Business Spotlight: Riding the Wave

As the traditional interstate moving business shifts gears, Bill Locke believes his Go Mini’s franchise is in a prime position.

Locke, a veteran of nationwide moving company Mayflower, says once Pods came on the scene 16 years ago, he noticed the stalwarts of the moving industry began hauling portable containers on the backs of semitrucks.

“We could see the wave of the future coming,” says Locke, a Fayetteville, Ark., businessman, who 11 years ago retired as a Mayflower officer.

In 2006, he jumped into the Go Mini’s portable storage container rental business, which was developed a few years earlier by a disgruntled Pods franchisee.

“Pods created the space,” Locke says, and now, competition includes U-Pack, a division of ABF Moving, and Pack-Rat, which was acquired by Waste Management Inc.

While large corporations have seized opportunities in the portable storage space, Go Mini’s is majority owned by over 100 of its dealers and franchisees, and Locke is among them.

Locke owns the franchise rights in southwest Missouri, northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma. From his base in Fayetteville, Locke also operates a Mayflower agency under the banner of Admiral Moving Services Inc., a 100-employee company.

He entered the Springfield market via an acquisition with businessman Tom Barr, who in late 2005 launched Go Mini’s in Springfield. Locke says in 2010, about five months after Barr sold Ozark Mailing Service, he bought Barr’s Go Mini’s dealership for an undisclosed price.

Two years ago, Locke and a group of 60 authorized Go Mini’s dealers converted to franchisees.

“As dealers, we were left to our own devices,” he says, pointing to the handicap of handling marketing while running the day-to-day business.

As a franchisee, 2 percent of his 8 percent royalty fee pays for marketing efforts without him lifting a finger. Go Mini’s charges a $35,000 to $40,000 startup franchise fee, and the initial investment is roughly $400,000 to cover the required 50 containers and a delivery truck.

“It’s low overhead, but it’s capital intensive upfront,” says Locke, who owns 400 Go Mini’s containers, 180 of which are in the Springfield market. He says about 140 containers are leased during any given month and almost half are used by restoration companies.

Service Master Restoration rents one Go Mini’s container a month and more as larger emergency cleanups arise, says Kevin Chronic, construction manager for the disaster restoration outfit.

“I make a phone call, text an address and end up with one of the containers on site,” he says. “That’s about the easiest way it goes.”

The most common jobs calling for a container are water remediation, light fire cleanup and remodeling, such as drywall work. He says homeowner’s insurance typically covers the rental charges.

“Sometimes, you have to take belongings out of the home just to get to the work itself. If there is anything they need, it’s still on site,” Chronic says, noting the containers cut down on the cost of fuel and labor, as well as limiting the potential of damaging the goods.

“Their stuff never leaves their address. It’s almost like moving it room to room.”

Service Master brought in a Go Mini’s container for a recent kitchen fire at Shoney’s on North Glenstone Avenue, while completing cleaning and reconstruction inside. “All the tables, chairs and kitchen utensils stayed on site,” he says.

Individual rentals are most commonly for residential moves, but others use the containers to simply stash seasonal decor.

“We have one client who keeps all her Christmas decorations in here,” Locke says.

The containers also met emergency storage needs in Joplin and Branson during post-tornado cleanup. Locke says 60 Go Mini’s were deployed to Joplin three years ago, mostly for medical storage by Mercy and McCune-Brooks hospitals, and during cleanup from the 2012 Leap Day storm in Branson, Service Master staged 12 Go Mini’s on a hotel parking lot for use as needed.

Go Mini’s rents its 8-by-8 foot containers by the month, and Locke says most popular is a 16-foot length for $120 a month and an industry rarity 20-foot container for $150 a month. The company also has a 12 footer for $90 a month.

“We never rent them,” Locke admits.

With two local employees to handle orders and logistics, Go Mini’s Springfield operation generated $180,000 in 2013 revenue. Companywide, Locke Mobile Containers’ business was up 7 percent to $470,000 in revenue between the three markets.

To all the hype around portable storage, Locke points to a key statistic: Traditional ministorage involves four touches of customer furniture, considering off-site unloading and reloading, and the portable container business involves just two.

Service Master’s Chronic prefers that level of protection.

“If we damage something, that’s out of our pocket,” he says. “The less you move it, the less chance there is to doing damage.”