing best-of-breed products and technologies, enhancing our policies and procedures, and fostering strategic partnerships. Our proactive approach helps us to stay ahead of potential threats and vulnerabilities as we look to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our digital assets.

People

As ever, our continued progress as a business reflects the steadfast commitment of our people who have worked extremely hard this year, whether in head office or in our stores.

Over the past 12 months, the level of staff turnover and vacancies in the business continues to be at relatively low levels. This is encouraging and reflects the strong culture of the business, the loyalty this engenders and our ability to attract and retain the talent we need to grow going forward.

The customer service and experience delivered by our store teams is a differentiating success factor, particularly with those customers who are regular users of our facilities. Our customer feedback comments frequently refer to the excellent service delivered by specific team members. We track our customer satisfaction levels through our net promoter score, and our average over the year for move-ins and move-outs was 82.8 (2024: 80.5), which demonstrates an improvement on already very high levels of customer service.

We continue to review our store staffing structure and have not been replacing certain positions when we see staff attrition. The continual improvement in our digital journeys, along with automation and improvement of in-store processes, has allowed us to safely achieve annualised savings of £0.3 million in the year. This will help mitigate the additional £0.5 million cost from the increase in Employers National Insurance from April 2025 and we will continue to seek further reductions in store staff headcount levels where these can be safely achieved. However, as mentioned above, our store teams play an important role in delivering great customer service, income from ancillary services and maintaining the security of our stores. Whilst we continue to identify opportunities to reduce headcount, our store team members will always be required during our normal opening hours.

We continue to make improvements to our culture and practices in respect of diversity, and these are set out in our latest Inclusivity and Diversity Report, which is available on our corporate website. Our Diversity and Inclusivity Committee continues to meet regularly, and I am a standing member of the Committee. I believe diversity has a positive impact on our performance and we want to ensure we have an inclusive culture that attracts, retains and provides equal opportunity to all our team members to drive forward our business.

ESG

The Big Yellow Foundation helps support the rehabilitation of vulnerable people into work. Our store teams raise funds by asking our customers if they wish to donate to the Foundation at move-in and move-out. We also generate donations from fundraising activities carried out by our employees across the business. The Company matches all money raised in this way. Through the generosity of our customers and the efforts of our employees, we raised a record £444,000 in the year for the Foundation and provided £345,000 of funding to our seven charity partners. The total funding since the inception of the Foundation in 2018 now stands at £1.4 million.

We continue to provide free space to small local charities and community organizations across our store estate. At present we support an average of two charities per store this way. Our volunteering program allows our staff to give back to the community, with every member of staff given one day a year to volunteer with one of our seven charity partners or a charity of their choice. We also continue to provide 12-week work placements in our stores to candidates from some of our Foundation partner charities. These placements help improve confidence and work chances for the candidates. Our store teams also enjoy working alongside the candidates and find it rewarding to do so.

Our solar retrofit program continues to go from strength to strength, with our latest installation phase delivering to a further 12 stores and 1,621kWp capacity this year. This takes the total number of retrofitted stores to 48 at a cost of £16.8 million to date. Our total solar capacity across the estate is now 8.5 Megawatts, up from 0.7 Megawatts five years ago.

As part of our solar strategy, we have installed a battery at our new Slough Farnham Road store. It gives the store increased resilience against energy cost inflation by storing and reusing energy generated by the solar array on the store's roof. In the nine months since opening, 67% of the energy generated on-site has been used by the Slough store (compared to 24% across the estate), with an estimated payback on the investment in just over nine years. We intend to further test the performance and payback of this new initiative by installing combined solar and battery at new stores opening this year and retrofitting batteries at a further three stores in our current estate.

Additionally, we have started trialling lighting and heating efficiency solutions across nine different stores to investigate further opportunities to reduce our energy consumption and drive our emissions down. Once we have evaluated the results from these trials, we will look to roll out the successful solutions across more stores in the estate. We are therefore making significant progress on our journey to self-generation of our energy needs.

We continue to maintain an updated assessment of the performance of our estate by recertifying our EPCs, even when certificates are in date. We have updated 35 certificates to reflect the impact of our solar installations and energy efficiency projects. We are now projected to have all stores (bar one short leasehold) at A+, A or B by the end of 2026, well ahead of the 2028 requirement.

Further detail, including progress on our Science Based Targets, is included in the ESG Report.

Summary

Our business model, combined with continued investment in our market-leading brand, store portfolio and operating platform, has once again delivered a resilient performance over the last 12 months. We remain confident that this business can continue to deliver compounding returns over the medium to long term.

Jim Gibson

Chief Executive Officer

19 May 2025

OPERATING REVIEW

The store platform and demand

We now have a portfolio of 109 open and trading stores, with a current maximum lettable area of 6.4 million sq ft, in line with last year.

Self storage demand is spread across a diverse set of drivers, and is largely driven by need, with security, convenience, quality of product, service and location being key factors. Awareness remains relatively low compared to commoditised products, such as hotel rooms or airline seats, albeit it is increasing slowly year-on-year with increased supply, marketing expenditure and customer use. The majority of our domestic customers are represented in ACORN profiled groups such as Flourishing Capital, Up and Coming Urbanites, Exclusive Addresses, Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Surroundings, Upmarket Families, Urban Aspiring Flat Dwellers and Privately Renting Professionals in Flats. The largest element of demand into our business each year is customers who use us for relatively short periods driven by a need.

Of our move-ins during the year:

- customers renting storage space whilst moving represented 41% of move-ins during the year (2024: 41%), with homeowners representing 25% and renters 16%;

- 12% of our customers who moved in took storage space as a spare room for decluttering (2024: 12%);

- 35% of our customers used the product because some event had occurred in their lives generating the need for storage; they may be moving abroad for a job, have inherited possessions, are getting together, or separating, are students who need storage during the holidays, or homeowners developing into their lofts or basements (2024: 36%);

- the balance of 12% of our new customer demand during the year came from businesses (2024: 11%), who stay longer and represent around 20% of our customers in store at any one time, occupying 36% of the space at 31 March 2025.

Of our overall occupied space today, customers who are longer stay lifestyle users, decluttering into small rooms as an extension to their accommodation, occupy 10% to 15% of our space; approximately 50% of the space is customers using it for less than 12 months, for reasons which are largely event driven, which could be inheritance, moving in the owner occupied or rental sector, home improvements, travelling; the balance of 36% of our space is businesses.

Our business customer base is comprised of online retailers, B2B traders looking for flexible mini-warehousing for e-fulfilment, service providers, those looking to shorten supply chains, and businesses looking to rationalise their other fixed costs of accommodation. For these customers, who typically are looking for rooms which could be from 50 sq ft to 500 sq ft in facilities that meet their operational requirements, the only supply in big cities is from self storage providers. The average space occupied by business customers at the year-end is 175 sq ft (2024: 177 sq ft).

Domestic customers occupy on average 59 sq ft (2024: 58 sq ft) and pay on average 17% more in rent per sq ft than business customers (2024: 17%), however business customers do stay longer, take more space and represent around 32% of revenue (2024: 32%).

The pandemic accelerated many structural changes that were already occurring, such as the move to online retailing and an increase in working from home facilitated by technological advances. The deindustrialisation of big cities with the conversion of commercial space into residential and other uses, has led to a shortage of suitable flexible mini-warehouse space from which to operate small scale storage and e-fulfilment, particularly in London. These developments, along with businesses increasingly seeking flexible office and storage space rather than longer inflexible leases, we believe are long-term structural trends, which will benefit our business going forward.

From research we have previously carried out, a typical small business using storage employs around three people and 60% of them are early-stage businesses and for 50% of them this is their only space.

In addition, we have a dedicated national customers team for businesses who wish to occupy space in multiple stores. These customers on average occupy approximately 900 sq ft, paying £29,000 per annum, and are billed and managed centrally. This area has performed strongly in the year with revenue up 11% compared to the prior year, making up 5% of occupied space.

Activity

Prospect numbers were down 3% on the prior year, however, our conversion levels improved with move-ins down only 1% and move-outs also down 1% on last year.

Occupancy across all 109 stores increased over the year by 27,000 sq ft (2024: fall of 59,000 sq ft). Domestic occupied space increased by 90,000 sq ft over the year. Business occupancy dropped 3% or 63,000 sq ft on 1.84 million sq ft occupied at the beginning of the year.

As we have experienced over the years, there are businesses who outgrow us and move to their own accommodation, others cease operations, some are seasonal, and we continue to replace any vacated space with new move-ins from online traders, e-tailers and service providers. We are not seeing any noticeable further softening in demand from businesses, particularly in London.

The 77 Big Yellow same stores (see Portfolio Summary) are 80.9% occupied compared to 81.7% at the same time last year. The eight lease-up Big Yellow stores added 48,000 sq ft of occupancy over the year to reach closing occupancy of 64.7%. The 24 Armadillo stores, representing 10% of the Group's revenue are 76.2% occupied, compared to 74.3% at this time last year. Overall store occupancy was 78.7% (2024: 78.3%).

	Occupancy 31 March 2025 %	Occupancy change in year 000 sq ft	Occupancy 31 March 2025 000 sq ft	Occupancy 31 March 2024 000 sq ft
77 same store Big Yellow stores	80.9%	(39)	3,932	3,971
8 lease-up Big Yellow stores	64.7%	48	357	309
24 Armadillo stores	76.2%	18	767	749
All 109 stores	78.7%	27	5,056	5,029

All stores are trading profitably at the EBITDA level.

Rental growth

We continue to manage pricing dynamically, taking account of room availability, customer demand and local competition, with our pricing model reducing promotions and increasing asking prices where individual units are in scarce supply.

We continue to price competitively to win new customers and increase rents to in-place customers on a range dependent on what they are paying relative to the current asking price, and on average these were at levels slightly ahead of wage inflation. It must be remembered that some 60% of our customers move-out within six months and therefore do not receive any price increases.

New customers over the year paid on average 2% more than move-ins for last year, and 4% less than customers moving out over the year. If we can improve our relative occupancy performance, we would expect to see this reverse and be an additional driver to revenue growth.

The average achieved net rent per sq ft increased by 3% compared to the prior year, with closing net rent up 3% compared to 31 March 2024. The table below shows the change in net rent per sq ft for the portfolio by average occupancy over the year (on a non-weighted basis). The analysis excludes our most recent store openings.

Average occupancy in the year	Net rent per sq ft growth from April 2024 to March 2025	Net rent per sq ft growth from April 2023 to March 2024
75% to 85%	3.3%	5.4%
85% to 90%	5.9%	5.5%
Above 90%	7.8%	6.9%

Marketing and operations

Our marketing strategy focuses on enhancing our market-leading brand awareness further and leveraging it to maximise the cost-efficient generation of enquiries, customer move-ins and user satisfaction across our digital platforms. Our strong brand, combined with continued digital investment and innovation, has enabled us to create a market-leading website which delivers over 90% of our enquiries.

Our latest YouGov survey (published in May 2024) confirmed the brand awareness of Big Yellow remained significantly ahead of other UK operators in the sector. The survey shows our unprompted brand awareness to be over four times higher than our nearest competitor across the UK.

The Big Yellow website enables users to browse different room sizes, obtain a price, reserve online and check-in online prior to arriving at the stores, which are automated in terms of access once a customer moves in.

We understand our web users often struggle to determine what size of storage they require. Our online size estimator features intuitive animations and information to guide people toward making the right choice. The online experience also allows customers to communicate with us in real-time via Live Chat, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger. Comprehensive online FAQs provide our users with another way to address questions they may have about the service without needing to call us directly.

This is all essential because approximately 60% of our new prospects have not used self storage before.

The seamless digital experience continues with our online check-in platform. This enables customers to complete the majority of their move-in process remotely. They can upload their photo and identity documents, sign the full customer licence, set up authorised persons, complete their storage inventory and establish a paperless Direct Debit - all accomplished remotely. This online check-in capability has significantly reduced the time our customers need to spend in our receptions when they move in.

We also provide the ability to purchase boxes and packing materials through our online BoxShop store. These items can be home delivered or made available through our Click and Collect service from stores, which represents 77% of BoxShop transactions. Packing material sales and other ancillary sales (excluding ELS) generated revenue of £5.1 million in the year (2024: £4.9 million).

Driving online traffic

Self storage is a consumer-facing business and the development of a strong and sustainable brand is multi-layered. It requires consistency in product, customer service and interaction at all touch points, particularly online.

Search engines are our most important acquisition tool, accounting for the majority of traffic to our website. Our focus on gaining a competitive advantage in search continues and our search engine optimisation ("SEO") efforts have helped us maintain high organic listings for popular generic and local self storage-related search terms. This, in turn, drives growth and cost efficiencies in acquiring new prospects.

Brand search terms are also a valuable driver of enquiries for Big Yellow and help improve the efficiency of our cost per enquiry. In the past year, 47% of all search engine paid clicks to our website originated from "Big Yellow" brand searches. This clearly indicates that the brand is important in driving higher levels of prospects and customer referrals, leading to improved operational efficiencies. We have demonstrated this through significant improvements in the performance of existing storage centres following their acquisition, re-branding and assimilation into our business.

Search engine marketing remains our largest source of paid web traffic. Ongoing website optimisation and an engaging user experience through our digital platforms help ensure we maximise the conversion of these web visits into enquiries and then customers.

Digital display advertising enables us to regionally target audiences in the market for self storage, raising consideration of the service and the Big Yellow brand through engaging creatives. This year, we have also started growing our strategic online partnerships with brands that have similar audiences to ours. This will help further drive efficiencies in our cost per customer.

Online customer reviews and social media

Supporting our values of putting the customer at the heart of our business, our online customer reviews generate real-time feedback from customers and provide positive word-of-mouth referrals to our website visitors. Through our Big Impressions customer feedback programme, we ask our new customers to rate our service. With the users' permission, we then publish these independent customer reviews on the Big Yellow website, which currently total over 56,000 averaging 4.8 out of 5.

The Big Impressions programme also generates customer feedback on their move-in and move-out experience. These customer reviews and mystery shop results are transparently accessible across the business and help reinforce our focus on outstanding customer service. Over the year, we have achieved an average net promoter score of 82.8, which is a very strong consumer-facing benchmark result.

We also gain real-time customer feedback from over 27,700 Google Reviews, averaging 4.7 out of 5. These help to enhance our visibility within local search listings, conveying trust in the Big Yellow brand. Additionally, we have over 4,750 reviews from the independent review site TrustPilot. These reviews average a 4.7 out of 5 star rating, labelled as "Excellent" on the TrustPilot ratings scale. We monitor our customer reviews and respond where necessary for customer service reasons or to manage our online reputation and improve our service offering.

Social media continues to complement our existing marketing channels. Big Yellow actively posts content across LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook to raise awareness of our services and ESG activities. These social channels are also used by customers to connect with us and are monitored in real-time, enabling us to respond promptly to any enquiries. The Big Yellow LinkedIn platform is specifically used to communicate company achievements, ESG initiatives and our company culture.

The Big Yellow YouTube channel allows web prospects to experience our stores online through our video guides to self storage.

We will continue to invest in improving the customer experience and user journey across all our digital marketing channels and in-store operations to achieve higher levels of automation and, consequently, efficiencies in the business.

We continue to look for new opportunities to utilise AI and other emerging technology to drive efficiency and improve our business. We are currently leveraging a variety of AI tools to enhance our content creation process using tools such as Microsoft CoPilot, ChatGPT, and Canva to generate innovative ideas and content. These tools assist us in creating training modules, drafting policies and procedures, and developing engaging presentations and visuals. The integration of these AI tools has significantly streamlined our workflow and boosted our productivity.

We've also been leveraging rules-based data manipulation and automation techniques across various aspects of our operations, such as our dynamic pricing system, prospect management, online check-in, and the digital automation of all customer communications. Our access control reporting and alerts, based on significant data from our stores, have been instrumental in enhancing our store audit processes. Exception reporting is another area where we've seen great improvements. Other examples in marketing would be translation AI, optimisation of paid search and targeting of prospects.

Although services provided by third parties, machine learning AI forms the backbone of our cybersecurity and defence mechanisms. It plays a crucial role in anti-malware efforts, firewalls, email management, vulnerability testing, and Security Information and Event Monitoring.

The above is by no means a complete summary of how AI is making a difference to our business, but should provide an insight and it is something that we will continue to invest in.

Cyber security and IT infrastructure

Cyber security and IT infrastructure are vital for the Group's strategy and operations. We have a robust framework covering risk, security, compliance, innovation, and efficiency. Over the past year, we've achieved significant results and progress, although as ever, we are proactive in seeking new opportunities and overcoming new challenges. We maintain our commitment to investing in and improving our capabilities, ensuring we maintain our competitive edge.

We regularly evaluate our cyber risk and security status with the help from both internal experts and external consultants. Mandatory Information Security and Data Protection training along with frequent tests, such as penetration testing and phishing simulations, help us ensure our systems and people are secure. This year, our systems underwent a comprehensive external audit and achieved IASME Cyber Assurance Levels 1 & 2, incorporating Cyber Essentials. Additionally, we have cyber insurance in place should a breach occur.

Our Data Compliance Officer oversees ongoing compliance with GDPR and PCI DSS, along with Business Continuity and Crisis Communication management. Our policies and procedures are regularly reviewed and benchmarked against industry best practice. Our Infrastructure and Development teams drive innovation and efficiencies throughout the Group.

Development pipeline

An important aspect of our external growth is the development of new stores, particularly in London, where there are very few existing assets suitable to be acquired.

Current development pipeline - with planning

Site	Location	Status	Anticipated capacity
Staines, London	Prominent location on the Causeway	Construction commenced with store opening in July 2025. We are also developing 9 industrial units on the site totalling 99,000 sq ft.	70,000 sq ft
Queensbury, London	Prominent location off Honeypot Lane	Construction commenced with store opening in October 2025.	72,000 sq ft
Wembley, London	Prominent location on Towers Business Park	Construction commenced with store opening in March 2026.	73,000 sq ft
Slough Bath Road	Prominent location on Bath Road	Construction commenced with store opening in spring 2026.	95,000 sq ft
Epsom, London	Prominent location on East Street	Construction commenced with store opening in summer 2026.	59,000 sq ft
Staples Corner, London	Prominent location on North Circular Road	Construction commenced with planned store opening in summer 2026.	Replacement for existing leasehold store, additional 18,000 sq ft
Kentish Town, London	Prominent location on Regis Road	Demolition commenced, with a planned store opening in autumn 2026.	70,000 sq ft
Wapping, London	Prominent location on the Highway, adjacent to existing Big Yellow	Construction commenced with store opening in late 2026.	Additional 95,000 sq ft
West Kensington, London	Prominent location on Hammersmith Road	Demolition of existing building to commence this year, with a store opening anticipated in summer 2028.	175,000 sq ft
Newcastle	Prominent location on Scotswood Road	Planning consent granted, vacant possession awaited.	60,000 sq ft

Current development pipeline - without planning

Site	Location	Status	Anticipated capacity
Old Kent Road, London	Prominent location on Old Kent Road	Site acquired in June 2022. Planning application submitted in October 2023, decision anticipated Summer 2025.	75,000 sq ft
Leicester	Prominent location on Belgrave Gate, Central Leicester	Site acquired in June 2023. Planning application submitted in November 2024.	58,000 sq ft
Leamington Spa	Prominent location on Queensway	Site acquired in May 2024. Planning application submitted in December 2024.	55,000 sq ft
Coventry	Prominent location on Sir Henry Parkes Road	Site acquired in April 2025.	58,000 sq ft
Total - all sites			1,033,000 sq ft

PORTFOLIO SUMMARY


	March 2025				March 2024
	Big Yellow same stores ⁽¹⁾	Big Yellow lease-up	Armadillo	Total	Big Yellow same stores	Big Yellow lease-up	Armadillo	Total
Number of stores	77	8	24	109	77	8	24	109
At 31 March:
Total capacity (sq ft)	4,863,000	552,000	1,006,000	6,421,000	4,859,000	552,000	1,008,000	6,419,000
Occupied space (sq ft)	3,932,000	357,000	767,000	5,056,000	3,971,000	309,000	749,000	5,029,000
Percentage occupied	80.9%	64.7%	76.2%	78.7%	81.7%	56.0%	74.3%	78.3%
Net rent per sq ft	£37.56	£33.28	£23.74	£35.17	£36.43	£31.74	£22.98	£34.14
For the year:
REVPAF⁽²⁾	£34.80	£23.34	£21.01	£31.63	£34.28	£18.41	£20.02	£30.71
Average occupancy	82.3%	62.1%	77.3%	79.8%	84.1%	51.8%	76.4%	80.2%
Average annual net rent psf	£37.08	£32.82	£23.42	£34.71	£35.87	£31.10	£22.75	£33.64

	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Self storage income	148,335	11,262	18,226	177,823	146,945	8,640	17,562	173,147
Other storage related income ⁽²⁾	19,195	1,607	2,861	23,663	18,682	1,221	2,651	22,554
Ancillary store rental income	1,576	17	45	1,638	1,375	17	19	1,411
Total store revenue	169,106	12,886	21,132	203,124	167,002	9,878	20,232	197,112
Direct store operating costs	(43,606)	(5,690)	(8,269)	(57,565)	(39,722)	(4,591)	(7,517)	(51,830)
Short and long leasehold rent⁽³⁾	(2,145)	(26)	(206)	(2,377)	(2,102)	(10)	(169)	(2,281)
Store EBITDA⁽²⁾	123,355	7,170	12,657	143,182	125,178	5,277	12,546	143,001
Store EBITDA margin	72.9%	55.6%	59.9%	70.5%	75.0%	53.4%	62.0%	72.5%

Deemed cost	£m	£m	£m	£m
To 31 March 2025	749.0	188.0	145.3	1,082.3
Capex to complete	-	0.3	-	0.3
Total	749.0	188.3	145.3	1,082.6

(1) We have changed the presentation of the portfolio summary this year, to show same stores and lease-up stores, rather than established and developing stores, and represented the comparative information accordingly. This new approach is consistent with other listed self storage businesses. The Big Yellow same stores are those that have reached 85% occupancy during a previous financial year. Should a store move categories in a year, we re-present the comparative information so the store is in the same category in both years. We opened a new freehold store at Slough Farnham Road during the year. After transferring its customers to the new Farnham Road store, we closed our leasehold Slough Whitby Road store during the year. The occupancy, net rent and capacity at the balance sheet date shows Slough Farnham Road within the same stores, as it was effectively a continuation of trade in a new location. The revenue and operating costs for the year for both stores are shown within same stores.

(2) See glossary in note 28.

(3) Rent paid for six short leasehold properties and five long leasehold properties

The table below reconciles Store EBITDA to gross profit in the statement of comprehensive income.

	Year ended 31 March 2025 £000			Year ended 31 March 2024 £000
	Store EBITDA	Reconciling items	Gross profit per statement of comprehensive income	Store EBITDA	Reconciling items	Gross profit per statement of comprehensive income
Store revenue/Revenue⁽⁴⁾	203,124	1,371	204,495	197,112	2,507	199,619
Cost of sales⁽⁵⁾	(57,565)	(4,561)	(62,126)	(51,830)	(4,164)	(55,994)
Rent⁽³⁾	(2,377)	2,377	-	(2,281)	2,281	-
	143,182	(813)	142,369	143,001	624	143,625

(4) See note 3 of the financial statements, reconciling item is non-storage income.

(5) See reconciliation in cost of sales section in Financial Review on page 16.

Reconciliation of APMs

The table below reconciles the reported figures above to the like-for-like metrics the Group reports:

Like-for-like revenue

	Year ended 31 March 2025 £000	Year ended 31 March 2024 £000
Store revenue ⁶	203,124	197,112
Less revenue from non like-for-like stores ⁶	(2,465)	(905)
Like-for-like revenue ⁶	200,659	196,207

Like-for-like store occupancy

	Year ended 31 March 2025	Year ended 31 March 2024
Store MLA (sq ft) ⁶	6,421,000	6,419,000
Less MLA from non like-for-like stores (sq ft) ⁶	(101,000)	(101,000)
Like-for-like MLA (sq ft) ⁶	6,320,000	6,318,000

Store occupancy (sq ft) ⁶	5,056,000	5,029,000
Less occupancy from non like-for-like (sq ft) ⁶	(59,000)	(36,000)
Like-for-like occupancy (sq ft) ⁶	4,997,000	4,993,000

Like-for-like occupancy (%) ⁶	79.1%	79.0%

(6) See glossary in note 28

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Revenue

Total revenue for the year was £204.5 million, an increase of £4.9 million (2%) from £199.6 million in the prior year. The increase in revenue for the year was impacted by lower rental income on our development sites as we obtained vacant possession; store revenue growth for the year was 3%. Like-for-like store revenue (see glossary in note 28) for the year was £200.7 million, an increase of 2% from the prior year (2024: £196.2 million).

In the prior year, we reported that revenue growth was highest in London stores, with our south east commuter and regional stores delivering a lower run-rate of revenue growth. In the current year, we have seen this reverse, with our commuter and regional stores delivering higher revenue growth than our London stores.

Included in store revenue is other storage related income, from the sale of packing materials, insurance/enhanced liability service ("ELS"), and storage related charges. This amounted to £23.7 million in the year (2024: £22.6 million), an increase of 5%. This is ahead of the overall store revenue increase after a focus on improving the average level of ELS cover we sell to customers and improving the amount we charge for add-on services.

The other revenue earned by the Group is tenant income on sites where we have not started development.

Operating costs

Cost of sales principally comprise the direct store operating costs, including store staff salaries, utilities, business rates, insurance, a full allocation of the central marketing budget and repairs and maintenance.

We saw moderating operating cost increases in the second half of the financial year. The like-for-like increase in store operating costs in the first half of the year was 10%; for the second half this figure was 4%, with an overall increase of 7% for the year. We are pleased to have significantly reduced our operating cost inflation in the second half and are targeting to achieve further improvement in the year ahead.

The table below shows the breakdown of our store operating costs compared to the prior year:

Category	Year ended 31 March 2025 £000	Year ended 31 March 2024 £000	Change	% of store operating costs in 2025
Cost of sales	1,422	1,519	-6%	2%
Staff costs	15,199	14,719	3%	26%
General & admin	1,646	1,534	7%	3%
Utilities	2,783	2,670	4%	5%
Property rates	20,856	18,153	15%	35%
Marketing	6,778	6,438	5%	11%
Repairs & maintenance	5,841	5,336	9%	10%
Insurance	3,394	3,323	2%	6%
Computer costs	1,193	1,031	16%	2%
Total before one-off items	59,112	54,723	8%
One-off items	(1,547)	(2,893)	(46%)
Total per portfolio summary	57,565	51,830	11%

Store operating costs have increased by £5.7 million (11%). The one-off items in the current year relate to rates rebates received in the year, with the prior year one-off items due to release of a provision for property rates from the 2017 rating list and a reassessment of the Group's bad debt provision. Store operating costs before these one-off items have increased by £4.4 million (8%) compared to the prior year. The additional operating expense from new stores accounted for £0.5 million in the year. The remaining increase is £3.9 million (7%), with commentary below:

- Cost of sales has reduced with slightly lower packing material sales in the year, and some savings on purchase costs.

- Staff costs have increased by £0.5 million (3%) with the salary review of on average 4.8% (including a higher increase to those at the lower end of the pay scale reflecting the rise in the national living wage). This increase has been partly offset by savings on headcount, as we drive efficiencies into the stores through automation.

- Our utilities expenditure continues to benefit from our investment in solar.

- Property rates have increased by £2.7 million (15%). The causes of this increase are the impact of new stores; the unwinding of taper relief from the introduction of the 2023 listing, and inflation applied to the multiplier which was set at 6.7%, based on the CPI print to September 2023. The rates payable for the next financial year will be based off the CPI to September 2024, which was 1.7%.

- Our marketing expense for the year was up 5%, mainly due to an increase in the PPC budget over the summer months to drive additional prospects in a softer demand environment. The total marketing spend represents 3.3% of revenue for the year.

- The repairs and maintenance expense has increased due to an additional investment in security in our stores, and an increase in solar panel maintenance costs, with higher numbers of stores now with solar PVs.

- Computer costs have increased by £0.2 million (16%), which reflects additional investment in systems to drive automation across the business.

- The Group's bad debt expense for the year was 0.2% of revenue, in line with the prior year. The Group has not seen any deterioration in its aged debtors' profile over recent months.

The table below reconciles store operating costs per the portfolio summary to cost of sales in the statement of comprehensive income:

	Year ended 31 March 2025 £000	Year ended 31 March 2024 £000
Direct store operating costs per portfolio summary (excluding rent)	57,565	51,830
Rent included in cost of sales (total rent payable is included in portfolio summary)	1,593	1,784
Depreciation charged to cost of sales	530	569
Costs associated with closure of Slough leasehold store	694	-
Head office and other operational management costs charged to cost of sales	1,744	1,811
Cost of sales per statement of comprehensive income	62,126	55,994

The Group incurred various costs associated with the closure of its Slough leasehold store in the year, including the cost of transferring customers to our new freehold Slough Farnham Road store, and the strip-out of the building before returning it to the landlord. These costs totalled £0.7 million and have been excluded from the Group's adjusted profit for the year, as they are a one-off item.

Store EBITDA

Store EBITDA for the year was £143.2 million, an increase of £0.2 million from £143.0 million for the prior year (see Portfolio Summary). The overall EBITDA margin for during the year was 70.5%, down from 72.5% in 2024, due to the increase in store operating costs discussed above.

All stores are currently trading profitably at the Store EBITDA level.

Administrative expenses

Administrative expenses in the statement of comprehensive income of £15.8 million were up £0.5 million (4%) compared to the prior year, slightly ahead of average inflation.

Other income

In February 2022 the Group experienced a fire at our Cheadle store, which resulted in a total loss to the store. We had insurance cover in place for both the fit-out and four years loss of income. The Group settled the claim with the insurers in the year and the resulting loss of income insurance proceeds received during the financial year was £4.0 million, which is included in other income (2024: £1.8 million). There will be no further amounts received in respect of this claim in the year ending 31 March 2026.

In the prior year the Group received £4.7 million, being the insurance proceeds for the fit-out of the Cheadle store. This amount was shown as other income in 2024 but not included in the Group's adjusted earnings for that year, as it relates to capital expenditure.

Interest expense on bank borrowings

The gross bank interest expense for the year was £23.3 million, a decrease of £2.4 million from the prior year, due to lower average debt levels, following the placing in October 2023, partly offset by a slightly higher average cost of debt following the increase in interest rates in the prior year. The average cost of borrowing during the year was 5.7% compared to 5.5% in the prior year. Our average cost of debt has now started to fall following the reduction in interest rates from August 2024.

Capitalised interest has risen significantly as we build out the stores in our development pipeline, and was £7.9 million, up from £3.3 million in the prior year.

Total finance costs in the statement of comprehensive income reduced to £15.9 million from £22.9 million in the prior year, due to the reduction in interest payable and the increase in capitalised interest.

Profit before tax

The Group made a profit before tax in the year of £203.9 million, compared to a profit of £241.0 million in the prior year. After adjusting for the gain on the revaluation of investment properties and other matters shown in the table below, the Group made an adjusted profit before tax in the year of £115.6 million, up 8% from £107.3 million in 2024.

Profit before tax analysis	2025 £000	2024 £000
Profit before tax	203,854	241,035
Gain on revaluation of investment properties	(79,667)	(131,159)
Movement in fair value on interest rate derivatives	(547)	2,146
Gain on disposal of non-current asset	(8,754)	-
Costs associated with closure of Slough leasehold store	694	-
Cheadle fit-out insurance proceeds	-	(4,723)
Adjusted profit before tax	115,580	107,299

The adjustments made to the Group's profit before tax follow guidance issued by EPRA, with additional Company specific adjustments made to give readers a clearer underlying picture of the Group's performance. EPRA profit before tax is disclosed in note 10.

The movement in the adjusted profit before tax from the prior year is illustrated in the table below:

	£m
Adjusted profit before tax - year ended 31 March 2024	107.3
Decrease in gross profit	(0.6)
Increase in administrative expenses	(0.5)
Increase in other income	2.3
Decrease in net interest payable	2.5
Increase in capitalised interest	4.6
Adjusted profit before tax - year ended 31 March 2025	115.6

Basic earnings per share for the year was 103.2p (2024: 127.1p) and diluted earnings per share was 102.8p (2024: 126.4p). Diluted adjusted earnings per share based on adjusted profit after tax was up 3% to 57.8p (2024: 55.9p) (see note 12).

REIT status

The Group is a Real Estate Investment Trust ("REIT") and therefore benefits from a zero tax rate on its qualifying self storage earnings. The Group only pays tax on the profits attributable to our residual business, comprising primarily of the sale of packing materials and insurance.

REIT status gives the Group exemption from UK corporation tax on profits and gains from its qualifying portfolio of UK stores. Revaluation gains on developments and our existing open stores are exempt from corporation tax on chargeable gains, provided certain criteria are met.

The Group has a rigorous internal system in place for monitoring compliance with criteria set out in the REIT regulations. On a monthly basis, a report on compliance with these criteria is issued to the Executive. To date, the Group has complied with all REIT regulations, including forward looking tests.

Taxation

There is a £2.5 million tax charge in the residual business for the year ended 31 March 2025 (2024: £2.3 million). The current year tax charge is partly offset in the income statement by an adjustment to the prior year tax estimate of £0.5 million (2024: prior year adjustment of £1.1 million).

Dividends

The Board is recommending the payment of a final dividend of 23.8 pence per share in addition to the interim dividend of 22.6 pence, giving a total dividend for the year of 46.4 pence, an increase of 3% from the prior year. The Group's policy is to distribute a minimum of 80% of our adjusted earnings per share in each reporting period.

REIT regulatory requirements determine the level of Property Income Distribution ("PID") payable by the Group. Based on the full year distributable reserves for PID purposes, a PID of 46.4p pence per share is payable (31 March 2024: 45.2 pence). The PID for the year to 31 March 2025 accounts for all of the declared dividend. The table below summarises the declared dividend for the year:

Dividend (pence per share)	31 March 2025	31 March 2024
Interim dividend	22.6p	22.6p

Final dividend	23.8p	22.6p

Total dividend	46.4p	45.2p

Subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 17 July 2025, the final dividend will be paid on 25 July 2025. The ex-div date is 3 July 2025 and the record date is 4 July 2025.

Cash flow growth

The Group is strongly cash generative and draws down from its longer term committed facilities as required to meet its obligations. The Group's cash flow from operating activities pre-working capital movements for the year was £111.9 million, an increase of 2% from £110.1 million in the prior year, with the growth in line with the increase in the Group's profitability in the year. These operating cash flows are after the ongoing maintenance costs of the stores, which were on average approximately £53,500 per store (2024: £49,000).

The Group's net debt has increased slightly over the year to £388.7 million (March 2024: £385.4 million).

There are distortive working capital items in the prior year, and therefore the summary cash flow below sets out the free cash flow pre-working capital movements

	Year ended 31 March 2025 £m	Year ended 31 March 2024 £m
Cash generated from operations pre-working capital movements	132.0	135.1
Net finance costs	(21.5)	(24.0)
Interest on obligations under lease liabilities	(0.6)	(0.6)
Loss of income insurance proceeds	4.0	1.6
Tax	(2.0)	(2.0)
Cash flow from operating activities pre-working capital movements	111.9	110.1
Working capital movements	2.6	(5.3)
Cash flow from operating activities	114.5	104.8
Capital expenditure	(58.3)	(30.9)
Disposal of non-current asset	30.6	5.4
Insurance proceeds on fit-out	-	4.7
Cash flow after investing activities	86.8	84.0
Ordinary dividends	(88.5)	(85.3)
Issue of share capital	0.8	108.0
Payment of lease liabilities	(1.8)	(1.8)
Loan arrangement fees paid	(0.6)	(3.7)
Increase/(decrease) in borrowings	2.7	(100.2)
Net cash (outflow)/inflow	(0.6)	1.0

The Group's interest cover for the period (expressed as the ratio of cash generated from operations pre-working capital movements against interest paid) was 6.1 times (2024: 5.6 times). This is calculated per below:

	31 March 2025 £000	31 March 2024 £000
Cash generated from operations pre working capital movements (see note 26)	131,999	135,086
Interest paid per cash flow statement	(21,657)	(24,069)
Interest cover	6.1x	5.6x

In the year capital expenditure outflows were £58.3 million, up from £30.9 million in the prior year. This capital expenditure was principally on the construction of new stores, and the continued roll-out of our solar retro-fit programme. We expect the amount of capital expenditure to increase next year, as we continue the build out of our pipeline. The disposal of non-current asset of £30.6 million relates to the proceeds from the sale of land adjacent to our Battersea store.

The cash flow after investing activities was a net inflow of £86.8 million, an increase of 3% from £84.0 million in the prior year.

Balance sheet

Property

The Group's open stores and stores under development owned at 31 March 2025, which are classified as investment properties, have all been valued individually by JLL.

The external valuation has resulted in an investment property asset value of £2,992.7 million, comprising £2,784.6 million (93%) for the freehold (including nine long leaseholds) open stores, £22.9 million (1%) for the short leasehold open stores and £185.2 million (6%) for the freehold investment properties under construction.

Investment property

The open store portfolio has increased in value by £78.8 million (3%). This increase in value arises from improvements in the cap rates on certain stores, and growth in the projected cash flows. The weighted average exit capitalisation rate used in the valuations was 5.2% in the current year, compared to 5.4% in the prior year.

Analysis of property portfolio	Value at 31 March 2025 £m	Revaluation movement in the year £m
Investment property	2,807.5	78.8
Investment property under construction	185.2	0.9
Investment property total	2,992.7	79.7

The table below provides a further breakdown of the open store valuations:

	Mature		Lease-up	Armadillo
	Freehold	Leasehold	Freehold	Largely Freehold	Total
Number of stores	73	4	8	24	109
MLA capacity (sq ft)	4,619,000	244,000	552,000	1,006,000	6,421,000
Valuation at 31 March 2025	£2,269.3m	£18.8m	£270.9m	£177.3m	£2,736.3m
Value per sq ft	£491	£77	£491	£176	£426
Net initial year one NOI yield	5.0%	17.2%	3.5%	5.9%	5.0%

The total store valuation in this table differs to the balance sheet due to the non-self storage investment property that the Group owns, such as the Harrow Industrial Scheme. The net initial year one NOI yield is 5.0% (2024: 5.2%). Note 15 contains more detail on the assumptions underpinning the valuations.

Investment property under construction

The Group spent £55.3 million on investment property under construction in the year, the majority of which was construction expenditure, with the only site acquisition in the year being Leamington Spa. Slough Farnham Road transferred to investment property during the year as the store opened. There was a revaluation surplus of £0.9 million on the investment property under construction in the year.

The projected net operating income of the increase in our total capacity of 1.0 million sq ft when stabilised is £32.5 million representing an approximate 15.3% return on the incremental capital deployed. On a proforma basis at stabilisation, the projected net operating income for the 13 new stores and one replacement store is £36.6 million, a return of approximately 8.7% on the total development cost of £422 million, including land already acquired.

Purchaser's cost adjustment

As in prior years, we have instructed an alternative valuation on our assets using a purchaser's cost assumption of 2.75% (see note 15 for further details) to be used in the calculation of our adjusted diluted net asset value. This Red Book valuation based on the special assumption of 2.75% purchaser's costs, results in a higher property valuation at 31 March 2025 of £3.11 billion (£116 million higher than the value recorded in the financial statements). This translates to 58.7 pence per share. This revised valuation translates into an adjusted net asset value per share of 1,355.6 pence (2024: 1,296.4 pence) after the dilutive effect of outstanding share options.

Receivables

The Group's bad debt expense in the year represented 0.2% of revenue compared to 0.2% in the prior year, with 81% of our customer base paying by direct debit (2024: 80%).

Net asset value

The adjusted net asset value is 1,355.6 pence per share (see note 13), an increase of 5% compared to 1,296.4 pence per share at 31 March 2024. The table below reconciles the movement:

Movement in adjusted net asset value	£m	Adjusted NAV pence per share
31 March 2024	2,561.9	1,296.4
Adjusted profit after tax	113.6	57.5
Equity dividends paid	(88.4)	(44.7)
Revaluation movements	79.7	40.3
Movement in purchaser's cost adjustment	5.0	2.5
Other movements (e.g. share schemes, gain on disposal)	10.3	3.6
31 March 2025	2,682.1	1,355.6

Borrowings

Our financing policy is to fund our current needs through a mix of debt, equity, and cash flow to allow us to build out, and add to, our development pipeline and achieve our strategic growth objectives, which we believe improve returns for shareholders. We aim to ensure that there are sufficient medium-term facilities in place to finance our committed development programme, secured against the freehold portfolio, with debt serviced by our strong operational cash flows. We maintain a keen watch on medium and long-term rates and the Group's policy in respect of interest rates is to maintain a balance between flexibility and hedging of interest rate risk.

The table below summarises the Group's debt facilities at 31 March 2025, with a current average cost of debt of 5.0% (March 2024: 5.4%).

Debt	Expiry	Facility	Drawn	Cost
Aviva Loan	September 2028	£152.5m	£152.5m	3.4%
M&G loan (£35 million fixed at 4.5%, £85 million floating)	September 2029	£120m	£120m	6.4%
Revolving bank facility (Lloyds, HSBC, and Barclays, floating)	December 2027 (option to extend for further year)	£300m	£125m	5.7%
Total	Average term 3.5 years	£572.5m	£397.5m	5.0%

In addition to the facilities above, the Group has a $225 million credit approved shelf facility with Pricoa Private Capital ("Pricoa"), to be drawn in fixed sterling notes. The Group can draw the debt in minimum tranches of £10 million over the next year with terms of between 7 and 15 years at short notice, typically 10 days.

The Group's £300 million RCF has incorporated Sustainability-linked KPIs into the loan, which include annual pre-agreed targets and are based on:

- reductions in Scope 1 and 2 emissions;

- increase in solar generation capacity;

- total annual grants to Big Yellow Foundation charity partners; and

- the value of storage space provided free of charge to local charities in our stores.

Performance against the KPIs is measured annually, with a margin decrease or increase applied to the headline margin. We are pleased to report that the Group met all the KPIs in the first year of the loan and is therefore benefitting from a 5bps margin reduction on the RCF.

The Group was comfortably in compliance with its banking covenants at 31 March 2025. Further details of the Group's covenants are provided in note 19 of the accounts. The Group's key financial ratios are shown in the table below:

Metric	31 March 2025	31 March 2024
Net Debt / Gross Property Assets	13%	13%
Net Debt / Adjusted Net Assets	14%	15%
Net Debt / Market Capitalisation	21%	18%
Net debt to Group EBITDA ratio	3.1x	3.0x
Cash generated from operations pre-working capital movements against interest paid	6.1x	5.6x

At 31 March 2025, the fair value on the Group's interest rate derivatives was a liability of £1.3 million. The Group does not hedge account its interest rate derivatives. The fair value movements are eliminated from adjusted profit before tax, adjusted earnings per share, and adjusted net assets per share. Cash deposits are only placed with approved financial institutions in accordance with the Group's Treasury policy.

Share capital

The share capital of the Company totalled £19.7 million at 31 March 2025 (2024: £19.6 million), consisting of 196,714,696 ordinary shares of 10p each (2024: 196,195,287 shares). 0.5 million shares were issued for the exercise of options during the year at an average exercise price of £12.60 (2024: 0.3 million shares at an average price of £10.77).

The Group holds 0.9 million shares within an Employee Benefit Trust ("EBT"). These shares are shown as a debit in reserves and are not included in calculating net asset value per share.

	2025 No.	2024 No.
Opening shares	196,195,287	184,265,973
Shares issued in placing	-	11,640,212
Shares issued for the exercise of options	519,409	289,102
Closing shares in issue	196,714,696	196,195,287
Shares held in EBT	(881,360)	(1,098,686)
Closing shares for NAV purposes	195,833,336	195,096,601

96.9 million shares were traded in the market during the year ended 31 March 2025 (2024: 111.2 million). The average mid-market price of shares traded during the year was £11.09 with a high of £13.36 and a low of £8.71.

Principal risks and uncertainties

The Directors have carried out a robust assessment of the emerging and principal risks facing the Group, including those that would threaten its business model, future performance, solvency, or liquidity. The Group maintains a low appetite to risk, in line with our strategic objectives of providing a low volatility, high distribution business.

The section below details the emerging and principal risks and uncertainties that are considered to have the most material impact on the Group's strategy and objectives. These key risks are monitored on an ongoing basis by the Executive Directors and considered fully by the Board in its annual risk review.

Risk and impact

Mitigation

Change during the year and outlook

Self storage market risk

There is a risk to the business that the self storage market does not grow in line with our projections, and that economic growth in the UK is below expectations, which could result in falling demand and a loss of income.

Self storage is a relatively immature market in the UK compared to other self storage markets such as the United States and Australia, and we believe has further opportunity for growth. Awareness of self storage and how it can be used by domestic and business customers is relatively low throughout the UK, although higher in London.

The rate of growth of branded self storage on main roads in good locations has historically been limited by the difficulty of acquiring sites at affordable prices and obtaining planning consent.

Our performance during the past five years has been resilient with revenue growing by 58% from £129.3 million in the year ended 31 March 2020 to £204.5 million for this year. We believe that this performance is due to a combination of factors including:

- a high quality and growing portfolio of freehold properties delivering higher operating margins;

- a focus on London and the South East and other large urban conurbations, where the drivers in the self storage market are at their strongest and the barriers to competition are at their highest;

- continuing innovation and automation;

- an inclusive and non-hierarchical culture with a highly engaged team;

- a focus on delivering the highest levels of customer service;

- delivering on our strong ESG commitments;

- the UK's leading self storage brand, with high and growing public awareness and online strength; and

- strong cash flow generation from a secure capital structure.

We have a large current storage customer base occupying approximately 73,000 rooms spread across the portfolio of stores and hundreds of thousands more who have used our stores over the years. In any month, customers move in and out at the margin resulting in changes in occupancy. This is a seasonal business and typically we see growth over the spring and the summer months, with the seasonally weaker period being the winter months.

The past three financial years have seen a challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic backdrop, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US regional banking crisis, the collapse of Credit Suisse, the conflict in the Middle East, the impact of rising inflation and interest rates, and more recently the imposition of tariffs by the United States.

Rising inflation and interest rates impacted the cost of living in the UK, and the level of housing transactions fell as the cost of mortgages increased.

The Group's activity levels have been impacted by this backdrop during the year and move-ins were down 1% compared to the prior year. The quarter to September was impacted by consumer hesitancy in the lead-up to the new government's Budget.

Inflation has moderated over the past twelve months and interest rates and mortgage costs have started to fall, however the impact of the proposed US tariffs has yet to fully play through.

We have seen some competitor openings in the year in our areas of operation, although the overall level of penetration of self storage in the UK remains significantly below that of the US and Australia.

Property risk

There is a risk that we will be unable to acquire new development sites which meet management's criteria. This would impact on our ability to grow the overall store platform.

Changing climate and resulting likely changes to planning restrictions will narrow choice of available sites further.

The Group is also subject to the risk of failing to obtain planning consents on its development sites, and the risk of a rising cost of development.

Planning approval is increasingly dependent on Social or Environmental enhanced features (e.g. social enterprise at Battersea, BREEAM standards, local planners demands for green spaces) - adding cost and complexity.

Our management has significant experience in the property industry generated over many years and in particular acquiring property on main roads in high profile locations and obtaining planning consents. We do take planning risk where necessary, although the availability of land, and competition for it makes acquiring new sites challenging.

Our in-house development team and our professional advisers have significant experience in obtaining planning consents for self storage centres.

We manage the construction of our properties very tightly, working with an established professional team of external advisers and sub-contractors who have worked with us for many years to our Big Yellow specification.

We carried out an external benchmarking of our construction costs and tendering programme during 2023, which reinforced our current approach, but also gave some areas where further efficiencies and cost savings can be achieved, which we have been implementing since then.

The Group has acquired 14 sites over the past six years, taking its total pipeline to 14 sites which, when opened, would expand the Group's current MLA by 16%.

The planning process remains difficult and to achieve a planning consent can take anything from eighteen months to three years. Local planning policy is favouring residential development over other uses, and we don't expect this to change given the shortage of housing in the UK.

We have planning consent on 10 of the 14 development sites and are currently on site at nine of these.

Valuation risk

The valuation of the Group's investment properties may fall due to external pressures or the impact of performance.

Lack of transactional evidence in the self storage sector leads to more subjective valuations.

The portfolio is diverse with approximately 73,000 rooms currently occupied in our stores for a wide variety of reasons.

The valuations are carried out by independent, qualified external valuers who have significant experience in the UK self storage industry.

The revaluation surplus on the Group's open store investment properties was £78.8 million in the year (an uplift of 3%), due to an improvement in cap rates following recent transactions in the sector and growth in underlying cash flows used in the valuations.

There have been several larger portfolio transactions across Europe over the past four years, notably including the acquisition of Lok 'n Store by Shurgard, which completed in August 2024 and there is a weight of institutional money looking to invest in self storage.

There is significant headroom on our loan to value banking covenants.

Treasury risk

The Group may face increased costs from adverse interest rate movements.

Our financing policy is to fund our current needs through a mix of debt, equity, and cash flow to allow us to selectively build out the remaining development pipeline and achieve our strategic growth objectives, which we believe improve returns for shareholders. We have made it clear that we believe optimal leverage for a business such as ours should be a debt to EBITDA ratio in the range of 3 to 4 times and this informs our management of treasury risk.

We aim to ensure that there are sufficient medium-term facilities in place to finance our committed development programme, secured against the freehold portfolio, with debt serviced by our strong operational cash flows.

We have a fixed rate loan in place from Aviva Commercial Finance Limited, with three and a half years remaining. The Group has a £120 million loan from M&G Investments, which is repayable in 2029. For our revolving credit facility, we borrow at floating rates of interest.

The Group has a $225 million credit approved shelf facility with Pricoa Private Capital ("Pricoa"), to be drawn in fixed sterling notes. The Group can draw the debt in minimum tranches of £10 million with terms of between 7 and 15 years at short notice, typically 10 days.

Our policy is to maintain a flexible borrowing structure, with a long-term average of approximately 50% of our total borrowings fixed, with the balance floating. At 31 March 2025 47% of the Group's total drawn borrowings were fixed or subject to interest rate derivatives. The Group reviews its current and forecast projections of cash flow, borrowing and interest cover as part of its monthly management accounts. In addition, an analysis of the impact of significant transactions is carried out regularly, as well as a sensitivity analysis assuming movements in interest rates and store occupancy on gearing and interest cover. This sensitivity testing underpins the viability statement below.

The Group regularly monitors its counterparty risk. The Group monitors compliance with its banking covenants closely. During the year it complied with all its covenants and is forecast to do so for the foreseeable future.

The Bank of England base rate has started to reduce during the year, with it currently at 4.25%, down from 5.25% at the start of our financial year.

53% of the Group's drawn debt is floating, and hence the Group has benefitted from these and any future reductions in the base rate.

Debt providers currently remain supportive to companies with a strong capital structure.

The Group's interest cover ratio for the year ended 31 March 2025 was 6.1 times, comfortably ahead of our banking covenants, as disclosed in note 19.

We keep our hedging arrangements under review and if the long-term cost of borrowing for durations of ten to twelve years falls, we will consider taking out more longer-term debt, which would increase the weighting of the fixed element.

Tax and regulatory risk

The Group is exposed to changes in the tax regime affecting the cost of corporation tax, property rates, VAT, Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Land Tax ("SDLT").

The Group is exposed to potential tax penalties or loss of its REIT status by failing to comply with the REIT legislation.

We regularly monitor proposed and actual changes in legislation with the help of our professional advisers, through direct liaison with HMRC, and through trade bodies to understand and, if possible, mitigate or benefit from their impact.

HMRC has designated the Group as having a low-risk tax status, and we hold regular meetings with them. We carry out detailed planning ahead of any future regulatory and tax changes using our expert advisers.

The Group has internal monitoring procedures in place to ensure that the appropriate REIT rules and legislation are complied with. To date all REIT regulations have been complied with, including projected tests.

The Group has seen a significant increase in its property rates bill over recent years, with the 2023 rating list reflecting the rise in industrial rents over the past few years, alongside higher levels of CPI inflating our cost. The rating list for 2026 will be published in the next few months, and the Group may experience a further increase in cost from this.

The corporation tax rate increased in April 2023, and there is a risk that tax rates will rise further in the medium-term to fund the increased government deficits that have arisen from the policy response to the pandemic.

The Group has also experienced an increase in cost from the recent rises in National Insurance and the National Living Wage. We have sought to mitigate the impact of these through reductions in store headcount as we continue our investment in automation.

Human resources risk

Our people are key to our success and as such we are exposed to a risk of high staff turnover, and a risk of the loss of key personnel.

We have developed a professional, lively, and enjoyable working environment and believe our success stems from attracting and retaining the right people. We encourage all our staff to build on their skills through appropriate training and regular performance reviews. We believe in an accessible and open culture and everyone at all levels is encouraged to review, and challenge accepted norms, to contribute to the performance of the Group.

The Group carried out an engagement survey of its employees during the prior year, which showed very pleasing results of the level of engagement of our teams.

We have listened to the feedback from our employees raised during our engagement survey and made several changes to the Group's operations, included reviewing and relaunching our Bright Ideas Suggestion Scheme, reviewing our salary bands for Store employees, and personal safety training having been provided for all team members within our stores. We also introduced a new Employee Assistance Programme, re-trained our Wellbeing Experts and set up a specific Wellbeing sub-site on our Intranet.

We are carrying out a full engagement survey in May 2025, and will report on the results of that in next year's annual report.

Brand and reputation risk

The Group is exposed to the risk of a single serious incident materially affecting our customers, people, financial performance and hence our brand and reputation, including the risk of a data breach.

We have always aimed to run this business in a professional way, which has involved strict adherence with all regulations that affect our business, such as health and safety legislation, building regulations in relation to the construction of our buildings, anti-slavery, anti-bribery, and data regulations.

We also invest in cyber security (discussed below), and make an ongoing investment in staff training, facilities management, and the maintenance of our stores.

We work closely with our key suppliers to ensure a consistency of service from them.

To ensure consistency of service and to understand the needs of our customers, we send surveys to every customer who moves in and moves out of the business. The results of the surveys and mystery shops are reviewed to continuously improve and deliver consistent performance throughout the business.

We experienced a fire caused by arson at our Armadillo Cheadle store in 2022. Our crisis response team worked effectively in managing the incident.

We maintain regular communication with our key stakeholders, customers, employees, shareholders, and debt providers.

The Group has a crisis response plan which was developed in conjunction with external consultants to ensure the Group is well placed to effectively deal with a major incident.

Security risk

The Group is exposed to the risk of the damage or loss of a store due to vandalism, fire, or natural incidents such as flooding. This may also cause reputational damage.

The safety and security of our customers, their belongings, stores, and our staff remains a key priority. To achieve this, we invest in state-of-the-art access control systems, individual room alarms, digital CCTV systems, intruder and fire alarm systems and the remote monitoring of all our stores outside of our trading hours. We are the only major operator in the UK self storage industry that has every room in every Big Yellow store individually alarmed.

We have implemented customer security procedures in line with advice from the Police and continue to work with the regulatory authorities on issues of security, reviewing our operational procedures regularly. The importance of security and the need for vigilance is communicated to all store staff and reinforced through training and routine operational procedures.

We have continued to run courses for all our staff to enhance the awareness and effectiveness of our procedures in relation to security.

We have further invested in security improvements in our stores during the year. We have also invested in additional automated reports and alerts which notify our overnight monitoring station and the operating team of suspicious customer activity.

We regularly review and implement improvements to our security processes and procedures.

Cyber risk

High profile cyber-attacks and data breaches are a regular staple in today's news. The results of any breach may result in reputational damage, fines, or customer compensation, causing a loss of market share and income.

The Group receives specialist advice and consultancy in respect of cyber security, and we have dedicated in-house monitoring and regular review of our security systems. We also limit the retention of customer data to the minimum requirement.

Policies and procedures are under regular review and benchmarked against industry best practice by our consultants. These policies also include defend, detect and response policies.

We don't consider the risk to have increased more for the Group than any other business; however, we consider that the threats in the entire digital landscape do continue to increase and evolve. As such we have continued to invest in cyber security upgrading or replacing components as required.

Climate change related risk

The Group is exposed to climate-change related transition and physical risks. Physical risks may affect the Group's stores and may result in higher maintenance and repair costs. Failing to transition to a low carbon economy may cause an increase in taxation, decrease in access to loan facilities and reputational damage.

The good working order of our stores is of critical importance to our business model.

We visually inspect each of our stores at least once per annum and planned and unplanned work is discussed immediately.

Maintenance requirements are discussed at budget reviews; proposals are made to raise climate change related issues to the Board, who may request more holistic adaptation work to be carried out.

The key mitigation strategy to address transitional risks is the delivery of our Net Renewable Energy Positive Strategy and the Net Zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 Emissions Strategy. Our investment to decarbonise our business over the next eight years is expected to mitigate fully against taxation (carbon tax) risk and reputational risks (both investors and customers).

Our Sustainability Committee, chaired by a Non-Executive Director, has delivered an ambitious strategic plan to 2032.

We appreciate that both physical and transition risks are expected to materialise to lesser or greater extents over the coming years and costs may go up gradually, hidden within what may be perceived as 'natural variations'. Our focus and strong governance will allow us to continue to mitigate the effects.

Internal audit

The Group employs a Head of Store Compliance responsible for reviewing store operational and financial controls. He reports to the Chief Financial Officer and meets with the Audit Committee at least once a year. This role is supported by three other team members, enabling additional work and support to be carried out across the Group's store portfolio. The Store Compliance team visits each operational store at least once every nine months to carry out a detailed store audit. These audits are unannounced, and the Store Compliance team carry out detailed tests on financial management, administrative standards, and operational standards within the stores. Part of the store staff's bonus is based on the scores they achieve in these audits. The results of each audit are reviewed by the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Operating Officer, the Financial Controller, and the Head of Store Operations. This is the equivalent of an internal audit function for the Group's store operations.

For the key business cycles conducted at the Group's head office, external consultants are used to review the Group's controls on a rotational basis. The consultants produce a report with recommendations which is discussed with management and reviewed by the Audit Committee. The cycles covered by this activity include construction expenditure, treasury, taxation, and facilities management.

During the year, the Group implemented new software to enable us to better capture risks and controls and implement a formal testing cycle ahead of the new Corporate Governance Code. With the assistance of external consultants, we performed a detailed walk through of key processes. We have developed a detailed Risk and Controls Matrix in these areas and documented the workflows. These are embedded in the software, and with reference to best practice will highlight any risks we can further develop controls around, or any controls that could be improved.

With the combination of the store internal audit process, the external assessment of the key business cycles, and the new software to manage and report on risks, the Audit Committee considers that this provides a robust internal audit assessment for the Group.

GOING CONCERN

A review of the Group's business activities, together with the factors likely to affect its future development, performance and position are set out in the Strategic Report. The financial position of the Group, its cash flows, liquidity position and borrowing facilities are shown in the balance sheet, cash flow statement and accompanying notes to the financial statements. Further information concerning the Group's objectives, policies, and processes for managing its capital; its financial risk management objectives; details of its financial instruments and hedging activities; and its exposures to credit risk and liquidity risk can be found in this Report and in the notes to the financial statements.

At 31 March 2025 the Group had available liquidity of approximately £184 million, from a combination of cash and undrawn bank debt facilities. The Group additionally has a $225 million credit approved shelf facility with Pricoa Private Capital to be drawn in fixed sterling notes. The Group can draw the debt in minimum tranches of £10 million with terms of between 7 and 15 years at short notice, typically 10 days. The Group is cash generative and for the year ended 31 March 2025, had cash flow from operating activities (after net finance costs and pre-working capital movements) of £111.9 million, with capital commitments at the balance sheet date of £77.5 million. The Group has net current liabilities at the balance sheet date and draws on its Revolving Credit Facility (current headroom of £175 million) as required, as it is inefficient for the Group to hold significant amounts of cash.

The Directors have prepared cash flow forecasts for a period of 18 months from the date of approval of these financial statements, considering the Group's operating plan and budget for the year ending 31 March 2026 and projections contained in the longer-term business plan which cover the 18 month going concern assessment period. After reviewing these projected cash flows together with the Group's and Company's cash balances, borrowing facilities and covenant requirements, and potential property valuation movements over that period, the Directors believe that, taking account of severe but plausible downsides, the Group and Company will have sufficient funds to meet their liabilities as they fall due for that period.

In making their assessment, the Directors have carefully considered the outlook for the Group's trading performance and cash flows as a result of the current economic environment, considering the trading performance of the Group over the recent dislocations in the global economy from Covid-19, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the impact of rising inflation. The Directors have also considered the performance of the business during the Global Financial Crisis. The Directors modelled several different scenarios, including material reductions in the Group's occupancy rates and property valuations, and assessed the impact of these scenarios against the Group's liquidity and the Group's banking covenants. The scenarios considered did not lead to breaching any of the banking covenants, and the Group retained sufficient liquidity to meet its financial obligations as they fall due.

Consequently, the Directors continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the Group and Company financial statements.

VIABILITY STATEMENT

The Directors have assessed the Group's viability over a four-year period to March 2029. This period is selected based on the Group's long-term strategic plan to give greater certainty over the forecasting assumptions used. As in the assessment of going concern, the Directors have modelled several different scenarios on the Group's future prospects.

In making their assessment, the Directors took account of the Group's current financial position, including committed capital expenditure. The Directors carried out a robust assessment of the emerging and principal risks and uncertainties facing the business, their potential financial impact on the Group's cash flows, REIT compliance and financial covenants and the likely effectiveness of the mitigating options detailed. The Directors have assumed that funding for the business in the form of equity, bank debt and debt provided by insurance companies will be available in all reasonably plausible market conditions. Whilst the eventual impact of the current economic environment on the Group is uncertain, and may not be known for some time, the Group has a highly cash generative business, good liquidity and has proved resilient in its trading in recent years.

Based on this assessment the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Company and the Group will be able to continue operating and meeting all their liabilities as they fall due to March 2029.

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

Year ended 31 March 2025

	Note	2025 £000	2024 £000

Revenue	3	204,495	199,619
Cost of sales		(62,126)	(55,994)

Gross profit		142,369	143,625

Administrative expenses		(15,763)	(15,219)

Operating profit before fair value changes on property assets		126,606	128,406
Gain on the revaluation of investment properties	14a,15	79,667	131,159
Gain on disposal of non-current asset	14a	8,754	-

Operating profit		215,027	259,565
Other income	3	4,047	6,517
Investment income - interest receivable	7	161	45
- fair value movement on derivatives		547	-
Finance costs - interest payable	8	(15,928)	(22,946)
- fair value movement on derivatives	8	-	(2,146)

Profit before taxation		203,854	241,035
Taxation	9	(1,963)	(1,202)

Profit for the year (attributable to equity shareholders)	5	201,891	239,833

Total comprehensive income for the year (attributable to equity shareholders)		201,891	239,833

Basic earnings per share	12	103.2p	127.1p

Diluted earnings per share	12	102.8p	126.4p

Adjusted earnings per share are shown in Note 12.

All items in the statement of comprehensive income relate to continuing operations.

Consolidated Balance Sheet

31 March 2025

	Note	2025 £000	2024* £000
Non-current assets
Investment property	14a	2,807,535	2,718,525
Investment property under construction	14a	185,225	146,485
Right-of-use assets	14a	15,651	17,152
Plant, equipment, and owner-occupied property	14b	3,813	3,870
Intangible assets	14c	1,433	1,433
Investment	14d	588	588

		3,014,245	2,888,053
Current assets
Inventories		437	486
Trade and other receivables	16	5,822	4,873
Cash and cash equivalents		8,765	9,356

		15,024	14,715

Total assets		3,029,269	2,902,768

Current liabilities
Trade and other payables	17	(52,109)	(44,153)
Borrowings	19	(3,483)	(3,317)
Obligations under lease liabilities	21	(1,857)	(2,253)
.
		(57,449)	(49,723)
Non-current liabilities
Borrowings	19	(389,769)	(386,371)
Obligations under lease liabilities	21	(15,222)	(16,474)
Derivative financial instruments	18c	(1,283)	(1,830)

		(406,274)	(404,675)

Total liabilities		(463,723)	(454,398)

Net assets		2,565,546	2,448,370

Equity
Share capital	22	19,671	19,620
Share premium account		398,444	397,686
Reserves		2,147,431	2,031,064

Equity shareholders' funds		2,565,546	2,448,370

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors and authorised for issue on 19 May 2025. They were signed on its behalf by

Jim Gibson, Director John Trotman, Director

Company Registration No. 03625199

* two balances have been netted down in the prior year balance sheet, see notes 16 and 17.

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

Year ended 31 March 2025

	Share capital £000	Share premium account £000	Other non-distributable reserve £000	Capital redemption reserve £000	Retained earnings £000	Own shares £000	Total £000

At 1 April 2024	19,620	397,686	74,950	1,795	1,955,316	(997)	2,448,370
Total comprehensive income for the year	-	-	-	-	201,891	-	201,891
Issue of share capital	51	758	-	-	-	-	809
Dividend	-	-	-	-	(88,379)	-	(88,379)
Use of own shares to satisfy share options	-	-	-	-	(198)	198	-
Credit to equity for equity-settled share-based payments	-	-	-	-	2,855	-	2,855

At 31 March 2025	19,671	398,444	74,950	1,795	2,071,485	(799)	2,565,546

The other non-distributable reserve arose in the year ended 31 March 2015 following the placing of 14.35 million ordinary shares.

The issue of share capital is net of expenses.

Year ended 31 March 2024

	Share capital £000	Share premium account £000	Other non-distributable reserve £000	Capital redemption reserve £000	Retained earnings £000	Own shares £000	Total £000

At 1 April 2023	18,427	290,857	74,950	1,795	1,797,436	(1,019)	2,182,446
Total comprehensive income for the year	-	-	-	-	239,833	-	239,833
Issue of share capital	1,193	106,829	-	-	-	-	108,022
Dividend	-	-	-	-	(86,013)	-	(86,013)
Use of own shares to satisfy share options	-	-	-	-	(22)	22	-
Credit to equity for equity-settled share-based payments	-	-	-	-	4,082	-	4,082

At 31 March 2024	19,620	397,686	74,950	1,795	1,955,316	(997)	2,448,370

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

Year ended 31 March 2025

	Note	2025 £000	2024 £000
Cash generated from operations	26	134,623	129,826
Bank interest paid		(21,657)	(24,069)
Interest on obligations under lease liabilities		(557)	(575)
Interest received		142	45
Loss of income insurance proceeds		4,047	1,561
Tax paid		(2,024)	(1,996)

Cash flows from operating activities		114,574	104,792

Investing activities
Purchase of non-current assets		(58,258)	(30,910)
Disposal of non-current asset		30,591	5,400
Insurance proceeds on fit-out		-	4,722

Cash flows from investing activities		(27,667)	(20,788)

Financing activities
Issue of share capital		809	108,022
Payment of lease liabilities		(1,816)	(1,829)
Equity dividends paid		(88,542)	(85,259)
Loan arrangement fees paid		(632)	(3,752)
Increase/(decrease) in borrowings	26b	2,683	(100,159)

Cash flows used in financing activities		(87,498)	(82,977)

Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents		(591)	1,027

Opening cash and cash equivalents		9,356	8,329

Closing cash and cash equivalents		8,765	9,356

Notes to the financial statements

Year ended 31 March 2025

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Big Yellow Group PLC is a Company incorporated in the United Kingdom under the Companies Act 2006, with registration number 03625199, and limited by shares. The address of the registered office is 2 The Deans, Bridge Road, Bagshot, Surrey, GU19 5AT. The nature of the Group's operations and its principal activities are set out in note 4 and in the Strategic Report.

2. SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparation of financial statements

The financial information set out above does not constitute the Group and Company's statutory accounts for the years ended 31 March 2025 or 2024 but is derived from those accounts. Statutory accounts for 2024 have been delivered to the registrar of companies, and those for 2025 will be delivered in due course. The auditor has reported on those accounts; their reports were (i) unqualified, (ii) did not include a reference to any matters to which the auditor drew attention by way of emphasis without qualifying their report and (iii) did not contain a statement under section 498 (2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

The Group's financial statements have been prepared in accordance with UK-adopted international accounting standards ("IFRS Standards") and in relation to the parent company financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (including FRS 101). The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. The Group has applied all relevant accounting standards which have been endorsed by the International Accounting Standards Board and have been applied consistently year on year.

The Group uses a number of APMs to monitor the performance of the business. Adjusted profit before tax and adjusted earnings per share are the Group's primary profit measures and reflect underlying profit by excluding capital and non-recurring items such as revaluation movements, gains or losses on the disposal of properties and the fair value movement of interest derivatives in accordance with EPRA guidelines. In addition, the Group adjusts for items such as the write off of acquisition costs, and fair value movements on the stepped acquisition of associates. These adjusted measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as substitutes for, or superior to the financial measures prepared in accordance with IFRS.

3. REVENUE

Analysis of the Group's operating revenue can be found below and in the Portfolio Summary on page 13.

	2025 £000	2024 £000

Open stores
Self storage income	177,823	173,147
Enhanced liability service income	18,563	17,649
Packing materials income	2,815	2,854
Other income from storage customers	2,285	2,051
Ancillary store rental income	1,638	1,411
Total store revenue	203,124	197,112

Non-storage income	1,371	2,507

Total revenue	204,495	199,619

Non-storage income derives principally from rental income earned from tenants of properties awaiting development.

The Group has also earned other income of £4.0 million in the year (2024: £6.5 million). This relates to insurance proceeds for loss of income following the destruction of the Group's Cheadle store by fire in 2022, with the claim having been settled with the insurers in the current year (2024: £1.8 million). This has been included in the Group's adjusted profit before tax for the year as it is current period earnings, and the income the insurance proceeds are replacing would have also been included in the Group's adjusted profit before tax for the year. The balance of £4.7 million in the prior year is the insurance proceeds for the fit-out of the Cheadle store.

The Group has considered IFRS 17 in respect of our sale of the Enhanced Liability Service, and concluded any impact from IFRS 17 would be immaterial.

4. SEGMENTAL INFORMATION

IFRS 8 requires operating segments to be identified on the basis of internal reports about components of the Group that are regularly reviewed by the Chief Executive to allocate resources to the segments and to assess their performance. Given the nature of the Group's business, there is one segment, which is the provision of self storage and related services.

Revenue represents amounts derived from the provision of self storage and related services which fall within the Group's ordinary activities after deduction of trade discounts and value added tax. The Group's non-current assets, revenue and profit before tax are attributable to one activity, the provision of self storage and related services. These all arise in the United Kingdom in the current year and prior year.

5. PROFIT FOR THE YEAR

a) Profit for the year has been arrived at after charging/(crediting):

	Note	2025 £000	2024 £000

Depreciation of plant, equipment, and owner-occupied property	14b	837	864
Depreciation of interest in leasehold properties		1,624	1,707
Gain on the revaluation of investment property		(79,667)	(131,159)
Cost of inventories recognised as an expense		1,310	1,411
Employee costs	6	25,826	25,250

b) Analysis of auditor's remuneration:

	2025 £000	2024 £000

Fees payable to the Company's auditor for the audit of the Company's annual accounts	587	539
Fess payable to the Company's auditor for the subsidiaries' annual accounts	54	54

Total audit fees	641	593

Audit related assurance services - interim review	65	64

Total non-audit fees	65	64

Total audit and non-audit fees paid to KPMG LLP	706	657

6. EMPLOYEE COSTS

The average monthly number of full-time equivalent employees (including Executive Directors) was:

	2025 Number	2024 Number

Sales	396	402
Administration	63	62

	459	464

At 31 March 2025 the total number of Group employees was 485 (2024: 503). The average number of employees for the year was 496 (2024: 504).

	2025 £000	2024 £000
Their aggregate remuneration comprised:
Wages and salaries	19,138	18,647
Social security costs	2,981	1,692
Other pension costs	852	829
Share-based payments	2,855	4,082

	25,826	25,250

7. INVESTMENT INCOME

	2025 £000	2024 £000

Bank interest receivable	161	45
Fair value movement on derivatives	547	-
Total investment income	708	45

8. FINANCE COSTS

	2025 £000	2024 £000

Interest on bank borrowings	23,269	25,624
Capitalised interest	(7,898)	(3,254)
Interest on obligations under lease liabilities	557	575
Other interest payable	-	1

Total interest payable	15,928	22,946

Fair value movement on derivatives	-	2,146
Total finance costs	15,928	25,092

9. TAXATION

As a REIT, the Group does not pay UK corporation tax on the profits and gains from its qualifying rental business in the UK provided that it meets certain conditions. Non-qualifying profits and gains of the Group are subject to corporation tax as normal. The Group monitors its compliance with the REIT conditions. There have been no breaches of the conditions to date.

UK current tax	2025 £000	2024 £000
- Current year	2,504	2,270
- Prior year	(541)	(1,068)
	1,963	1,202

A reconciliation of the tax charge is shown below:

	2025 £000	2024 £000
Profit before tax	203,854	241,035
Tax charge at 25% (2024 - 25%) thereon	50,964	60,259
Effects of:
Revaluation of investment properties	(19,917)	(32,790)
Other permanent differences	(8)	111
Utilisation of brought forward losses	-	(284)
Profits from the tax-exempt business	(28,535)	(25,026)
Current year tax charge	2,504	2,270
Prior year adjustment	(541)	(1,068)
Total tax charge	1,963	1,202

The prior year adjustment arose due to prudent assumptions made during the assessment of the corporation tax provision for the prior year accounts. On completion of the tax computations for the year, the actual charge for the year ended 31 March 2024 was £0.5 million lower than had been provided in the accounts (2024: £1.1 million lower).

At 31 March 2025 the Group has unutilised tax losses from the non-REIT taxable business of £34.2 million (2024: £33.1 million) available for offset against certain types of future taxable profits. All losses can be carried forward indefinitely. The losses have not been recognised as a deferred tax asset, as there is no certainty over their future use.

10. ADJUSTED PROFIT

	2025 £000	2024 £000

Profit before tax	203,854	241,035
Gain on revaluation of investment properties	(79,667)	(131,159)
Gain on disposal of non-current asset	(8,754)	-
Change in fair value of interest rate derivatives	(547)	2,146
EPRA adjusted profit before tax	114,886	112,022
Cheadle fit-out insurance proceeds	-	(4,723)
Costs associated with closure of Slough leasehold store	694	-
Adjusted profit before tax	115,580	107,299
Tax	(1,963)	(1,202)
Adjusted profit after tax	113,617	106,097

Adjusted profit before tax which excludes gains and losses on the revaluation of investment properties, changes in fair value of interest rate derivatives, net gains and losses on disposal of investment property, and material non-recurring items of income and expenditure have been disclosed as, in the Board's view, this provides a clearer understanding of the Group's underlying trading performance.

11. DIVIDENDS

	2025 £000	2024 £000
Amounts recognised as distributions to equity holders in the year:
Final dividend for the year ended 31 March 2024 of 22.6p (2023: 22.9p) per share.	44,135	41,939
Interim dividend for the year ended 31 March 2025 of 22.6p (2024: 22.6p) per share.	44,244	44,074
	88,379	86,013
Proposed final dividend for the year ended 31 March 2025 of 23.8p (2024: 22.6p) per share.	46,608	44,135

Subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 17 July 2025, the final dividend will be paid on 25 July 2025. The ex-div date is 3 July 2025 and the record date is 4 July 2025.

The Property Income Distribution ("PID") payable for the year is 46.4 pence per share (2024: 45.2 pence per share).

12. EARNINGS PER SHARE

	Year ended 31 March 2025			Year ended 31 March 2024
	Earnings £m	Shares million	Pence per share	Earnings £m	Shares million	Pence per share
Basic	201.9	195.6	103.2	239.8	188.7	127.1
Dilutive share options	-	0.8	(0.4)	-	1.1	(0.7)
Diluted	201.9	196.4	102.8	239.8	189.8	126.4
Adjustments:
Gain on revaluation of investment properties	(79.7)	-	(40.6)	(131.2)	-	(69.1)
Gain on disposal of non-current asset	(8.7)	-	(4.5)	-	-	-
Change in fair value of interest rate derivatives	(0.6)	-	(0.3)	2.2	-	1.1
EPRA earnings	112.9	196.4	57.4	110.8	189.8	58.4

Cheadle fit-out insurance proceeds	-	-	-	(4.7)	-	(2.5)
Costs associated with closure of Slough leasehold store	0.7	-	0.4	-	-	-
Adjusted - diluted	113.6	196.4	57.8	106.1	189.8	55.9

Adjusted - basic	113.6	195.6	58.1	106.1	188.7	56.2

The calculation of basic earnings is based on profit after tax for the year. The weighted average number of shares used to calculate diluted earnings per share has been adjusted for the conversion of share options.

EPRA earnings and adjusted earnings per ordinary share have been disclosed to give a clearer understanding of the Group's underlying trading performance.

13. NET ASSETS PER SHARE

EPRA's Best Practices Recommendations guidelines for Net Asset Value (NAV) metrics are EPRA Net Tangible Assets (NTA), EPRA Net Reinstatement Value (NRV) and EPRA Net Disposal Value (NDV).

EPRA NTA is considered to be most consistent with the nature of Big Yellow's business which provides sustainable long-term progressive returns. EPRA NTA is shown in the table below. This measure is further adjusted by the adjustment the Group makes for purchaser's costs, which is the Group's Adjusted Net Asset Value (or Adjusted NAV).

Net assets per share are equity shareholders' funds divided by the number of shares at the year end. The shares currently held in the Group's Employee Benefit Trust are excluded from both net assets and the number of shares. Adjusted net assets per share include the effect of those shares issuable under employee share option schemes and the effect of alternative valuation methodology assumptions (see note 15).

	Year ended 31 March 2025			Year ended 31 March 2024
	Equity attributable to ordinary shareholders £000	Shares	Pence per share	Equity attributable to ordinary shareholders £000	Shares	Pence per share
Basic NAV	2,565,546	195,833,336	1,310.1	2,448,370	195,096,601	1,255.0
Share and save as you earn schemes	584	2,022,198	(13.6)	2,019	2,515,556	(15.0)
Diluted NAV	2,566,130	197,855,534	1,297.0	2,450,389	197,612,157	1,240.0
Fair value of derivatives	1,283	-	0.6	1,830	-	0.9
Intangible assets	(1,433)	-	(0.7)	(1,433)	-	(0.7)
EPRA NTA	2,565,980	197,855,534	1,296.9	2,450,786	197,612,157	1,240.2
Valuation methodology assumption (see note 15) (£000)	116,110	-	58.7	111,095	-	56.2
Adjusted NAV	2,682,090	197,855,534	1,355.6	2,561,881	197,612,157	1,296.4

14. NON-CURRENT ASSETS

a) Investment property, investment property under construction and right-of-use assets

	Investment property £000	Investment property under construction £000	Right-of-use assets £000	Total £000

At 31 March 2023	2,449,640	260,720	18,148	2,728,508
Additions	13,705	15,126	604	29,435
Transfer on opening	115,166	(115,166)	-	-
Reclassification from plant, equipment and owner-occupied property	-	60	-	60
Disposal	(5,400)	-	-	(5,400)
Revaluation	145,414	(14,255)	-	131,159
Depreciation	-	-	(1,600)	(1,600)

At 31 March 2024	2,718,525	146,485	17,152	2,882,162
Additions	14,955	55,280	101	70,336
Transfer on opening	17,394	(17,394)	-	-
Disposal	(22,152)	-	(112)	(22,264)
Revaluation (see note 15)	78,813	854	-	79,667
Depreciation	-	-	(1,490)	(1,490)

At 31 March 2025	2,807,535	185,225	15,651	3,008,411

The right-of-use assets represent the present value of minimum lease payments for leasehold properties that meet the definition of IAS 40 and are accounted for as investment properties - see note 21 for further details of the obligations under lease liabilities. The fair value of the leasehold properties (including long leaseholds), on which the Group pays rent, of £72.3 million (2024: £78.4 million) is included within the investment property total.

The transfer on opening during the year is our Slough Farnham Road store moving from investment property under construction to investment property.

The disposal in the prior year is the proceeds from a land swap transaction at our Kings Cross store realising the Group £5.4 million. The disposal of investment property in the current year was the sale of land adjacent to our Battersea store for £30.9 million for residential development. The gain on disposal of non-current assets is shown in the comprehensive statement of income and has been excluded from the Group's adjusted profit before tax for the year.

The income from self storage accommodation earned by the Group from its investment property is disclosed in note 3. Direct operating expenses, which are all applied to generating rental income, arising on the investment property in the year are disclosed in the Portfolio Summary on page 13. Included within additions is £7.9 million of capitalised interest (2024: £3.3 million), calculated at the Group's average borrowing cost for the year of 5.7%. 96 of the Group's investment properties are pledged as security for loans, with a total external value of £2.39 billion.

The difference between additions to investment property above and the purchase of non-current assets in the cash flow statement is principally due to capitalised interest of £7,898,000 and payables relating to our construction programme at the balance sheet date of £4,104,000.

b) Plant, equipment, and owner-occupied property

	Freehold property £000	Leasehold improve-ments £000	Plant and machinery £000	Motor vehicles £000	Fixtures, fittings & office equipment £000	Right of use assets £000	Total £000
Cost
At 31 March 2023	2,406	59	647	32	1,691	875	5,710
Reclassification to investment property under construction	(60)	-	-	-	-	-	(60)
Retirement of fully depreciated assets	-	-	(133)	-	(686)	-	(819)
Additions	23	-	255	-	516	131	925

At 31 March 2024	2,369	59	769	32	1,521	1,006	5,756
Retirement of fully depreciated assets	-	-	(98)	(32)	(560)	-	(690)
Additions	80	-	79	40	722	-	921
Disposals	-	-	(7)	-	(15)	-	(22)

At 31 March 2025	2,449	59	743	40	1,668	1,006	5,965

Depreciation
At 31 March 2023	(682)	(20)	(210)	(32)	(340)	(423)	(1,707)
Retirement of fully depreciated assets	-	-	133	-	686	-	819
Charge for the year	(50)	(4)	(181)	-	(629)	(134)	(998)

At 31 March 2024	(732)	(24)	(258)	(32)	(283)	(557)	(1,886)
Retirement of fully depreciated assets	-	-	98	32	560	-	690
Charge for the year	(51)	(3)	(176)	(6)	(601)	(134)	(971)
Disposals	-	-	4	-	11	-	15

At 31 March 2025	(783)	(27)	(332)	(6)	(313)	(691)	(2,152)

Net book value
At 31 March 2025	1,666	32	411	34	1,355	315	3,813

At 31 March 2024	1,637	35	511	-	1,238	449	3,870

c) Intangible assets

The intangible asset relates to the Big Yellow brand, which was acquired through the acquisition of Big Yellow Self Storage Company Limited in 1999. The carrying value remains unchanged from the prior year as there is considered to be no impairment in the value of the asset. The asset has an indefinite life and is tested annually for impairment or more frequently if there are indicators of impairment.

d) Investment

The Group has a £0.6 million investment in Doncaster Security Operations Centre Limited, a company which provides out-of-hours monitoring and alarm receiving services, including for the Group's stores. The investment is carried at cost and tested annually for impairment.

15. VALUATION OF INVESTMENT PROPERTY

	Deemed cost £000	Revaluation on deemed cost £000	Valuation £000
Freehold (including long leasehold)
At 31 March 2024	1,078,305	1,608,045	2,686,350
Transfer from investment property under construction	18,681	(1,287)	17,394
Disposals	(22,152)	-	(22,152)
Movement in year	14,741	88,302	103,043
At 31 March 2025	1,089,575	1,695,060	2,784,635

Leasehold
At 31 March 2024	20,898	11,277	32,175
Movement in year	214	(9,489)	(9,275)
At 31 March 2025	21,112	1,788	22,900

Total investment property
At 31 March 2024	1,099,203	1,619,322	2,718,525
Transfer from investment property under construction	18,681	(1,287)	17,394
Disposals	(22,152)	-	(22,152)
Movement in year	14,955	78,813	93,768
At 31 March 2025	1,110,687	1,696,848	2,807,535

Investment property under construction
At 31 March 2024	178,761	(32,276)	146,485
Transfer to investment property	(18,681)	1,287	(17,394)
Movement in year	55,280	854	56,134
At 31 March 2025	215,360	(30,135)	185,225

Valuation of all investment property
At 31 March 2024	1,277,964	1,587,046	2,865,010
Disposals	(22,152)	-	(22,152)
Movement in year	70,235	79,667	149,902
At 31 March 2025	1,326,047	1,666,713	2,992,760

The Group has classified the fair value investment property and the investment property under construction within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy. There has been no transfer to or from Level 3 in the year.

The Group's freehold and leasehold investment properties have been valued at 31 March 2025 by external valuers, Jones Lang Lasalle ("JLL"). The Valuation has been prepared in accordance with the version of the RICS Valuation - Global Standards (incorporating the International Valuation Standards) and the UK national supplement ("the Red Book") current as at the valuation date. The valuation of each of the investment properties and the investment properties under construction has been prepared on the basis of either Fair Value or Fair Value as a fully equipped operational entity, having regard to trading potential, as appropriate.

The valuation has been provided for financial reporting purposes and as such, is a Regulated Purpose Valuation as defined in the Red Book. In compliance with the disclosure requirements of the Red Book, JLL have confirmed that:

· this is JLL's fourth annual valuation for these purposes on behalf of the Group;

· JLL do not provide other significant professional or agency services to the Group;

· in relation to the preceding financial year of JLL, the proportion of the total fees payable by the Group to the total fee income of the firm is less than 5%; and

· the fee payable to JLL is a fixed amount per asset and is not contingent on the appraised value.

The self storage properties have been valued on the basis of Fair Value as fully equipped operational entities, having regard to trading potential. Due to the specialised nature and use of the buildings the approach is to adopt a profits method of valuation in an explicit Discounted Cash Flow calculation and then consider the results in the context of recent comparable evidence of transactions in the sector.

The profits method requires an estimate of the future cash flow that can be generated from the use of the building as a self storage facility, assuming a reasonably efficient operator. Judgements are made as to the trading potential and likely long term sustainable occupancy. Stable occupancy depends upon the nature of demand, size of property and nearby competition, and allows for a reasonable vacancy rate to enable the operator to sell units to new customers. The cash flow runs for an explicit period of 10 years, after which it is capitalised at an all risks yield which reflects the implicit future growth of the business, or a hypothetical sale. This is a valuer's shortcut: maintaining the cash flow into perpetuity would provide the same result. The comparison with recent transactions requires the evidence to be considered in terms of the multiple on net operating profit (or EBITDA/EBITDAR), value per square foot, yield profile etc and then adjusted to reflect differences in location, building factors, tenure, trading maturity and trading risk.

This mirrors the typical approach of purchasers in the self storage market. However, in view of the relatively limited availability of comparable market evidence this requires a degree of valuer judgment. In particular, most of the transactions have comprised share sales due to the nature of the asset class and the terms of those transactions have mostly been kept confidential between the parties.

Portfolio Premium

JLL's valuation report confirms that the properties have been valued individually but that if the portfolio was to be sold as a single lot or in selected groups of properties, the total value could differ. JLL state that in current market conditions they are of the view that there could be a portfolio premium.

Assumptions

A. Net operating income is based on projected revenue received less projected operating costs, which include a management fee to take account of central/head office costs. The initial net operating income is calculated by estimating the net operating income in the first 12 months following the valuation date.

B. The net operating income in future years is calculated assuming either straight-line absorption from day one actual occupancy or variable absorption over years one to five of the cash flow period, to an estimated stabilised/mature occupancy level. In the valuation the assumed stabilised occupancy level for the 109 trading stores (both freeholds and leaseholds) open at 31 March 2025 averages 87% (31 March 2024: 88%). The projected revenues and costs have been adjusted for estimated cost inflation and revenue growth.

C. The future rental growth incorporated into the valuation averages 2.3% per annum (2024: 2.5% per annum)

D. The capitalisation rates applied to existing and future net cash flow have been estimated by reference to underlying yields for asset types such as industrial, distribution and retail warehousing, yields for other trading property types such as student housing and hotels, bank base rates, ten-year money rates, inflation and the available evidence of transactions in the sector. The valuation included in the accounts assumes rental growth in future periods. The net initial yield for the 109 stores is 5.0% (31 March 2024: 5.2%). The weighted average exit capitalisation rate adopted (for both freeholds and leaseholds) is 5.2% (31 March 2024: 5.4%).

E. The future net cash flow projections (including revenue growth and cost inflation) have been discounted at a rate that reflects the risk associated with each asset. The weighted average annual discount rate adopted (for both freeholds and leaseholds) is 6.7% (31 March 2024: 7.1%).

F. Purchaser's costs of 6.8% have been adopted reflecting current progressive Stamp Duty Land Tax rates.

Short leasehold

The same methodology has been used as for freeholds, but the exit capitalisation rate is adjusted to reflect the unexpired lease term at exit. The average unexpired term of the Group's five short leasehold properties is 11.4 years (31 March 2024: 10.4 years unexpired).

Sensitivities

Self storage valuations are complex, derived from data which is not widely publicly available and involve a degree of judgement. For these reasons we have classified the valuations of our property portfolio as Level 3 as defined by IFRS 13. Inputs to the valuations, some of which are 'unobservable' as defined by IFRS 13, include capitalisation yields, stable occupancy rates, and rental growth rates. The existence of an increase of more than one unobservable input would augment the impact on valuation. The impact on the valuation could be mitigated by the inter-relationship between unobservable inputs moving in opposite directions. For example, an increase in stable occupancy may be offset by an increase in yield, resulting in no net impact on the valuation. A sensitivity analysis showing the impact on the investment property valuation of changes in yields and stable occupancy is shown below:

	Impact of a change in capitalisation rates		Impact of a change in stabilised occupancy assumption
	25 bps decrease	25 bps increase	1% increase	1% decrease
2025	4.9%	(4.5%)	1.0%	(1.1%)
2024	4.8%	(4.4%)	0.9%	(1.0%)

A sensitivity analysis has not been provided for a change in the rental growth rate adopted as there is a relationship between this measure and the discount rate adopted. So, in theory, an increase in the rental growth rate could give rise to a corresponding increase in the discount rate and the resulting value impact would be limited.

Investment properties under construction

JLL have valued the stores in development adopting the same methodology as set out above but on the basis of the cash flow projection expected for the store at opening and after allowing for the outstanding costs to take each scheme from its current state to completion and full fit-out. JLL have allowed for holding costs and construction contingency, as appropriate. Three of the schemes valued do not yet have planning consent and JLL have reflected the planning risk in their valuation. The cost to complete for the investment property under construction amounts to £218.2 million (2024: £214.4 million).

Valuation assumption for purchaser's costs

The Group's investment property assets have been valued for the purposes of the financial statements after deducting notional weighted average purchaser's cost of 6.8% on the net value, as if they were sold directly as property assets. The valuation is an asset valuation which is entirely linked to the operating performance of the business. The assets would have to be sold with the benefit of operational contracts, employment contracts and customer contracts, which would be very difficult to achieve except in a corporate structure. This approach follows the logic of the valuation methodology in that the valuation is based on a capitalisation of the net operating income after allowing a deduction for operational cost and an allowance for central administration costs. Sale in a corporate structure would result in a reduction in the assumed Stamp Duty Land Tax but an increase in other transaction costs reflecting additional due diligence resulting in a reduced notional purchaser's cost of 2.75% of gross value. All the significant sized transactions that have been concluded in the UK in recent years were completed in a corporate structure. The Group therefore instructed JLL to carry out an additional valuation on the above basis, and this results in a higher property valuation at 31 March 2025 of £3,108.9 million (£116.1 million higher than the value recorded in the financial statements) translating to 58.7 pence per share. We have included this revised valuation in the adjusted diluted net asset calculation (see note 13).

Valuer rotation

On 19 October 2023 the RICS published guidelines on a new time-limited, mandatory rotation cycle for regulated purposes valuations. Rules are effective from 1 May 2024, and require, after a two-year transition period, a valuation firm to be rotated after 10 consecutive years of valuing a given asset. These guidelines match our existing voluntary policy of 10 yearly valuation rotation, therefore our planned valuer rotation cycle remains unchanged.

16. TRADE AND OTHER RECEIVABLES

	31 March 2025 £000	31 March 2024* £000
Current
Trade receivables	1,580	1,007
Other receivables	505	312
Prepayments and accrued income	3,737	3,554

	5,822	4,873

* - the prior year trade receivables balance has been reduced by £5,243,000 with an equal adjustment to deferred income to remove amounts that relate to post year end activity.

Trade receivables are net of a bad debt provision of £622,000 (2024: £579,000). The Directors consider that the carrying amount of trade and other receivables approximates their fair value.

Trade receivables

The Group does not typically offer credit terms to its customers, requiring them to pay in advance of their storage period and hence the Group is not exposed to significant credit risk. A late charge of 10% is applied to a customer's account if they are more than 10 days overdue in their payment. The Group provides for receivables on a specific basis. There is a right of lien over the customers' goods, so if they have not paid within a certain time frame, we have the right to sell the items they store to recoup the debt owed. Trade receivables that are overdue are provided for based on estimated irrecoverable amounts determined by reference to past default experience.

For individual storage customers, the Group does not perform credit checks, however this is mitigated by the fact that these customers are required to pay in advance, and also to pay a deposit ranging from one week to four weeks' storage income. Before accepting a new national customer, the Group uses an external credit rating to assess the potential customer's credit quality and defines credit limits by customer. There are no customers who represent more than 5% of the total balance of trade receivables.

Included in the Group's trade receivables balance are debtors with a carrying amount of £771,000 (2024: £782,000) which are past due at the reporting date for which the Group has not provided as there has not been a significant change in credit quality and the amounts are still considered recoverable. The average age of these receivables is 15 days past due (2024: 18 days past due).

The creation and release of credit loss allowances have been included in cost of sales in the income statement.

The Group measures the loss allowance for the trade receivables at an amount equal to lifetime expected credit loss. The expected credit losses on trade receivables are estimated using a provision matrix by reference to past default experience of the debtor.

The Group writes off a trade receivable when there is information indicating that the debtors are in severe financial difficulty and there is no realistic prospect of recovery, e.g. when the debtor has been placed under liquidation or has entered into bankruptcy proceedings.

The following table details the risk profile of trade receivables based on the Group's provision matrix:

Year ended 31 March 2025	Not past due	<31 days	31-45 days	>45 days	Total
Expected credit loss rate (%)	2.0%	33.5%	34.7%	50.0%	28.2%
Gross carrying amount (£000)	814	468	72	848	2,202
Lifetime ECL (£000)	(16)	(157)	(25)	(424)	(622)

Net trade receivables at 31 March 2025	798	311	47	424	1,580

Year ended 31 March 2024	Not past due	<31 days	31-45 days	>45 days	Total
Expected credit loss rate (%)	3.3%	43.3%	25.4%	52.8%	36.5%
Gross carrying amount (£000) (restated)	457	155	63	911	1,586
Lifetime ECL (£000)	(15)	(67)	(16)	(481)	(579)

Net trade receivables at 31 March 2024	442	88	47	430	1,007

The above balances are short term and therefore the difference between the book value and the fair value is not significant. Consequently, these have not been discounted.

Movement in the credit loss allowance

	2025 £000	2024 £000
Balance at the beginning of the year	579	1,070
Amounts provided/(released) in year	326	(192)
Amounts written off as uncollectible	(283)	(299)

Balance at the end of the year	622	579

The concentration of credit risk is limited due to the customer base being large and unrelated. Accordingly, the Directors believe that there is no further credit provision required in excess of the credit loss allowance.

17. TRADE AND OTHER PAYABLES

	31 March 2025 £000	31 March 2024* £000
Current
Trade payables	9,006	2,437
Other payables	14,624	18,166
Accruals and deferred income	28,479	23,550

	52,109	44,153

* - the prior year deferred income balance has been reduced by £5,243,000 with an equal adjustment to trade receivables to remove amounts that relate to post year end activity.

The Group has financial risk management policies in place to ensure that all payables are paid within the credit terms. The Directors consider the carrying amount of trade and other payables and accruals and deferred income approximates fair value. The main items within other payables are VAT, customer deposits and withholding tax on the PID.

The Group invoices its customers in advance, and hence any deferred income balance primarily relates to amounts paid by customers for rental periods beyond the balance sheet date. The Group's deferred income balance at 31 March 2025 was £13.1 million, an increase of 5% from 31 March 2024 (£12.5 million).

Within trade payables is £4,104,000 of invoices relating to the Group's construction programme (2024: £394,000).

18. FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

The Group manages its capital to ensure that entities in the Group will be able to continue as going concerns while maximising the return to stakeholders through the optimisation of the debt and equity balance. The capital structure of the Group consists of debt, which includes the borrowings disclosed in note 19, cash and cash equivalents and equity attributable to equity holders of the parent, comprising issued capital, reserves and retained earnings.

With the exception of derivative instruments which are classified as a financial liability at fair value through the statement of comprehensive income, financial liabilities are categorised under amortised cost. The Group has the following classes of financial assets:

· Trade and other receivables - trade receivables are initially recognised at transaction price. Other receivables are initially recognised at fair value. Subsequently these assets are measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method, less provision for expected credit losses.

· Cash and cash equivalents - cash and cash equivalents represent only liquid assets with maturity of 90 days or less. Bank overdrafts that cannot be offset against other cash balances are shown with borrowings in current liabilities on the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents are also classified as amortised cost. They are subsequently measured at amortised cost. Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits at call with banks, and other short term highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less.

Exposure to credit and interest rate risks arise in the normal course of the Group's business. Derivative financial instruments are used to manage exposure to fluctuations in interest rates but are not employed for speculative purposes.

A. Balance sheet management

The Group's Board reviews the capital structure on an ongoing basis. As part of this review, the Board considers the cost of capital and the risks associated with each class of capital. The Group seeks to have a conservative gearing ratio (the proportion of net debt to equity). The Board considers at each review the appropriateness of the current ratio in light of the above. The Board is currently satisfied with the Group's gearing ratio.

The gearing ratio at the year-end is as follows:

	2025 £000	2024 £000
Debt	(397,451)	(394,768)
Cash and cash equivalents	8,765	9,356
Net debt	(388,686)	(385,412)
Balance sheet equity	2,565,546	2,448,370
Net debt to equity ratio	15.2%	15.7%

B. Debt management

The Group currently borrows through a senior term loan, secured on 61 self storage assets, a loan with Aviva Commercial Finance Limited secured on a portfolio of 20 self storage assets, a £120 million loan from M&G Investments Limited secured on a portfolio of 15 self storage assets. The Group also has a $225 million shelf facility available from Pricoa Private Capital (see note 19). Borrowings are arranged to ensure an appropriate maturity profile and to maintain short-term liquidity. Funding is arranged through banks and financial institutions with whom the Group has a strong working relationship.

C. Interest rate risk management

The Group is exposed to interest rate risk as entities in the Group borrow funds at both fixed and floating interest rates. The risk is managed by the Group by maintaining an appropriate mix between fixed and floating rate borrowings, and by the use of interest rate swap contracts. Hedging activities are evaluated regularly to align with interest rate views and defined risk appetite; ensuring optimal hedging strategies are applied, by either positioning the balance sheet or protecting interest expense through different interest rate cycles.

At 31 March 2025 the Group had one interest rate derivative in place - £35 million fixed at 4.5% (excluding the margin on the underlying debt instrument) until September 2029.

Under interest rate swap contracts, the Group agrees to exchange the difference between fixed and floating rate interest amounts calculated on agreed notional principal amounts. Such contracts enable the Group to mitigate the risk of changing interest rates on the fair value of issued fixed rate debt held and the cash flow exposures on the issued variable rate debt held. The fair value of interest rate swaps at the reporting date is determined by discounting the future cash flows using the curves at the reporting date and the credit risk inherent in the contract and is disclosed below. The average interest rate is based on the outstanding balances at the end of the financial year.

The £35 million interest rate swap settles on a three-monthly basis. The floating rate on the interest rate swap is three month SONIA. The Group settles the difference between the fixed and floating interest rate on a net basis.

The Group does not hedge account for its interest rate swaps and states them at fair value, with changes in fair value included in the statement of comprehensive income. A reconciliation of the movement in derivatives is provided in the table below:

	2025 £000	2024 £000
At 1 April	(1,830)	316
Fair value movement in the year	547	(2,146)
At 31 March	(1,283)	(1,830)

The interest rate derivative liability is shown within non-current liabilities at the year end, as the interest rate derivative expires in 2029. The tables below reconcile the opening and closing balances of the Group's finance related liabilities for the current and prior year:

	Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost		Financial liabilities measured at fair value
	Loans £000	Obligations under lease liabilities £000	Interest rate derivatives £000	Total £000
At 1 April 2024	(394,768)	(18,727)	(1,830)	(415,325)
Cash movement in the year	(2,683)	1,816	-	(867)
Lease variations	-	(168)	-	(168)
Fair value movement	-	-	547	547
At 31 March 2025	(397,451)	(17,079)	(1,283)	(415,813)

The difference between the loans balance above and the balance sheet is loan arrangement fees of £4,199,000.

	Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost		Financial liabilities measured at fair value
	Loans £000	Obligations under lease liabilities £000	Interest rate derivatives £000	Total £000
At 1 April 2023	(494,927)	(19,696)	316	(514,307)
Cash movement in the year	100,159	1,829	-	101,988
Lease variations	-	(860)	-	(860)
Fair value movement	-	-	(2,146)	(2,146)
At 31 March 2024	(394,768)	(18,727)	(1,830)	(415,325)

The difference between the loans balance above and the balance sheet is loan arrangement fees of £5,080,000

D. Interest rate sensitivity analysis

In managing interest rate risks the Group aims to reduce the impact of short-term fluctuations on the Group's earnings, without jeopardising its flexibility. Over the longer term, permanent changes in interest rates may have an impact on consolidated earnings. At 31 March 2025, it is estimated that an increase of 0.25 percentage points in interest rates would have reduced the Group's adjusted profit before tax and net equity by £525,000 (2024: reduced adjusted profit before tax by £510,000) and a decrease of 0.25 percentage points in interest rates would have increased the Group's adjusted profit before tax and net equity by £525,000 (2024: increased adjusted profit before tax by £510,000). The sensitivity has been calculated by applying the interest rate change to the variable rate borrowings, net of interest rate swaps, at the year end.

The Group's sensitivity to interest rates has increased slightly during the year, following the increase in the amount of floating rate debt. The Board monitors closely the exposure to the floating rate element of our debt.

E. Cash management and liquidity

Ultimate responsibility for liquidity risk management rests with the Board of Directors, who have built an appropriate liquidity risk management framework for the management of the Group's short, medium, and long-term funding and liquidity management requirements. The Group manages liquidity risk by maintaining adequate reserves, banking facilities and reserve borrowing facilities by continuously monitoring forecast and actual cash flows and matching the maturity profiles of financial assets and liabilities. Included in note 19 is a description of additional undrawn facilities that the Group has at its disposal to further reduce liquidity risk.

Short term money market deposits are used to manage liquidity whilst maximising the rate of return on cash resources, giving due consideration to risk.

F. Foreign currency management

The Group does not have any foreign currency exposure.

G. Credit risk

The credit risk management policies of the Group with respect to trade receivables are discussed in note 16. The Group has no significant concentration of credit risk, with exposure spread over 73,000 occupied rooms in our stores.

The credit risk on liquid funds is limited because the counterparties are banks with high credit-ratings assigned by international credit-rating agencies.

H. Financial maturity analysis

In respect of interest-bearing financial liabilities, the following table provides a maturity analysis for individual elements.

2025 Maturity

	Total £000	Less than one year £000	One to two years £000	Two to five years £000	More than five years £000
Debt
Aviva loan	152,451	3,483	3,658	145,310	-
M&G loan payable at variable rate	85,000	-	-	85,000	-
M&G loan fixed by interest rate derivatives	35,000	-	-	35,000	-
Bank loan payable at variable rate	125,000	-	-	125,000	-
Total	397,451	3,483	3,658	390,310	-

2024 Maturity

	Total £000	Less than one year £000	One to two years £000	Two to five years £000	More than five years £000
Debt
Aviva loan	155,768	3,317	3,483	148,968	-
M&G loan payable at variable rate	85,000	-	-	-	85,000
M&G loan fixed by interest rate derivatives	35,000	-	-	-	35,000
Bank loan payable at variable rate	119,000	-	-	119,000	-
Total	394,768	3,317	3,483	267,968	120,000

I. Fair values of financial instruments

The fair values of the Group's cash and short-term deposits and those of other financial assets equate to their book values. Details of the Group's receivables at amortised cost are set out in note 16. The amounts are presented net of provisions for doubtful receivables, and allowances for impairment are made where appropriate. Trade and other payables, including bank borrowings, are carried at amortised cost. Obligations under lease liabilities are included at the present value of their minimum lease payments. Derivatives are carried at fair value.

For those financial instruments held at valuation, the Group has categorised them into a three-level fair value hierarchy based on the priority of the inputs to the valuation technique in accordance with IFRS 7. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3). If the inputs used to measure fair value fall within different levels of the hierarchy, the category level is based on the lowest priority level input that is significant to the fair value measurement of the instrument in its entirety. The fair value of the Group's outstanding interest rate derivatives, as detailed in note 18C, have been estimated by calculating the present value of future cash flows, using appropriate market discount rates, representing Level 2 fair value measurements as defined by IFRS 7. There are no financial instruments which have been categorised as Level 1 or Level 3. The fair value of the Group's debt equates to its book value.

J. Maturity analysis of financial liabilities

The contractual maturities based on market conditions and expected yield curves prevailing at the year-end date are as follows:

2025	Trade and other payables £000	Interest rate swaps £000	Borrowings and interest £000	Obligations under lease liabilities £000	Total £000
From five to twenty years	-	-	-	20,315	20,315
From two to five years	-	(485)	429,640	3,067	432,222
From one to two years	-	(232)	28,528	1,878	30,174

Due after more than one year	-	(717)	458,168	25,260	482,711
Due within one year	23,630	(131)	23,465	1,878	48,842

Total	23,630	(848)	481,633	27,138	531,553

2024	Trade and other payables £000	Interest rate swaps £000	Borrowings and interest £000	Obligations under lease liabilities £000	Total £000
From five to twenty years	-	(98)	124,225	20,784	144,911
From two to five years	-	(1,089)	309,503	3,247	311,661
From one to two years	-	(195)	30,000	2,279	32,084

Due after more than one year	-	(1,382)	463,728	26,310	488,656
Due within one year	20,603	106	24,520	2,279	47,508

Total	20,603	(1,276)	488,248	28,589	536,164

K. Reconciliation of maturity analyses

The maturity analysis in note 18J shows non-discounted cash flows for all financial liabilities including interest payments. The table below reconciles the borrowings column in note 19 with the borrowings and interest column in the maturity analysis presented in note 18J.

2025	Borrowings £000	Interest £000	Unamortised borrowing costs £000	Borrowings and interest £000
From five to twenty years	-	-	-	-
From two to five years	390,310	35,131	4,199	429,640
From one to two years	3,658	24,870	-	28,528

Due after more than one year	393,968	60,001	4,199	458,168
Due within one year	3,483	19,982	-	23,465

	397,451	79,983	4,199	481,633

2024	Borrowings £000	Interest £000	Unamortised borrowing costs £000	Borrowings and interest £000
From five to twenty years	120,000	3,673	552	124,225
From two to five years	267,968	37,007	4,528	309,503
From one to two years	3,483	26,517	-	30,000

Due after more than one year	391,451	67,197	5,080	463,728
Due within one year	3,317	21,203	-	24,520

Total	394,768	88,400	5,080	488,248

19. BORROWINGS

Secured borrowings at amortised cost	31 March 2025 £000	31 March 2024 £000
Current liabilities
Aviva loan	3,483	3,317
	3,483	3,317
Non-current liabilities
Bank borrowings	125,000	119,000
Aviva loan	148,968	152,451
M&G loan	120,000	120,000
Unamortised loan arrangement costs	(4,199)	(5,080)

Total non-current borrowings	389,769	386,371

Total borrowings	393,252	389,688

The weighted average interest rate paid on the borrowings during the year was 5.7% (2024: 5.5%).

The Group has £175 million in undrawn committed bank borrowing facilities at 31 March 2025, which expire after between two and three years (2024: £181 million expiring after between two and three years).

The Group has a £152.5 million fixed rate loan with Aviva Commercial Finance Limited, expiring in September 2028. The loan is secured over a portfolio of 20 freehold self storage centres. The annual fixed interest rate on the loan is 3.3%. The loan has an amortising element of £7.5 million which runs to April 2027.

The Group has a secured £300 million Sustainability-linked revolving bank facility with Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays expiring in December 2027, with a margin of 1.25%. The Group has the option to extend the facility by a further one-year term through to December 2028, subject to lender approval

The Group has a £120 million loan with M&G Investments Limited, with a bullet repayment in September 2029. The loan is secured over a portfolio of 15 freehold self storage centres.

In addition to the facilities above the Group has a $225 million credit approved shelf facility with Pricoa Private Capital ("Pricoa"), to be drawn in fixed sterling notes. The Group can draw the debt in minimum tranches of £10 million over the next year with terms of between 7 and 15 years at short notice.

The movement in the Group's loans are shown net in the cash flow statement as the bank loan is a revolving facility and is repaid and redrawn each month. The movement has been shown net in the cash flow statement. The other Group loans are not revolving, and any movements in those loans are disclosed in a footnote to note 26b.

The Group was in compliance with its banking covenants at 31 March 2025 and throughout the year. As stated in the going concern review, we forecast compliance with our covenants going forward. We therefore do not consider it likely that these loans would become repayable within 12 months. The principal covenants are summarised in the table below:

Covenant	Covenant level	At 31 March 2025
Consolidated EBITDA to net finance costs	Minimum 1.5x	6.1x
Consolidated net tangible assets	Minimum £500m	£2,565.5m
Bank loan interest cover	Minimum 1.75x	9.0x
Net debt to EBITDA ratio	Maximum 8x	3.1x
Aviva loan interest service cover ratio	Minimum 1.5x	6.4x
Aviva loan debt service cover ratio	Minimum 1.2x	3.9x
M&G interest cover	Minimum 1.5x	2.8x

The Consolidated EBITDA covenant is calculated by dividing the consolidated EBITDA generated by the Group's stores by the Group's consolidated net finance costs.

The bank loan interest cover, the Aviva loan interest service cover ratio and the M&G interest cover covenants are calculated by dividing the EBITDA generated by each loan's security pool by the interest payable for each loan for each defined time period. The Aviva loan debt service cover ratio is calculated by taking the EBITDA generated by the Aviva security pool and dividing by the Aviva loan interest payable and facility amortisation. The Aviva and M&G loans consolidated net tangible assets covenant is a minimum of £250 million.

Interest rate profile of financial liabilities

	Total £000	Floating rate £000	Fixed rate £000	Weighted average interest rate	Period for which the rate is fixed	Weighted average period until maturity
At 31 March 2025
Gross financial liabilities	397,451	210,000	187,451	5.0%	3.6 years	3.5 years

At 31 March 2024
Gross financial liabilities	394,768	204,000	190,768	5.4%	4.6 years	4.2 years

All monetary liabilities, including short-term receivables and payables are denominated in sterling. The weighted average interest rate includes the effect of the Group's interest rate derivatives. The Directors have concluded that the carrying value of borrowings approximates to its fair value.

Narrative disclosures on the Group's policy for financial instruments are included within the Strategic Report and in note 18.

20. DEFERRED TAX

Deferred tax assets in respect of share based payments £0.2 million (2024: £0.1 million), corporation tax losses £6.5 million (2024: £6.2 million), capital allowances in excess of depreciation £0.1 million (2024: £0.1 million) and capital losses £2.1 million (2024: £2.1 million) in respect of the non-REIT taxable business have not been recognised as it is not considered probable that sufficient taxable profits will arise in the relevant taxable entity. The unused tax losses can be carried forward indefinitely.

21. OBLIGATIONS UNDER LEASE LIABILITIES

	Minimum lease payments		Present value of minimum lease payments
	2025 £000	2024 £000	2025 £000	2024 £000
Amounts payable under lease liabilities:
Within one year	1,878	2,279	1,857	2,253
Between one and five years inclusive	4,945	5,526	4,533	5,112
Greater than five years	20,315	20,784	10,689	11,362

	27,138	28,589	17,079	18,727

Less: future finance charges	(10,059)	(9,862)

Present value of lease liabilities	17,079	18,727

All obligations under lease liabilities are denominated in sterling. Interest rates are fixed at the contract date. All leases are on a fixed repayment basis and no arrangements have been entered into for contingent rental payments. The carrying amount of the Group's lease obligations approximates their fair value.

22. SHARE CAPITAL

	Called up, allotted, and fully paid
	2025 £000	2024 £000

Ordinary shares of 10 pence each	19,671	19,620

Movement in issued share capital
Number of shares at 31 March 2023		184,265,973
Issues of shares - placing		11,640,212
Exercise of share options - Share option schemes		289,102
Number of shares at 31 March 2024		196,195,287
Exercise of share options - Share option schemes		519,409
Number of shares at 31 March 2025		196,714,696

The share capital of the Company consists only of fully paid ordinary shares with a nominal (par) value of £0.10 per share. There are no restrictions on the ability of shareholders to receive dividends, nor on the repayment of capital. All ordinary shares are equally eligible to receive dividends and the repayment of capital in accordance with the Company's Articles of Association and represent one vote at shareholders' meetings of the Company.

At 31 March 2025 options in issue to Directors and employees were as follows:

Date option Granted	Option price per ordinary share	Type of option	Date first exercisable	Date on which the exercise period expires	Number of ordinary shares 2025	Number of ordinary shares 2024
21 July 2015	nil p	LTIP	21 July 2018	21 July 2025	239	989
22 July 2016	nil p	LTIP	22 July 2019	21 July 2026	1,415	1,415
2 August 2017	nil p	LTIP	2 August 2020	2 August 2027	2,320	9,217
24 July 2018	nil p	LTIP	24 July 2021	24 July 2028	1,552	53,697
19 July 2019	nil p	LTIP	19 July 2022	19 July 2029	16,824	148,587
5 August 2020	nil p	LTIP	5 August 2023	5 August 2030	101,814	189,504
1 March 2021	903.2p	SAYE	1 April 2024	1 October 2024	-	77,395
22 July 2021	nil p	LTIP	22 July 2024	22 July 2031	130,662	285,440
21 July 2022	nil p	LTIP	21 July 2025	21 July 2032	412,863	425,523
8 August 2022	1060.3p	SAYE	1 September 2025	1 March 2026	45,660	57,665
20 July 2023	nil p	LTIP	20 July 2026	19 July 2033	570,838	590,931
1 August 2023	891.5p	SAYE	1 September 2026	1 March 2027	65,553	79,382
18 July 2024	nil p	LTIP	18 July 2027	17 July 2034	548,499	-
10 July 2024	945.1p	SAYE	1 September 2027	1 March 2028	80,726	-

					1,978,965	1,919,745

Own shares

The own shares reserve represents the cost of shares in Big Yellow Group PLC purchased in the market and held by the Big Yellow Group PLC Employee Benefit Trust, along with shares issued directly to the Employee Benefit Trust. 881,360 shares are held in the Employee Benefit Trust (2024: 1,098,686), and no shares are held in treasury.

23. SHARE-BASED PAYMENTS

The Company has three equity share-based payment arrangements, namely an LTIP scheme (with approved and unapproved components), an Employee Share Save Scheme ("SAYE") and a Deferred Bonus Plan. The Group recognised a total expense in the year related to equity-settled share-based payment transactions of £2,855,000 (2024: £4,082,000).

Equity-settled share option plans

Since 2004 the Group has operated an Employee Share Save Scheme ("SAYE") which allows any employee who has more than six months service to purchase shares at a 20% discount to the average quoted market price of the Group shares at the date of grant. The associated savings contracts are three years at which point the employee can exercise their option to purchase the shares or take the amount saved, including interest, in cash. The scheme is administered by Globalshares.

On an annual basis since 2004 the Group awarded nil-paid options to senior management under the Group's Long Term Incentive Plan ("LTIP"). The awards are conditional on the achievement of challenging performance targets as described in the Remuneration Report. The weighted average share price at the date of exercise for options exercised in the year was £12.60 (2024: £10.77).

LTIP scheme	2025 No. of options	2024 No. of options
Outstanding at beginning of year	1,705,303	1,350,147
Granted during the year	566,193	678,088
Lapsed during the year	(41,171)	(72,932)
Exercised during the year	(443,299)	(250,000)

Outstanding at the end of the year	1,787,026	1,705,303

Exercisable at the end of the year	254,826	403,409

The weighted average fair value of options granted during the year was £1,708,000 (2024: £1,564,000).

Participants pay the nominal value of the shares when exercising options under the LTIP scheme.

Options outstanding at 31 March 2025 had a weighted average contractual life of 8.0 years (2024: 7.8 years).

Employee Share Save Scheme ("SAYE")	2025 No. of options	2025 Weighted average exercise price (£)	2024 No of options	2024 Weighted average exercise price (£)
Outstanding at beginning of year	214,442	£9.41	196,661	9.71
Granted during the year	86,354	£9.45	82,656	8.91
Forfeited during the year	(32,747)	£9.63	(25,773)	9.99
Exercised during the year	(76,110)	£9.01	(39,102)	9.47
Outstanding at the end of the year	191,939	£9.54	214,442	9.41

Exercisable at the end of the year	-	-	-	-

Options outstanding at 31 March 2025 had a weighted average contractual life of 2.0 years (2024: 1.7 years).

The inputs into the Black-Scholes model for the options granted during the year are as follows:

	LTIP	SAYE
Expected volatility	n/a	26%
Expected life	3 years	3 years
Risk-free rate	0%	4.08
Expected dividends	4.1%	5.5%

Expected volatility was determined by calculating the historical volatility of the Group's share price over the year prior to grant.

Deferred bonus plan

The Executive Directors receive awards under the Deferred Bonus Plan. This is accounted for as an equity instrument. The plan was set up in July 2018. The vesting criteria and scheme mechanics are set out in the Directors' Remuneration Report.

24. CAPITAL COMMITMENTS

At 31 March 2025 the Group had £77.5 million of amounts contracted but not provided in respect of the Group's properties (2024: £3.9 million of capital commitments).

25. EVENTS AFTER THE BALANCE SHEET DATE

In April 2025 the Group acquired a development site in Coventry for £2.5 million.

26. CASH FLOW NOTES

a) Reconciliation of profit after tax to cash generated from operations

	Note	2025 £000	2024 £000
Profit after tax		201,891	239,833
Taxation		1,963	1,202
Other income	3	(4,047)	(6,517)
Investment income		(708)	(45)
Finance costs		15,928	25,092
Operating profit		215,027	259,565

Gain on the revaluation of investment properties	14a, 15	(79,667)	(131,159)
Gain on disposal of non-current asset	14a	(8,754)	-
Depreciation of plant, equipment, and owner-occupied property	14b	837	864
Depreciation of right-of-use assets	14a,14b	1,701	1,734
Employee share options	6	2,855	4,082
Cash generated from operations pre working capital movements		131,999	135,086

Decrease in inventories		49	10
Increase in receivables		(1,024)	(1,650)
Increase/(decrease) in payables		3,599	(3,620)
Cash generated from operations		134,623	129,826

b) Reconciliation of net cash flow movement to net debt

	Note	2025 £000	2024 £000

Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents in the year		(591)	1,027
Cash flow from (increase)/decrease in debt financing¹		(2,683)	100,159
Change in net debt resulting from cash flows		(3,274)	101,186

Movement in net debt in the year		(3,274)	101,186
Net debt at the start of the year		(385,412)	(486,598)
Net debt at the end of the year	18A	(388,686)	(385,412)

¹ Made up of a net increase of £6.0 million in the RCF facility and repayments of the Aviva facility of £3.3 million (2024: Made up of a net decrease of £97.0 million in the RCF facility and repayments of the Aviva facility of £3.2 million).

27. RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Transactions between the Company and its subsidiaries, which are related parties, have been eliminated on consolidation and are not disclosed in this note.

AnyJunk Limited

Jim Gibson is a Non-Executive Director and shareholder in AnyJunk Limited. During the year AnyJunk Limited provided waste disposal services to the Group on normal commercial terms, amounting to £25,000 (2024: £17,000). At 31 March 2025 a balance of £3,000 was included in trade payables for amounts owing to AnyJunk Limited (2024: £nil).

London Children's Ballet

The Group signed a Section 106 agreement with Wandsworth Council relating to the development of our Battersea store, which required the Group to provide cultural space to Wandsworth Borough Council. In 2021, the Group granted a twenty year lease over this space to London Children's Ballet at a peppercorn rent, who in turn have agreed to enter into a Social Agreement with Wandsworth Borough Council coterminous with the lease. Jim Gibson is the Chairman of Trustees of the London Children's Ballet. London Children's Ballet rent storage space from the Group on normal commercial terms, amounting to £4,000 during the year (2024: £4,000). The Group sponsored a London Children's Ballet development programme during the year, amounting to £8,000 (2024: £8,000).

Doncaster Security Operations Centre Limited ("DSOC")

The Group has invested £588,000 in DSOC. DSOC provided alarm and CCTV monitoring services to the Group under normal commercial terms during the year, amounting to £358,000 (2024: £319,000). At 31 March 2025 a balance of £nil was included in trade payables for amounts owing to DSOC (2024: £95,000).

Treepoints Limited

Jim Gibson is a Non-Executive Director and an investor in City Stasher Limited, which in turn has a minority investment in Treepoints Limited. Treepoints Limited provided offsetting tree planting services in respect of our online packing material sales, under normal commercial terms during the period, amounting to £2,000 (2024: £2,000). At 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2024 there were no amounts included in trade payables for amounts owing to Treepoints Limited.

Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway UK

Nicholas Vetch and Heather Savory are trustees of a charity called Ukrainian Sponsorship Pathway UK ("USPUK") to help Ukrainians displaced by the war to travel to the UK as part of the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme. The charity has set up offices in Warsaw and Krakow and is one of the few that has been recognised for this purpose by the UK Government. In the prior year the Board approved a donation of £50,000 (2025: £nil). In the current year, the Group has provided free office space to USPUK worth £10,000 (2024: £nil).

Landmark Trust and Ruth Strauss Foundation

Dr Anna Keay is the CEO of the Landmark Trust and Vince Niblett is a Trustee of the Ruth Strauss Foundation. During the year the Company provided free storage to the Landmark Trust and the Ruth Strauss Foundation with a total value of £10,000 (2024: £9,000).

No other related party transactions took place during the years ended 31 March 2025 and 31 March 2024.

28. GLOSSARY

Absorption	The rate of growth in occupancy assumed within the external property valuations from the current occupancy level to the assumed stable occupancy level.
Adjusted earnings	The IFRS profit after taxation attributable to shareholders of the Company excluding investment property revaluations, one-off items of income and costs, gains/losses on investment property disposals and changes in the fair value of financial instruments.
Adjusted earnings growth	The increase in adjusted eps year-on-year.
Adjusted NAV	EPRA NTA adjusted for an investment property valuation carried out at purchasers' costs of 2.75%, see note 13.
Adjusted earnings per share	Adjusted earnings divided by the average number of shares in issue during the financial year, see note 12.
Adjusted Profit Before Tax	The Company's pre-tax EPRA earnings measure with additional Company adjustments, see note 10.
APMs	Additional performance measures that help financial statement users to better understand the Group's performance and position.
Average net achieved rent per sq ft	Storage revenue divided by average occupied space over the financial year.
Average occupancy	The average space occupied by customers divided by the MLA expressed as a %.
Average rental growth	The growth in average net achieved rent per sq ft year-on-year.
BREEAM	An environmental rating assessed under the Building Research Establishment's Environmental Assessment Method.
Cap rates	The exit capitalisation rates used in the external investment property valuation.
Carbon intensity	Carbon emissions divided by the Group's average occupied space.
Closing net rent per sq ft	Annual storage revenue generated from in-place customers divided by occupied space at the balance sheet date.
Closing occupancy %	The space occupied by customers divided by the MLA at the balance sheet date expressed as a %.
Closing occupancy sq ft	The space occupied by customers at the balance sheet date in sq ft.
Committed facilities	Available undrawn debt facilities plus cash and cash equivalents.
Consolidated EBITDA	Consolidated EBITDA calculated in accordance with the terms of the Group's Revolving Credit Facility Agreement.
Debt	Long-term and short-term borrowings, as detailed in note 19, excluding lease liabilities and debt issue costs.
Earnings per share (eps)	Profit for the financial year attributable to equity shareholders divided by the average number of shares in issue during the financial year.
EBITDA	Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation.
EPRA	The European Public Real Estate Association, a real estate industry body. This organisation has issued Best Practice Recommendations with the intention of improving the transparency, comparability, and relevance of the published results of listed real estate companies in Europe.
EPRA earnings	The IFRS profit after taxation attributable to shareholders of the Company excluding investment property revaluations, gains/losses on investment property disposals and changes in the fair value of financial instruments.
EPRA earnings per share	EPRA earnings divided by the average number of shares in issue during the financial year, see note 12.
EPRA NTA per share	EPRA NTA divided by the diluted number of shares at the year end.
EPRA net tangible asset value (EPRA NTA)	IFRS net assets excluding the mark-to-market on interest rate derivatives, deferred taxation on property valuations where it arises, and intangible assets. It is adjusted for the dilutive impact of share options.
Equity	All capital and reserves of the Group attributable to equity holders of the Company.
Gross property assets	The sum of investment property and investment property under construction.
Gross value added	The measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry, or sector of an economy.
Interest cover	The ratio of operating cash flow divided by interest paid (before working capital movements, exceptional finance costs, capitalised interest, and changes in fair value of interest rate derivatives). This metric is provided to give readers a clear view of the Group's financial position.
Like-for-like store operating costs	Store operating costs excluding one-off items and the operating costs of a store opened in the preceding or current financial year.
Like-for-like occupancy	Excludes the closing occupancy of new stores acquired, opened, or closed in the current financial year in both the current financial year and comparative figures. In 2025this excludes Kings Cross. We previously excluded Armadillo from the like-for-like occupancy metrics but are now including these stores to show the occupancy performance of all the Group's like-for-like trading stores.
Like-for-like store revenue	Excludes the impact of new stores acquired, opened or stores closed in the current or preceding financial year in both the current year and comparative figures. In 2025 this excludes Kings Cross.

LTV (loan to value)	Net debt expressed as a percentage of the external valuation of the Group's investment properties.
Maximum lettable area (MLA)	The total square foot (sq ft) available to rent to customers.
Move-ins	The number of customers taking a storage room in the defined period.
Move-outs	The number of customers vacating a storage room in the defined period.
NAV	Net asset value.
Net debt	Gross borrowings less cash and cash equivalents.
Net initial yield	The forthcoming year's net operating income expressed as a percentage of capital value, after adding notional purchaser's costs pre administrative expenses.
Net operating income	Store EBITDA after an allocation of central overhead.
Net operating income on stabilisation	The projected net operating income delivered by a store when it reaches a stable level of occupancy.
Net promoter score (NPS)	The Net Promoter Score is an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company's products or services to others. The Company measures NPS based on surveys sent to all its move-ins and move-outs.
Net Renewable Energy Positive	Our strategy as set out in https://corporate.bigyellow.co.uk/index.php/sustainability/strategy.
Net rent per sq ft	Storage revenue generated from in place customers divided by occupancy.
Net Zero Strategy	The Group's published strategy to have Net Zero Scope 1 and 2 Emissions.
Non like-for-like stores	Stores excluded from like-for-like metrics, as they were acquired, opened or closed in the current or preceding financial year. In 2025 this excludes Kings Cross.
Occupancy	The space occupied by customers divided by the MLA expressed as a %.
Occupied space	The space occupied by customers in sq ft.
Other storage related income	Packing materials, insurance, and other storage related fees.
Pipeline	The Group's development sites.
Property Income Distribution (PID)	A dividend, generally subject to withholding tax, that a UK REIT is required to pay from its tax-exempt property rental business, and which is taxable for UK-resident shareholders at their marginal tax rate.
REGO	Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin
REIT	Real Estate Investment Trust. A tax regime which in the UK exempts participants from corporation tax both on UK rental income and gains arising on UK investment property sales, subject to certain conditions.
REVPAF	Total store revenue divided by the average maximum lettable area in the year.
Store EBITDA	Store earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation, see reconciliation in the portfolio summary on page 13.
Store revenue	Revenue earned from the Group's open self storage centres.
TCFD	Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure.
Total shareholder return (TSR)	The growth in value of a shareholding over a specified period, assuming dividends are reinvested to purchase additional units of shares.

Ten Year Summary

	2025 £m	2024 £m	2023 £m	2022 £m	2021 £m	2020 £m	2019 £m	2018 £m	2017 £m	2016 £m
Results
Revenue	204.5	199.6	188.8	171.3	135.2	129.3	125.4	116.7	109.1	101.4

Operating profit before gains and losses on property assets	126.6	128.4	120.0	106.6	81.5	80.0	76.7	70.9	65.3	59.9

Cash flow from operating activities	114.6	104.8	112.0	107.1	76.7	73.6	72.2	63.0	55.9	55.5

Profit before taxation	203.9	241.0	75.3	698.9	265.8	93.4	126.9	134.1	99.8	112.2

Adjusted profit before taxation	115.6	107.3	106.0	96.8	74.6	71.0	67.5	61.4	54.6	49.0

Net assets	2,565.5	2,448.4	2,182.4	2,184.4	1,453.9	1,163.9	1,123.9	981.1	890.4	829.4

Diluted adjusted earnings per share	57.8p	55.9p	56.5p	52.5p	42.4p	42.1p	41.4p	38.5p	34.5p	31.1p
Declared total dividend per share	46.4p	45.2p	45.2p	42.0p	34.0p	33.8p	33.2p	30.8p	27.6p	24.9p

Key statistics
Number of stores open**	109	109	108	105	78	75	74	74	73	71
Store MLA (000 sq ft)	6,421	6,419	6,292	6,098	4,930	4,688	4,622	4,631	4,551	4,464
Sq ft occupied (000)**	5,056	5,029	5,088	5,107	4,201	3,781	3,810	3,730	3,551	3,363
Occupancy (decrease)/ increase in year (000 sq ft)*	27	(59)	(19)	906	420	(29)	80	179	188	185
Closing net rent per sq ft**	£35.17	£34.14	£32.48	£29.92	£28.71	£28.15	£27.28	£26.74	£26.03	£25.90
Number of occupied rooms**	73,000	73,000	73,000	73,000	62,000	56,500	56,000	55,000	52,500	50,000
Average number of employees during the year**	459	464	465	427	370	361	347	335	329	318

* - the occupancy growth in 2015, 2017, 2022 and 2023 includes the acquisition of existing stores

** - from 2022 this includes the Armadillo stores, which the Group acquired the remaining 80% of which it did not previously own on 1 July 2021

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END

FR ALMITMTJBBIA

TIDM	BYG
Share Price	831.50p0.24%
Market Cap	£1.64bn

TIDM	BYG
Share Price	831.50p0.24%
Market Cap	£1.64bn

t

Company Information

AI Summary

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Company Information

AI Summary

RNS Metadata

RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

("Big Yellow", "the Group" or "the Company")

Results for the YEAR ended 31 MARCH 2025

HIGHLIGHTS

Subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 17 July 2025, the final dividend will be paid on 25 July 2025. The ex-div date is 3 July 2025 and the record date is 4 July 2025.

Own shares