New storage unit business opens in Steinbach

With locations in Manitoba, Ontario, and Alberta, Storage Bros. has opened its second southeastern location in Steinbach.

“We’ve actually been interested in Steinbach for a long time. The population is growing. Businesses are always expanding. There’s lots of economic activity here, and it’s kind of a hub for the Southeast. And so we’ve been interested in the region for a while,” said co-owner Greg McKnight.

McKnight founded Storage Bros. with his brother Derek in 2020. Prior to that, in 2015, they started their events business. COVID put on hold the events business and the brothers were looking at other opportunities. Since they were interested in real estate, when the opportunity came to buy a storage business in Lac du Bonnet they jumped at it.

“Our second property was in La Broquerie, about 15 minutes from here. And, yeah, we kind of just kept expanding throughout the years,” said McKnight.

In five years, they’ve expanded into 10 properties and McKnight said it’s because they’re ambitious.

“We’re relatively young, so we have kind of a long-term horizon, or long-term outlook and long-term goals,” he said, noting they expanded into Alberta because they were interested in setting up a business in Western Canada and the Kenora property was a natural fit.

The brothers have divided up the workload with accountant Derek handling all the finances and Greg the customer service side of the business. Greg said the brothers chose to set up their businesses in rural communities as prices are too high in large urban centres such as Winnipeg.

Greg said the brothers stay competitive by offering excellent customer service.

“So if you look at any of our Google reviews for any of our locations, the feedback is generally quite good. We’ve never had a review less than four stars. And so we try to be very responsive to our customers’ needs,” he said.

An example of that responsiveness is when a customer couldn’t get the door open to their unit. Greg called his maintenance guy who arrived within 10 minutes and resolved the matter.

The Steinbach location has 114 units and Greg said he has a special promotion on right now for new customers and anyone looking for a yearly lease.

“We’re really hoping to serve the City of Steinbach well and do what we can for our customers.”