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Dragons Den’s Smart Storage to fuel expansion with two new London bases

Under stair storage manufacturer and former participant on the Irish Dragons Den Smart Storage Ltd has announced it is opening two new bases in the Greater London area.

The new sites are part of a UK and Ireland-wide expansion for the company who are looking to take on 100 new employees and add a further site in the North East of England.

The Northern Irish firm specialises in the installation of discrete home storage solutions, including flexible shelves for under stair and attic use, which it claims has the potential to fit in 11.5m homes across the UK and Ireland.

With 40 of the new intake staffing the home improvement business’ expanded English operations, the firm is looking to significantly expand its reach on the UK mainland as it adds to its five ‘satellite’ bases in Bristol, Coventry, Manchester, Stevenage and Crawley.

Smart Storage’s Managing Director, Paul Jacob, commented: “What started as a nice storage idea is now a multi-million Euro business. We have grown considerably since 2011, when in our first year we had a turnover of €110,000 with one person in the business.

“Winning our investment on Dragons Den helped to accelerate the company’s expansion and we have grown the business to a turnover, this year, of €3.5 million and 50 people employed. Next year, we are on target to sell over €7.5 million of our under stair storage. In order to meet these targets, we are taking on 100 new employees.”

Founded in 2012, entrepreneur Paul Jacob has since proven a canny media operator, getting the firm’s understair storage featured on home improvement programmes on both Channel 4 and ITV following his appearance on Dragons Den.

According to Paul, this new round of expansion is to be a prelude to a wider, global expansion, as the firm eyes up moves into the Canadian and US markets.

He added: “We initially developed the product for the Irish market & then refined the design for the UK. In the last 18 months Smart Storage has been awarded design patents for Europe, the US and Canada, providing the company with opportunities in these markets.”

The exact location of the three new sites and the 40 new jobs is to be revealed in the near future.

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