Self- storage group Lok'n Store, which has two outlets in Swindon, says it has secured an extra £10 million of funding to back its expansion plans.

The AIM-listed company has agreed a bank facility with Royal Bank of Scotland just three months after raising £10 million through a rights issue.

Finance director Chris Stevens said the group now had the financial platform for its plans to open 35 sites over the next four years.

"Our aim was to fund organic expansion but we are not ruling out the opportunity for acquisitions.

"We want to open four to five sites this year, 10 the year after and so on."

Lok'n Store runs 16 self-storage centres across the south of England, stretching from Swindon to Ashford in Kent.

The group, based in Kingston-upon-Thames, has 4,500 customers and stores goods ranging from furniture to speedboats as well as a police force's speed cameras.

Turnover in the year to July 31 climbed 26.3 per cent to £5 million as occupancy at the group's older centres held steady at around 87 per cent of available space.

But the costs of the group's expansion efforts meant it ran up pre-tax losses of £398,873 compared with pre-tax profits of £28,622 a year ago.

Lok'n Store opened sites in Swindon, Northampton, Milton Keynes and Sunbury-on-Thames in the latter part of the financial year.