Case Study
Case Study | Shurgard
Shurgard implements a managerial framework
The Shurgard concept of self-storage began in America in 1970 when cofounder of the company Chuck Barbo identified a gap in the market for both homeowners and businesses with a requirement for extra space.
He came up with the notion of mini-warehouses for people with excess belongings and businesses with long forgotten records or documents.
Twenty years later Shurgard began to expand into Europe and in 1995 the first
European store opened in Brussels. Four years later the first UK store opened in
South London and earlier this year the company was bought for $5bn by Public
Storage, the world’s largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities.
The challenge
The growth and success of Shurgard in Europe meant that increasing demands and expectations were being placed on the company’s operations middle managers who were wrestling with a growing number of stores, an ever-larger geographic area of responsibility, increased numbers of employees, decentralisation of country and panEuropean support centres, greater autonomy and reorganisation of roles.
Terry Whitney, European Learning and Development Manager of Shurgard SelfStorage Centers, said: “The business of self-storage was very different in Europe than it was in the US and there were different points of maturity in the market so there were many challenges to face. Most of our attention was focussed on buying property and building new facilities. Suddenly we realised we had a management team that was bright and hard working but had suffered from a lack of development focus.” “The best result of our partnership with
SHL is that the district managers are now motivated because they know what is expected of them, how they will be held accountable and have focused training and development in place. Importantly, they also know what success looks like.” Terry Whitney,
Shurgard
shl.com
Case Study | Shurgard
Shurgard implements a managerial framework
The Shurgard concept of self-storage began in America in 1970 when cofounder of the company Chuck Barbo identified a gap in the market for both homeowners and businesses with a requirement for extra space.
He came up with the notion of mini-warehouses for people with excess belongings and businesses with long forgotten records or documents.
Twenty years later Shurgard began to expand into Europe and in 1995 the first
European store opened in Brussels. Four years later the first UK store opened in
South London and earlier this year the company was bought for $5bn by Public
Storage, the world’s largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities.
The challenge
The growth and success of Shurgard in Europe meant that increasing demands and expectations were being placed on the company’s operations middle managers who were wrestling with a growing number of stores, an ever-larger geographic area of responsibility, increased numbers of employees, decentralisation of country and panEuropean support centres, greater autonomy and reorganisation of roles.
Terry Whitney, European Learning and Development Manager of Shurgard SelfStorage Centers, said: “The business of self-storage was very different in Europe than it was in the US and there were different points of maturity in the market so there were many challenges to face. Most of our attention was focussed on buying property and building new facilities. Suddenly we realised we had a management team that was bright and hard working but had suffered from a lack of development focus.” “The best result of our partnership with
SHL is that the district managers are now motivated because they know what is expected of them, how they will be held accountable and have focused training and development in place. Importantly, they also know what success looks like.” Terry Whitney,
Shurgard
shl.com
Case Study | Shurgard