Portable storage units move into market

Then Rosenbury found Go Mini’s – a temporary, portable storage container business that Tom Barr was in the midst of opening.

Rosenbury had a 12-foot storage unit delivered to his home on the spur of the moment.

“The thing that I liked about it is that it was right out by the front door,” said Rosenbury, a partner at architectural and engineering firm Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. “We didn’t have to carry stuff all over the place or take it to a mini-storage someplace else.”

Barr, founder and president of 23-year-old Ozark Mailing Service, 2804 N. Oak Grove, bought into the four-year-old Go Mini’s business in July. He made 36 containers available at the beginning of October.

Barr’s old friend, Bill Norris, started Go Mini’s in Jacksonville, Fla., to compete with PODS, Portable On Demand Storage, which has a presence in St. Louis and Kansas City but has yet to invade Springfield.

Barr’s new dealership, JCB Containers LLC, is one of 118 Go Mini’s dealerships in the country, including St. Louis, Kansas City and the Columbia/Jefferson City area.

“My goal over the next few months is to educate the public exactly why these are so convenient,” said Barr, who invested about $200,000, part of which was through a loan with Countryside Bank, to start the venture.

Barr said the steel containers, which come in three sizes and are fully transportable, have a variety of uses, including a long-term alternative to renting moving trucks.

Containers have an initial rental period of a month, with fees from $89 to $149 depending on size, plus about $79 for transportation. After the first month, customers have the option of extending the rental on a weekly basis.

The container sizes are 12-by-8-by-8 feet, 16-by-8-by-8 or 20-by-8-by-8. Customers can either store the Go Mini’s containers on their property or have Barr store them.

Barr said he wanted to reach the residential market after establishing himself in the local business-to-business service field.

“We have a good name and reputation in the community already, established through Ozark Mailing,” he said.

Barr said he was surprised to find out that his friend, Norris, who had also owned a mailing service, was the man behind Go Mini’s.

“It was a small world when I was doing my due diligence on this business,” Barr said. “That gives me great comfort, also, because I know Bill to be a very reputable businessperson.”

Added Norris, “It was just a total coincidence.”

Norris said an average Go Mini’s dealership will grow to offer more than 100 containers, and annual corporate revenues are between $30 million and $40 million.

Barr is using Ozark Mailing facilities and employees to run his Go Mini’s dealership, but he expects to hire new employees – probably two or three drivers and a salesperson – within six weeks.

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