01 May 2019
Last month, Iron Mountain Incorporated, the global leader in storage and information management services, announced a new partnership with MakeSpace to bring consumer storage services to 24 markets through the acquisition of Stashable, Iron Mountain’s full-service, valet consumer storage business. This partnership combines MakeSpace’s technology platform for consumer storage with Iron Mountain’s storage, transportation and logistics operations.
On April 25, 2019, Iron Mountain reported on its first-quarter 2019 results. President and Chief Executive Officer William L. Meaney, said the first quarter of 2019 was marked by continued progress against Iron Mountain's strategic plan. Some of the highlights included:
Meaney said the company is looking to build scale in new storage areas for Iron Mountain to accelerate growth for the company. A good example of this growth potential is illustrated by the company's recent expansion into consumer through its partnership with MakeSpace.
"We are excited about the opportunity to serve as the logistics and storage arm in the valet consumer storage space. This venture combines the strongest capabilities from both of the organizations that leverages MakeSpace as a strong brand in front-end customer acquisition technology platform with our world-class operational scale and logistics expertise. Iron Mountain has the opportunity to accelerate growth in the consumer market through MakeSpace's strong brand visibility and ambition to expand into new markets."
-William L. Meaney, president and chief executive officer, Iron Mountain Incorporated
Meaney explained that Iron Mountain is a significant but minority shareholder in the joint venture. In addition to being a large minority shareholder in MakeSpace, Iron Mountain is the exclusive provider of the back-end services, which means the company's trucks and drivers pick up or deliver the material, and stores the material in the company's facility.
"We are the exclusive service provider to that joint venture, which effectively gets us in the consumer space with a B2B relationship," says Meaney. "So we are still at business-to-business relationship with MakeSpace and we get the benefit of their understanding of the consumer space and they've proven themselves not only to have a very effective brand and marketing approach, but very efficient acquisition cost of customers."
Essentially, this new partnership will allow MakeSpace to expand much quicker across the United States because Iron Mountain is already everywhere in the United States.
