When Hugh Stedman bought the building at 300 Richmond Road in the late 80s, he had no idea the 1987 financial crash was just around the corner.
By the start of the 90s, Hugh had converted the building to serviced offices and self-storage, making headlines in the media. This was revolutionary at the time, as there was only one other storage facility in Auckland and shared office space did not have the appeal it has today. Hugh had heard self-storage had taken off in Australia and knew it was only a matter of time before it would be the next big thing in New Zealand.
Today, 300 Richmond still offers a very affordable solution for SMEs. With 77 offices, it remains a popular choice for businesses, with a range of services such as virtual offices, boardroom hire, phone service and secretarial support.
Over the years the premises has changed inside and out. Recent enhancements to our communal areas have been well received by our residents and we remain committed to improving our customer experience and meeting new technology requirements, while maintaining low overheads for businesses.
What sets us apart from our competitors is our accessibility, parking and affordability, but we also believe it is our business community and its diversity.
We have a great mix of businesses in terms of industries, but also a great mix of people of different age groups, cultures and walks of life. This gives 300 Richmond a great vibe and creates some awesome networking opportunities over the coffee machine. We, ourselves have taken advantage of the huge talent within 300 Richmond for a number of services.
We encourage our residents to join us for regular events and have celebrated some important milestones with them over the years; while we lease on a month by month basis, we have a number of long term tenants who have been with us for 10 years or more, and feel the importance of recognising their contribution to our success.
Having storage on site appeals to businesses but also the wider community; people store for all sorts of reason, moving house, decluttering. With 20 different size units, we help people with all their storage needs, whether you’re needing to store a suitcase or a full four bedroom home, we can recommend movers, packers and cleaners, we have a truck and trailer available for those moving themselves. We also sell boxes and a full range of packing materials.
As demand has grown, the storage operation has also evolved over the past 30 years. In 2003 we joined Storage King Management and started trading under licence as Storage King Grey Lynn. In 2009 a larger storage facility was built.
We remain, nonetheless, a small business that celebrates small successes. We are very proud we are going stronger than ever 30 years on. Like any business we have challenges too. We always look at ways we can improve and better the business and connect with our clients. We continue to look at ways to work more closely with the local community, and get marketing traction in a highly competitive industry.
We feel being part of the Grey Lynn Business Association keeps us connected with the local community and promotes networking.
This October will mark our 30th anniversary! We believe the secret to our success is that we continue to evolve as market conditions change, and the key to being innovative is predicting changes rather being reactive.
300 Richmond Ltd (Suzanne) T: 09 360 3260, www.300richmond.co.nz
Storage King Grey Lynn (Chris) 09 360 2015, www.storageking.co.nz/greylynn