Category: The BSS Journey

The racking columns arrived in packs — each roughly five tons in weight and eight metres long. My forklift looked tiny beside them, more like a toy than a machine. I stood there, hands on hips, thinking, How on earth am I going to unload these monsters? You might ask, “Didn’t you expect them to…

I hadn’t even begun negotiating when it happened. Both factories, eager to break into the UK market, saw my project as their golden ticket — their first UK demo site. And before I could even open my mouth, they were already competing with each other. Emails flew back and forth like a ping-pong match.Prices dropped…

I’ve visited many factories over the years — some impressively large, filled with the rhythmic clanging of metal and the hum of production.Our monitor arm supplier, for example, has about eight workshops, each roughly 40 by 100 metres. At the time, I thought that was big. Then I visited the automated warehouse racking factories. To…

Like many turning points in life, this one started by accident. I was idly browsing Alibaba, looking for something painfully ordinary — racking protectors — when a small advert tucked between the listings caught my eye:“Clustered Warehouse System — High Density Storage Solution.” I almost scrolled past it. But curiosity, that persistent troublemaker, got the…

Growth is supposed to be a good thing.That’s what every business book, podcast, and motivational quote says, anyway.More staff, more sales, more space — the natural rhythm of success. But in the UK, growth often comes with a catch. Hidden behind the proud moment of signing a new lease lurks something far less celebratory —…

October 2023. Out of nowhere, our external warehouse partner dropped the bombshell: they were downsizing. Translation — “Please remove your 300 pallets of stock as soon as possible.” Three hundred pallets. That’s roughly the same as someone saying, “Move a mountain by Friday.” At Merit House on Stanhope Street, our warehouse and office were already…

The idea of starting a self storage business first took root in my head about twenty years ago — back when I was desperately looking for somewhere, anywhere, to keep the seasonal stock for my new online retail venture, Allcam. I remember running through warehouses and lockups, doing the math over and over again, realising…