Business & Trade

A private depot, without the overheads.

Use a container as your stock room, your tool store, your dropshipping back-end or your second site. Drive in, load up, lock it down — and only pay for the space you actually use.

Business and trade storage, in short

SOS Storage provides drive-up container storage for tradespeople and small businesses at Old Newton Road, Kingskerswell, TQ12 5LB, serving Newton Abbot, Torquay, Paignton and the wider Torbay area. A 5ft container costs £96 a month, a 10ft container £125 a month and a 20ft container £180 a month, all including VAT, with multi-unit and long-term discounts available and VAT-receipted invoices provided. You can park a van directly alongside the unit, and the site is open 7:30am to 8:30pm every day of the year.

Prices: 5ft £96 · 10ft £125 · 20ft £180 per month (inc. VAT)
Suits: builders, electricians, ecommerce sellers, event hire, engineers
Loading: drive-up, ground level — no lifts or trolleys
Paperwork: VAT-receipted invoices, multi-unit discounts
Access: 365 days a year, 7:30am–8:30pm

White trade van parked next to an open container packed with tools and shelving at SOS Storage

Why local businesses use us

Save on warehouse rent. Insure less. Sleep better.

A 20ft container at SOS costs less per month than most lock-ups, with the bonus of drive-up access and a fully CCTV’d site. Builders, electricians, ecommerce sellers, event hire firms and trades of every flavour use us as a secondary depot.

Park your van right next to the unit — no goods lifts, no trolleys
Multi-unit and long-term discounts
VAT-receipted invoices for clean bookkeeping
365-day, daylight-hour access for ad-hoc jobs
Lower insurance risk than overnight van storage

Get a quote See pricing

Trades who store with us

If you carry kit, you can use SOS Storage.

Building & trades

Tool stores, materials, ladders, plant — keep them off the van overnight.

Ecommerce & resellers

Stock, pick & pack, returns processing. Bring your label printer.

Events & hire

Marquees, audio, lights, props — yours, ready to load on short notice.

Property & landlords

Furniture between tenancies, renovation kit, staging stock.

Cheaper than a lock-up, and considerably cheaper than a unit

Commercial space in South Devon is priced for premises, not for storage. You take on a lease, business rates, a deposit, utilities and a term you can't easily get out of — for what is often just somewhere dry to put stock and tools.

A 20ft container here is £180 a month including VAT with a three-month minimum, a £50 refundable deposit and no exit fee. There's no lease, no rates, no meter and no dilapidations conversation at the end.

For a lot of small firms that's the difference between having somewhere to put things and working out of the van indefinitely.

The insurance argument for getting tools off the van

Tool theft from vans is the single most common reason trades ring us, and the numbers usually make the decision for them. Overnight van cover is expensive, frequently limited, and often excludes exactly the high-value items you most need covered.

Moving tools into a locked steel container on a fenced, gated, floodlit site with 24/7 CCTV changes the risk profile entirely, and most insurers price it accordingly. Several of our trade customers took a unit purely on the insurance saving and treat the storage as effectively free.

It also removes the thing that ruins a week: turning up to a job at seven and finding the van's been opened overnight.

Set it up like a stockroom, not a cupboard

The customers who get the most out of a container are the ones who treat it as a small stockroom from day one. Racking down one wall, stock down the other, and a walkway you can actually use.

A 20ft is the usual choice for this because it gives you that walkway. In a 10ft you're stacking solid, which is fine for archive storage and frustrating if you're picking orders from it twice a week.

If you're picking and packing from the unit, mention it when you enquire and we'll put you somewhere with easy vehicle access rather than at the far end of the yard. It's a small thing that saves a lot of walking over a year.

Who's already here

Builders, electricians, plumbers and groundworkers storing tools, materials and plant. Ecommerce sellers running stock, picking and returns out of a 20ft. Event and hire companies with seasonal equipment. Engineers with spares. Shopfitters between jobs.

Seasonal businesses across Torbay use us heavily in the off-season — cafés, guest houses and beachfront operators putting furniture, heaters, signage and stock away between October and Easter rather than paying to house it in trading premises.

The common thread is that none of them needed premises. They needed space, access and security, without the paperwork.

Paperwork, keys and practicalities

VAT-receipted invoices come as standard, so storage goes into your books as a clean, straightforward expense.

You hold the only padlock key and we don't keep a copy, so you decide who can get in. Staff and couriers can collect without you provided they've got the key and you've told us to expect them.

Multi-unit and longer-term arrangements are negotiable — if you need more than one container or you're committing for a year, talk to us rather than assuming the list price is the only price. We'd rather keep a good long-term customer than win an extra fiver a month.

Two things you can't do: run a workshop from the unit (there's no power, and no public access to the yard), and store fuel, gas bottles or anything flammable. Everything else is fair game — see what you can store.

FAQs

Trade storage — the questions we get asked

How much is business storage?

A 10ft container is £125 a month and a 20ft container is £180 a month, both including VAT. If you need more than one unit, or you’re committing for a longer period, talk to us and we’ll work something out.

Can I get a VAT receipt for my accounts?

Yes. We issue VAT-receipted invoices as standard, so storage goes straight into your bookkeeping as a clean business expense.

Can my staff or couriers collect without me?

Yes, provided you’ve told us who to expect and they have the padlock key. You control who holds a key — we don’t keep a copy.

Can I run a business from the container?

You can store, pick and pack, and load your van from it. What you can’t do is trade from the yard or use it as a workshop — there’s no power to the units and no public access.

What about insurance for stock and tools?

We strongly recommend insuring what you store. Many commercial policies extend to goods held offsite, and it’s usually far cheaper than insuring tools left in a van overnight.

How quickly can I get a unit?

Usually within a day or two. If a job has landed and you need space this week, ring us — we’ll tell you straight away what’s free.