Making space for expansion

MANILA, Philippines -  With more than 14 million residents, Metro Manila is definitely suffering from a space issue. This is why more and more people, families and singles alike are choosing to move into compact condominium units that provide the comforts of home and more with a manageable amount of space. However, there is one common problem people usually encounter during the big move: where to store their personal belongings between moving out and moving into their brand new space. Giving a solution to this is Safehouse Storage.

Put up in 2010 by entrepreneur brothers Macky Coronel and Carlo Coronel, Safehouse Storage is the pioneer in the self storage industry in the country. Self storage is basically designed to store personal belongings for office or business supplies without having to rent out giant warehouses.

“Space is becoming a problem right now, so many people are in need of a place to store either personal items or business inventory, but they don’t necessarily need an enormous amount of space. Safehouse Storage solves that,” Carlo says.

Many offices and businesses have also been interested with Safehouse’s offer of providing an appropriate amount of space for storage.

“We’ve already been tapped by offices wanting a place to store their equipment and bazaaristas wanting somewhere to store their merchandise,” Carlo says. “The great thing about Safehouse is that the storage rooms are just the right size,” Carlo says.

Size matters

Before Safehouse, the only storage units available in the Philippines were giant warehouses. However, the concept of smaller storage rooms is already common in other countries.

“Overseas, these types of rooms where folks keep their belongings is seen everywhere. In fact, we can see these in shows like “Storage Wars”. What we aim is to  educate the Filipino public to this concept,” Macky says. “We want to show that it is practical and affordable.”

One of the advantages of the concept, the Coronel brothers say, is the cost-effectiveness of smaller storage rooms.

“Renting out big warehouses can be very expensive. With Safehouse, our customers can rent out smaller spaces for a lot less. It’s a lot more cost-efficient, but providing the same standards of cleanliness and safety as bigger warehouses offer,” Macky says.

Marketing convenience

The Coronels are no strangers to the storage business as their family has been in the warehousing industry for years. Macky and Carlo comes from the family behind Panorama Development, one of the top warehousing developers in the Philippines. Panorama focuses more on the big-cut warehouses and leases it out to companies in the logistics and manufacturing industries in the PEZA and non-PEZA areas.

“We admit that it’s still a novel concept in the country, so we’re happy that from the get go, we’ve had clients who’ve had a similar experience abroad,” Carlo says. “We want to showcase how convenient and easy the concept is and I’m glad we’ve had a good start,” he says.