ISS released its yearly top operators list for 2023, and we felt it would be a good time to compare it to a list from days long past.
We had a copy of the 2010 list hanging around, so we figured, “Why not start there?” It’s like traveling back to another era.
Ready to see how the top 100 operators have changed in the last thirteen years? What can we learn about the self storage industry based on the changes?
Time to dig in!
Each year, Inside Self-Storage releases the list of the top 100 self storage operators.
The list is not a statement about the quality of the businesses, how they operate, or their potential or influence in the industry.
Instead, ISS ranks storage companies on the list by one simple metric: square footage.
You can find the top operators list by clicking here!
Out of the whopping 100 self storage companies on the 2010 list, only 22 still remain on the list after thirteen years. An additional 5 from the 2010 list are included on the new top 50 management companies list, and so also retain their ISS top list glory.
Here are the operators that are still standing on the ISS top 100 list (or the top management companies list) thirteen years later:
If you're good at quick math, you know that means a much larger portion of the list has changed up. Seventy-eight operators, to be exact.
As a quick disclaimer, ISS started a second list of the top facility management companies. In this post, we're just focusing on the changes to the main list. Some companies may have left the "top operators" list but still be present on the "top management companies" list.
Whether because they’ve sold their facilities or just because they’ve been surpassed by competitors, 78 operators from the 2010 list are no longer in the top 100 as of the 2023 list.
Here are all 78 old and all 78 new self storage operators (in alphabetical order, not by rank):
Whew. That’s a lot of change!
As we mentioned, they also added an entirely new list of the top 50 facility management companies. Some of the companies from the 2010 top operators list are even on the 2023 facility management companies list.
At just 50 companies, that's a much more exclusive list. Good job!
Now, I know you could have just purchased and downloaded the list yourself.
You still might want to—it’s chock-full of potentially useful information about these operators that isn’t mentioned here in this post.
That being said, we poured over the lists ourselves and found some fun facts we wanted to highlight!
Here are those 4 operators that managed to stay on the list AND improve their ranks: Morningstar Properties (31->17), StorPlace Self Storage (77->69), Superior Storage (70->57), and US Storage Centers (33->19).
Congratulations, you all!
Want to take a more critical look at what all of those fun facts mean?
Here are three takeaways from the changes in the top 100 operators list.
This has been big news this year, and the list doesn’t even fully represent the fact that consolidation is kicking into high gear.
Let’s take a look at one of the fun facts from above: the top 3 operators of 2023 have more square footage than the top 10 of 2010.
That’s a big deal, but in reality, Extra Space Storage acquired Life Storage. If we consider this, then the truth is that the top 2 2023 operators—not top 3—are larger than the top 10 of 2010.
In fact, the top two of Public Storage and Extra Space (plus their addition of Life Storage) are larger than the next 20 largest operators combined.
Let’s say that another way: It takes #3 through #23 from the 2023 top operators list to have more combined square footage than #1 and #2.
Ok, let’s be fair: this isn’t an entirely scientific method.
But a quick read over the top 100 lists from 2010 and 2023 seems to reveal that there are more investment firms, more capital and holdings companies, on the 2023 list.
Combined with what we know about the splash that storage has been making in the greater world of real estate as a reliable asset class, it would seem to confirm that there is a lot more outside money that entered the industry in the last decade.
Did you catch that stat from earlier?
28 operators on the 2023 list were founded in the last 10 years
17 of those new operators were in the top 50. Compare this to 2010, where only 14 operators on the list were that young, and only 6 in the top 50.
32 of the top 100 in 2023 didn’t even exist when the 2010 list was made!
This reflects the rest of the industry, too: A lot of new folks have entered the storage arena over the last decade.
There are only so many conclusions we can make based on a list of the top 100 operators.
That said, some of the numbers are pretty telling. The top operators of today really do have much larger portfolios than the top storage operators of 2010.
Of course, being in the top 100 isn’t everyone’s goal! You don’t need to strive for that kind of growth to still be successful.
What was your favorite fun fact when comparing the two lists?
Here are some of my other favorites to check out!
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