SOME impressive profits have confirmed that the folks at Lok'nStore are onto a winner.

As the only self-storage business in Swindon, the result has put a smile on the face of group chief executive Andrew Jacobs.

Commenting on the results, he said: "We are delighted to report on the group's continuing excellent progress.

"Turnover for the period under review rose by 37.9 per cent to £4m (compared with £2.9m for the year ended 31st July 2000).

"Our annual turnover is currently running at over £4.7m.''

The company, which acquired Swindon Self Storage in Rushey Platt last July, and recently opened a site in Kembrey Street, Elgin, has a customer base mainly from a two to three mile radius of the town.

The Swindon sites are two of 16 being operated by the company which plans to expand steadily to meet a rapidly increasing demand.

Mr Jacobs said: "The year to July 31, 2001, was characterised by considerable investment for Lok'nStore in new stores, in the brand and in the quality and depth of management.

"Our objective continues to be maintaining high growth while sustaining profitability.

"Our core strategy is to maximise the growth of Lok'nStore while at the same time maintaining profitability. We believe that this will maximise growth in shareholder value.

"During the period, we opened four new stores increasing the net lettable square footage of the group by 34 per cent to 725,666sqft. We now have 16 stores, all in prominent locations.

"We are pleased to have managed this sizeable investment while still delivering a profit before tax of £28,622.

"The new stores, opened during the period, in Northampton, Milton Keynes, Sunbury and Swindon are all performing well.

"Three of these stores were opened in a period of three weeks of each other, confirming our belief that we have the management resources to sustain our anticipated growth rate."

The Kembrey Road site provides units ranging in size from 25 sq ft to 10.000sq ft as well as pallets.

The Rushey Platt site provides units, containers (external storage ranging in size from 80 sq ft to 320 sq ft), pallets and contract parking for such items as caravans and cars.