News & Updates

• Sam Kennard built Kennards Self Storage from eight sites into 125+ across Australia and New Zealand, almost entirely using internally generated capital rather than external funding.
• By resisting public listing and private equity, Sam preserved control, culture, and quality, turning restraint into a strategic advantage in an increasingly capital-flooded industry.
• The model is simple. After three decades, the motivation hasn’t changed much: Acquire good sites, develop them well and grow their value over time.

Sam Kennard recently spoke with host Rob Langton about the history and growth of Kennards Self Storage, highlighting the company’s property-led business growth and how it has developed into the privately owned business it is today.

The moment everything changed
In December 1994, Sam Kennard walked into work expecting a normal day. Instead, his father Nev told him he was stepping down - effective Boxing Day.

Just like that, at 24 years old, Sam was running the business.

Nev didn’t linger. In fact, he moved to the United States shortly after, deliberately removing himself so he couldn’t interfere. It was an unusually clean break - and a surprisingly sophisticated succession decision. No shadow leadership. No second-guessing. Just responsibility, handed over in full.

At that moment, Kennards Self Storage wasn’t a polished, premium brand. It was a small, operation with eight centres, built on a low-cost, no-frills model in a category most people barely understood.

Sam didn’t inherit a finished business. He inherited a starting point. There was no “gradual transition.” No safety net. That forced clarity. When there’s no one to defer to, decision-making sharpens quickly.

Sam Kennard didn’t just build Kennards Self Storage into a 125+ site network across Australia and New Zealand. He did it while resisting many of the “default” moves modern businesses make - external capital, rapid expansion, and growth at any cost.

Most business stories focus on outcomes, scale, revenue, footprint. This one is a story about decisions.

What emerges isn’t just a success story. It’s a set of principles.

Early exposure 
Before leading the company, Sam packed supplies as a kid, cleaned equipment and storage units, and worked on-site operations.

By the time he took over, he understood the business from the ground up.

Later, his degree in land economics added a layer that mattered just as much: understanding that this wasn’t just an operations business, it was a property business.

Culture is what makes people care, and that’s what scales
In the late 1990s, high staff turnover forced a rethink. Sam realised the issue wasn’t the team, it was leadership and environment.

The response was a purposeful shift. In hiring, this meant evaluating cultural fit in addition to skills. In leadership, actively moving toward empowerment vs. command-and-control. On the ground, store managers were encouraged to act like owners, not just employees.

As the business grew, this became more and more powerful.

Growth is most powerful when it’s controlled
A defining moment came with the 2004 acquisition of a major competitor. It doubled the business, but importantly, it wasn’t reckless. The deal was structured carefully, risk was contained (not “bet the farm”), and external capital was used selectively, not permanently embedded. That pattern continued.

Kennards largely grew through reinvested profits, conservative financing and disciplined site selection. Not through aggressive capital inflows.

Staying private is a deliberate choice
While competitors pursued listings or private equity, Kennard chose to stay private. Not because capital wasn’t available, but because of what came with it - shorter time horizons, pressure to scale quickly, and loss of decision autonomy.

Instead, the business optimised for long-term asset value, consistent quality and controlled pacing.

In simple markets, experience becomes the real difference
Self storage looks simple - just space. But in reality, customers notice far more than you’d expect - cleanliness, lighting and visibility, security and ease of use.

Kennards leaned into this by designing for comfort and security (e.g. prioritising natural light by preserving space for windows rather than additional units), continually improving facilities and using data-informed, frequently adjusted pricing rather than static rates - keeping a simple storage business strategy.

Importantly, they don’t position purely as “premium”- but as better value for a better experience.

Demand isn’t always captured - it’s often created
In the early days, customers didn’t understand why they should pay for storage at all. The real competition wasn’t other companies - it was garages, spare rooms and friends and family.

Over time, as lifestyles changed and convenience became more valuable, demand grew.

Kennards didn’t just serve that demand, they helped normalise it.

Better to be disciplined than fast
In recent years, institutional capital has flooded into self storage. That creates pressure to deploy capital quickly, acquire aggressively and justify high valuations.

Kennards largely avoided that pressure with fewer deals, stricter criteria, and focus on high-quality, high-barrier locations.

What can look like slower growth is often just steady, controlled compounding over time.

The goal isn’t scale - it’s quality that compounds
After three decades, the motivation hasn’t changed much - acquire good sites, develop them well, and grow their value over time.

The model is simple. 

Great businesses aren’t built on complexity; they’re built on consistently applying simple ideas with discipline over long periods.

Some founders look for shortcuts, capital, growth hacks, rapid scaling. Kennards Storage approach is quieter and harder to replicate.

It relies on patience, control, and the willingness to grow at a pace that feels slow… until you look back 30 years later…

Podcast produced by Ready Media Group 
Photo courtesy of Louise Kennerley