Funding for Storage Containers at Football Clubs

Jane on November 26, 2018

Great news for football clubs, as The Premier League and The FA Facilities Fund Small Grants Scheme lists storage containers as an eligible project for a grant. This means that educational establishments and grassroots football clubs can now support the growth of their facilities with funding towards a storage container.

Storage containers provide endless advantages for growing football clubs. The first of which is a space to store equipment.

Container Storage at Football Clubs

Just like any other sporting facility, football clubs accumulate a large amount of equipment in order to provide education and entertainment for children and young people taking part in the sport. A storage container is an excellent method of storing this equipment for several reasons:

  1. Size – traditional sports equipment storage may not be large enough for the amount of equipment required for a football club. From training hurdles, to cones, all the way through to portable goals and the footballs themselves, there is much to think about when considering the size of your storage facility. Containers range from 10ft to 40ft, providing many options for a growing football club.
  2. Easy access to equipment – because storage containers are spacious, your equipment can be easily organised and accessible, instead of crammed into a small space where half of it may never be seen again. Container storage allows you to retrieve the equipment you need without the fuss of reshuffling your entire storage facility.
  3. Weather protection – shipping containers are made to withstand all types of weather. Therefore, your gear and apparatus will be stored safely and remain in good condition for many years to come. Many clubs don’t have the budget to regularly replace equipment if it is weather damaged, so container storage is an excellent way to avoid unwanted costs.
  4. Security – Any establishment, especially football clubs, should invest in good security for any equipment – and a storage container is just that. Vandal-proof by nature, our containers are supplied with a hardened steel padlock and fitted with a lock box to deter bolt croppers.
Rural crime
New (once used from China) 20ft x 8ft storage container

Using a storage container as a clubhouse

Off the pitch, the clubhouse is the hub of any football team, so it’s necessary for clubs to offer a facility which is fit for purpose. However, this is not always possible on a small budget. Perhaps your club is historic, with a clubhouse which has dilapidated over time due to lack of maintenance. Or maybe you’re a very new club with little funding to build a brand new clubhouse. A shipping container can solve these problems.

Office container

Don’t be fooled by the appearance of containers – they’re actually very versatile. Not only do we provide containers for storage, we also convert them into offices, classrooms and, indeed, clubhouses.

Provide a space for team meetings, lessons, a lunchtime eating space, changing rooms, shelter at fundraising events, and much more. With electricity for lighting and heating, as well as the option to include a sink and kitchen worktops, our converted shipping containers feel like a completely different space inside. They are truly multi-purpose, with the added value of being insulated, weatherproof and secure.

Applying for funding

Apply for funding for your shipping container or new clubhouse via The Premier League and The FA Facilities Fund Small Grants Scheme. This scheme grants funding for containers which are new or fully refurbished, and also covers planning permission where necessary. If you are interested in purchasing one of our excellent storage containers or converted containers, you will require a quote from us to support your application. Please don’t hesitate to call us on 0800 121 7388 to discuss your needs.

Self Storage

Jane on February 23, 2017

Self-storage businesses are popping up in many places around the UK. It is a growing industry in the UK and has been since the 1980s. Many self-store businesses actually use shipping containers. The containers act like rooms for each customer. They are lockable and secure. They can be placed side by side and stacked at least 2 high.

Stacks of 20ft containers, self storage site, self store

Many customers of self-storage sites want to keep their possessions safe but just don’t have anywhere to store them. Customers include retailers, wholesalers, private individuals, construction firms and many, many more.

The farming community, in particular, are diversifying into self-storage, because they have the land already with great access for their customers.

The average occupancy of self-storage units has grown by 4% to 73% and income per sq ft has grown by over 5% to £22.15 in 2016, according to the Self Storage Association UK (SSA UK).

It is difficult to calculate accurately the number of self-storage businesses trading as there is no organisation that actually tracks the self-storage industry around the UK. The SSA UK estimates that there are now around 1077 self-store sites in the UK, of which 195 offer container storage only.

We at Billie Box offer shipping containers that will suit a self-storage business perfectly. We always recommend new (one trip from China) containers as they are usually clean and tidy. Self-storage customers want to store in a nice tidy space. All our new containers are fitted with a lock box and padlocks on a master suite basis are available for sale.

2016 Statistics from SSA UK make very interesting reading

Self storage association UK

How to set up a Self Storage business

  1. Find the land
  2. Apply for planning permission
  3. Make the land levelled and accessible
  4. Put up a fence and maybe a swipe card system for added security.
  5. Start marketing your self-storage business. Get your customers lined up to rent the space.
  6. Buy shipping containers from Billie Box to place on site. Often our customers start with 10 x 20ft units and then build onto the site with more as and when the first ones are full.
  7. Rent the containers out to your customers.
  8. Before you know it, your site will be full of customers and you will be receiving a nice tidy income.
  9. Remember you can stack 2 high. Staircases and walkways would be required for access.

So in conclusion, call us today on 0800 121 7388 or get a quote to see how Billie Box can help you to start up your self-storage business.

About Jane Billing
Jane Billing has over 30 years’ experience in shipping container supply. During that time Jane has gained a very broad knowledge of the whole shipping container industry. From construction to shipping, to adaption and conversions, if you have a question about any aspect of the shipping container industry Jane will likely have the answer for you. After many years working for some of the biggest names in the shipping container industry Jane set up her own company, Billie Box Ltd, in 2012. Since launching, Billie Box Ltd has sold well over 1500 new and used containers.

Buying new shipping containers – top tips

Jane on June 26, 2014

Where are shipping containers built?

The vast majority – around 95% – of new shipping containers are built in China. Like with many industrial and commercial products, China offers cost-effective labour rates. The raw materials used in the construction of sea containers are often much lower in China than in any other country.

Containers are produced in other countries, but if you see a shipping container on the back of a lorry, on a ship or being used as storage it will almost definitely have been built in China.

As with many modern products the sheer number of containers being built in China means that Chinese producers have not only the most experience in building containers, but arguably have the most refined and perfected methods of manufacture.

Our factories in China predominately build sea containers for shipping. The demands of sea freight requires that any container used for shipping should be dry, clean, watertight and secure. Building shipping containers to match these demands makes them ideal for several secondary uses, most importantly secure storage.

Shipping container specifications

Shipping containers are designed to be ‘in cube’. This means that no feature or function of the container should protrude from the external perimeter of the clearly designed box shape of the container. This includes door handles, which should sit flush with the top and bottom rails of the container.
The tight specifications of shipping containers ensures that they can be placed securely on ships, but also makes them ideal for customers who wish to use more than one container for storage in a location where space is limited.

The cargo-worthiness of a container is regulated and ensured by a convention called Container Sage Convention (CSC). All shipping containers must have a CSC plate to be considered fit for purpose. A container’s CSC plate is usually found on the outside of the left front door of a container.

A CSC plate is to containers what a passport is to people. Container surveyors look for CSC plates and test containers to ensure they are capable and safe to carry cargo. Sea containers carrying a CSC plate are certified as being able to carry a cargo of up to 30 tons.

Driving down the cost of buying new shipping containers
As mentioned previously buying a Chinese-made shipping container is advantageous for a number of reasons in terms of build quality and cost-effectiveness of manufacture. Another advantage of buying a Chinese container is that they are shipped from China. This may seem an obvious fact to raise, but the truth is that if a new container travels from China to the UK with a cargo it dramatically lowers the purchase cost. Our ‘new’ containers are sometimes referred to as ‘once used’, ‘one trip from China’ or ‘used once from China’. The cost of buying a new container that has carried a cargo once from China is much lower than the cost of buying a new Chinese shipping container that is shipped from China empty. If we offered containers that had never been used the transport costs would be high, to the point of being cost-prohibitive, and uneconomical.

Shipping lines buy new containers to reflect demand

Shipping lines and leasing companies buy new shipping containers to meet demand. The ‘correct’ time to buy is decided upon in a different way for each organisation. Many shipping lines and leasing companies order at the same time, which then causes a problem with ‘supply and demand’. When the factories have larger orders, this can often drive the price up. Equally, when they don’t have many orders, the price goes down. During the recession in 2007-2009 we found the standard 20ft new shipping container price went to over £2,000 plus VAT each. Since Brexit in 2016 the price for a new 20ft container rose again and in May 2017 the price of a new 20ft container was around £2,000 plus VAT each. These prices will reduce as the factory order books get lower, however, this will take quite some time to reduce to a level not seen since 2015/2016. During Covid times a new 20ft containers rose to £3,500 plus VAT and in 2022 prices started to reduce. In 2024 prices levelled off to around £2,100 each plus VAT. Just imagine a container is just like a nugget of gold or a piece of silver. The container is a commodity that rises and falls in value just like any other commodities.

How new is new?
Some container suppliers will class a sea container as being ‘used/second hand’ when it has been used for commercial shipping for ten to fifteen years. The shipping lines and container leasing companies often decide how ‘old’ a container is when the decision is taken to sell them on.

However, we bring in genuinely new (once used) containers because our customers prefer the cleanliness and aesthetics of once-used containers.

New shipping containers – what to look for
Because new shipping containers are transported from China they may accrue some minor marking and dents. The rigours of loading, unloading, port movement, ship loading, train transport and road haulage inevitably has an affect on all new containers. But containers are built to be tough and resistant to these physical challenges.

However, when buying a new container there are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration.

  • There will be minor dents and scratches
  • Sometimes there will be some marking on the flooring of a new container
  • Above all a new container should be structurally sound, watertight and aestheti,cally tidy.

Every shipping container is thoroughly checked by experienced staff at our depots before being transported to our customers. Our top priority for every container sold is to exceed our customers’ expectations.

In a world where there is always someone who will supply containers cheaper, we supply better value containers at a more cost-effective price.

Ready to find out how cost effective our new shipping containers are?
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About Jane Billing
Jane Billing has over 30 years’ experience in shipping container supply. During that time Jane has gained a very broad knowledge of the whole shipping container industry. From construction, to shipping, to adaption and conversions, if you have a question about any aspect of the shipping container industry Jane will likely have the answer for you. After many years working for some of the biggest names in the shipping container industry Jane set up her own company, Billie Box Ltd, in 2012. Since launching, Billie Box Ltd has sold well over 1500 new and used containers.

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