A business has relocated to Stroud after leaving its London headquarters. Triple Eight Containers, run by Marina Roos, is based at The Old Police Station in Beeches Green and was established in 1999 by her father, John Emms.
The business supplies shipping containers for storage use to businesses and individuals across the country: “My dad had a background in shipping and used to work for one of the big shipping lines based in Asia, and when they went bust he moved to the UK and started his own business,” explained Marina.
“The containers are made in China, filled with cargo – that could be anything from clothing retailers to technology equipment – brought to the UK and emptied of their cargo and taken to depots across the country.
“We buy them from the Chinese manufacturers and our clients are mainly self-storage sites – people who own land or rent land and put containers there. Their clients will be people like you and I who have too much stuff! When my dad started the business, he revolutionised things by offering lease purchase, where customers could pay off the cost of the container over four or five years.”
Marina says 90 per cent of her customers are self-storage businesses, but she also deals with farmers and individuals who just need a container in their yard for storage. The business can even offer a conversion for a home office: “We can take a standard 20-foot container and partition it and open it at either end so it can be converted to a home office – this is becoming very popular. People have even used them as canteens, shops and even pools by digging them into the ground.”
A standard 20-foot container retails for around £2,000 and Marina works with a network of hauliers to get them from the depot to the customer.
“I get the client’s postcode and speak to several hauliers and get the cheapest quote, so they deliver it and crane it into place. We’ve also recently started site planning, so if you have a piece of land we can help with the set-up and advise where the containers should go.”
Triple Eight Containers is part of the Self-Storage Association UK, which promotes best practice within the industry, and Marina has recently joined the Stroud Businesswomen’s Network: “It’s such a nice community and you never know who you are going to meet, which is fun.”
For more information visit: Containers for Storage – Triple Eight Containers Ltd
