A NEW caravan storage firm in Sanquhar is the safest in the region.
Beaver Storage at Unit 1 on the Blackaddie Industrial Estate, recently received a gold award from the Caravan Storage Site Owners’ Association (CaSSOA), a recognised membership body providing security accreditations to site owners.
And Beaver Storage is the only site of its kind in Dumfries and Galloway to receive this top accolade.
Owned by Crawick businessman Bob Vevers, the idea for a storage site came into being after he took over a part of the former Century Aluminium premises in July.
Bob said: “I took on the lease of a large courtyard and industrial unit next door to EME.
“I run a log supply business from there but the space is really enormous.
“The unit, a yard and large indoor storage area, was developed in the summer. I started by sealing off part of the building from the former Century premises and began Beaver logs.
“About six weeks ago, Ian Waddell began to use part of the premises for his valeting and car wash business, so the industrial site is expanding all the time.
“There is a huge courtyard that I am going to use for caravan storage, since the site lends itself well to this type of business. It is secure and there is plenty of space.
“I also have plans to develop the covered area into a safe and secure self-storage business.
“This was just a redundant yard with rabbits running around it before I moved in. It shows on a small scale just what a little can do.”
Site owner Ken Dixon says he is pleased this part of the industrial estate is now being developed to create jobs and bring new business to Upper Nithsdale.
He said: “We took over the site about 15 years ago, just before the economy took a steep downturn, and we had to put our plans on hold.
“Many people thought we’d abandoned the place but we’ve always had ambitious plans for the site and had to wait it out until the time was right to develop it successfully.
“That time has now arrived and it is so good to see new businesses starting up and further plans to develop this part of the industrial estate will have a very positive impact on Sanquhar in the not-too-distant future.
“It’s taken a while to get here, but things are looking up and Bob’s Gold Award proves that we can attract quality new businesses into Sanquhar as well as a whole new level of customers.”
After Bob applied for membership to CaSSOA, they sent around their appointed surveyors, RiskSure, to see just how secure the site was.
On granting the gold award, the surveyor said: “All areas of the site were assessed with particular emphasis on security features and fire protection in order to ascertain the appropriate CaSSOA accreditation.
“The site owners were present at survey and all security features and fire protection were reviewed onsite.
“Whilst we cannot comment on individual site’s security features, the systems observed at survey were in line with the national standards required by CaSSOA to attain a Gold accreditation.”
Bob added: “I’m delighted with this award and, especially for being the only caravan storage site in Dumfries and Galloway with this top accreditation.
“I hope it will go some way towards putting Sanquhar on the map for service excellence; raise awareness of this fantastic part of south west Scotland; and help in a small way in bringing back signs of prosperity to the area.”
Main Photo
Site owner Ken Dixon, Bob Vevers of Beaver Storage and Ian Waddell who runs a vehicle valeting service on the premises.
Story Credit – Nithsdale Times
