Store it, stuff it

Storage solutions for cramped apartments and flats is branding and expanding a niche market that could eventually turn out to be massive.

300 million USD-a-year Container Store, a Dallas chain specializing in selling storage solutions and products, has built a niche into a 20+ outlet storage empire. Container Store helps its customers (consumers and businesses), to streamline and simplify their lives by offering a wide range of storage and organization products. The store layout is divided into lifestyle sections such as Closet, Kitchen, Office and Laundry. All products are received, processed and shipped from a 300,000 square foot distribution center in Dallas. With annual sales growth between 20-25 percent since 1978 (source: Fast Company), Container Store is doing more than well. Long term customer relationships, well-trained personnel and an extensive, full-solution assortment are the keys to success for this company, that has been at the top of FORTUNE magazine’s list of “100 Best Companies To Work For In America” three years in a row. So considering the fact that the idea of offering storage solutions and products is not exactly new, that revenues are tasty, and the market quite substantial, (at least big enough to allow competition like ‘Hold Everything’ to co-exist), it is more than surprising to learn that, as far as we can tell, Container Store does not have any serious, large, branded competitors in the rest of the world, nor does it have an international franchisee program itself. As we said in a previous newsletter (about Hold Everything), the storage solution market is many, many times bigger than just the United States: millions of small urban dwellings and SOHOs in Europe and Asia spring to mind!