SINGAPORE: Unpredictable weather conditions are forcing more businesses in Singapore to seek air-conditioned spaces to store their goods.
Cooler storage will allow firms to protect their items from damage and help make perishable products last longer.
Some self-storage providers are riding on this strong demand, and plan to expand such units.
Amid a lack of climate-controlled self-storage options in the country, these services come at a premium.
Florist Cindy Koo, for instance, forks out around 15 per cent more to secure a self-storage unit with air-conditioning, compared to a regular unit without it.
Her home-based online business for fresh and preserved flowers has bloomed since it started in March and has run out of space in her home in Aljunied.
Ms Koo said the air-conditioned storage in Kallang Bahru helps her plants last longer.
“It's the humidity that really affects the quality of preserved flowers, because some of the chemicals in the preserved flowers just don't mix well with moisture in the air,” said the founder of KXH Flowers.
Small business owners like Ms Koo typically use self-storage places to save on leases at larger warehouses. In more recent months, air-conditioned spaces are being snapped up.
Storage solutions provider Work+Store has observed a 10 to 30 per cent increase in enquiries for air-conditioned units between September last year and March this year.
“This encouraged us to actually start the air-con stock storage in March,” the firm’s CEO Danny Wong told CNA.
“It is doing very well. We have reached 95 per cent occupancy in three months, and we are expecting to expand more of such spaces.”
Unpredictable weather conditions are forcing more businesses in Singapore to seek air-conditioned spaces to store their goods.
Mr Wong said a key reason for the demand is the increasingly unpredictable weather.
Under erratic hot and humid conditions, some goods, such as leather products, electronics, clothes and sealed food, may not last and can get moldy, he noted.
“Sometimes, customers will expect their goods to be kept in a very pristine condition,” he added.
Work+Store will add six times more air-conditioned storage - or the size of six basketball courts - by the end of next year.
With climate-controlled storage spaces currently in low supply, another provider Storefriendly is also seeing a jump in demand for its cool storage spaces.
The self-storage solutions firm said enquiries for such units, which are kept at 23 degrees Celsius for 24 hours daily, have more than doubled over the last six months.
Storefriendly CEO Jes Johansen told CNA that current weather conditions are driving the higher demand.
“I do think the wet weather these days has an impact, because it's just so apparent. We see it outside all the time right now,” he added.
The growing need for climate-controlled storage is spilling over to products such as wine, which needs an even cooler 13 degrees Celsius.
“If things are stored for a very long time, then air conditioning - and the decrease in humidity and all that - is a great benefit for long-term storage,” said Mr Johansen.
Storefriendly has plans to double its number of locations to 14 in two years.
Continue reading...
Cooler storage will allow firms to protect their items from damage and help make perishable products last longer.
Some self-storage providers are riding on this strong demand, and plan to expand such units.
GROWING DEMAND FOR COLDER SPACES
Amid a lack of climate-controlled self-storage options in the country, these services come at a premium.
Florist Cindy Koo, for instance, forks out around 15 per cent more to secure a self-storage unit with air-conditioning, compared to a regular unit without it.
Her home-based online business for fresh and preserved flowers has bloomed since it started in March and has run out of space in her home in Aljunied.
Ms Koo said the air-conditioned storage in Kallang Bahru helps her plants last longer.
“It's the humidity that really affects the quality of preserved flowers, because some of the chemicals in the preserved flowers just don't mix well with moisture in the air,” said the founder of KXH Flowers.
Small business owners like Ms Koo typically use self-storage places to save on leases at larger warehouses. In more recent months, air-conditioned spaces are being snapped up.
Storage solutions provider Work+Store has observed a 10 to 30 per cent increase in enquiries for air-conditioned units between September last year and March this year.
“This encouraged us to actually start the air-con stock storage in March,” the firm’s CEO Danny Wong told CNA.
“It is doing very well. We have reached 95 per cent occupancy in three months, and we are expecting to expand more of such spaces.”
Unpredictable weather conditions are forcing more businesses in Singapore to seek air-conditioned spaces to store their goods.
UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER CONDITIONS
Mr Wong said a key reason for the demand is the increasingly unpredictable weather.
Under erratic hot and humid conditions, some goods, such as leather products, electronics, clothes and sealed food, may not last and can get moldy, he noted.
“Sometimes, customers will expect their goods to be kept in a very pristine condition,” he added.
Work+Store will add six times more air-conditioned storage - or the size of six basketball courts - by the end of next year.
With climate-controlled storage spaces currently in low supply, another provider Storefriendly is also seeing a jump in demand for its cool storage spaces.
The self-storage solutions firm said enquiries for such units, which are kept at 23 degrees Celsius for 24 hours daily, have more than doubled over the last six months.
Storefriendly CEO Jes Johansen told CNA that current weather conditions are driving the higher demand.
“I do think the wet weather these days has an impact, because it's just so apparent. We see it outside all the time right now,” he added.
The growing need for climate-controlled storage is spilling over to products such as wine, which needs an even cooler 13 degrees Celsius.
“If things are stored for a very long time, then air conditioning - and the decrease in humidity and all that - is a great benefit for long-term storage,” said Mr Johansen.
Storefriendly has plans to double its number of locations to 14 in two years.
Related:
Continue reading...