{"id":2160,"date":"2024-05-08T12:19:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T12:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/?p=2160"},"modified":"2025-10-10T14:58:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:58:30","slug":"former-lawyer-brings-first-keyless-self-storage-unit-to-aberdeen-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/former-lawyer-brings-first-keyless-self-storage-unit-to-aberdeen-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Lawyer Brings First Keyless Self-Storage Unit to Aberdeen (Scotland)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- VideographyWP Plugin Message: Automatic video embedding prevented by plugin options. --><br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2161\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2161\" style=\"width: 556px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2161\" src=\"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Storage_Abardeen-660x365.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"556\" height=\"307\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2161\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Storage Den in Bridge of Don [Credit: Supplied]<\/figcaption><\/figure><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">A former lawyer, and graduate of the University of Aberdeen, has launched his own self-storage business in Aberdeen, introducing keyless self-storage units to the city for the first time.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Based in Bridge of Don Industrial Estate, Storage Den provides highly secure self-storage units for personal or business needs for Aberdeen residents. Its 70 storage units range in size, from 25 sq. ft. to 200 sq. ft, and are all individually alarmed with motion sensors and monitored with CCTV.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">The business currently provides solely indoor storage options, which are all accessible from 5am\u201311pm, which customers can access through an easy-to-use tailored app, making the need for a key redundant. Storage Den plans to offer external storage options in the coming months.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Founder, Brian Barbour, spotted a gap in the market for self-storage provision while living and working between Edinburgh and Denver, Colorado.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Brian said: \u201cI had acted on behalf of banking clients providing finance to self-storage companies and realised that despite the UK being the third-largest self-storage market in the world behind the States and Australia, there is still a lot of room for growth.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #222222;\">\u201c<span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">My parents have their own business, which I\u2019ve always found really motivating, and I realised that I had spotted an opportunity to start up one of my own. After securing my own unit in Aberdeen, I approached Business Gateway for support.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Brian accessed a range of start-up support from Business Gateway, including one-to-one guidance from a dedicated business adviser, as well as an advice on marketing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Brian currently has seen strong demand since opening, with a mixture of business owners, families, offshore oil workers and students making use of the space available.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Despite only launching in March this year, Storage Den was recently named out of more than 350 applicants as one of five finalists at Storers\u2019 Den, a UK wide competition which encouraged self-storage operators under three years old with bold ambitions for growth to pitch for investment.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Looking to the future, Brian now has plans to expand into other cities in Scotland and would eventually like to take Storage Den to countries in mainland Europe.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Brian added: \u201cIt\u2019s been a busy year or so working to get my ideas for Storage Den off the ground. The industry standard for a storage facility to become mature is two years, and I\u2019m trying to do this within the year.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #222222;\">\u201c<span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">I\u2019d like to thank Business Gateway for their support, which has been invaluable for making my vision for Storage Den a reality.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Sean Cowie, Business Gateway adviser, said: \u201cThe launch of Storage Den not only marks a significant milestone for Brian, but it also represents a bold step forward for the local community.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">&#8220;We&#8217;re proud to have played a part in bringing innovative solutions to Aberdeen and look forward to witnessing the positive impact this new venture will have on the city&#8217;s landscape and economy.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/former-lawyer-brings-first-keyless-163136473.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #222222;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lato, Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Source<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former lawyer, and graduate of the University of Aberdeen, has launched his own self-storage business in Aberdeen, introducing keyless self-storage units to the city for the first time. Based in Bridge of Don Industrial Estate, Storage Den provides highly secure self-storage units for personal or business needs for Aberdeen residents. Its 70 storage units range in size, from 25 sq. ft. to 200 sq. ft, and are all individually alarmed with motion sensors and monitored with CCTV. The business currently provides solely indoor storage options, which are all accessible&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2173,"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions\/2173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listselfstorage.com\/uk\/industry-insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}