Storfjord Minilager: From Empty Warehouse to New Self-Storage Facility

When the long-term tenant moved out of a warehouse on Valle in Skodje, Norway, brothers Nils Magne and Lars Kristian Valde had a choice: find another single tenant, or do something different with the building. They chose self storage. Storfjord Minilager now rents drive-in units from 2.6 to 5.5 m², booked and paid for entirely online, with no key handover and no binding contract — and it’s the Sharefox platform running the booking, payment and access behind it.

Quick facts about Storfjord Minilager

Storfjord Minilager is a small, independently owned self-storage facility on Norway’s Sunnmøre coast. The short version: five unit sizes, no binding period, and access around the clock.

From empty warehouse to self storage on Valle

For years, the warehouse on Valle was rented out to a single business tenant at a time. When that tenant moved out, the brothers saw a different opportunity in the empty floor space.

Splitting one large hall into many small, separately rented sections turned out to be more profitable — and more resilient — than waiting for the next single tenant. As co-owner Nils Magne G. Valde describes the decision:

“The idea was that we’d rather split the space into smaller sections and rent them out separately. We went back and forth, searched online and talked to people, before we landed on self storage.”

The logic behind self storage is simple: people and businesses regularly need a bit of extra space — during a move, a renovation, for seasonal or hobby equipment, or because a company has outgrown its own warehouse. Storfjord Minilager set out to offer that extra space locally, without unnecessary hassle, a pattern covered in more detail in Sharefox’s guide to starting a self-storage business.

“We really want to deliver a quality product to our customers,” Valde adds. “We want everyone to feel that we’re a serious business, and that it’s both pleasant and safe to store their belongings with us.”

Drive right in, whatever the Sunnmøre weather

What sets Storfjord Minilager apart from many competitors is that tenants can drive straight into the hall — trailer included. Furniture, boxes and equipment are loaded and unloaded indoors, sheltered from rain and wind. With the facility sitting close to the E39, it’s an easy stop whether tenants are coming from Skodje, Ålesund, or elsewhere along the Storfjorden.

Drive-in access only works at scale if nobody has to meet someone on-site to hand over keys. Storfjord Minilager solved this with app- and code-based entry rather than physical keys — the same kind of keyless access technology that a growing share of European self-storage operators are adopting to cut both cost and friction for tenants.

Unit sizes and prices at Storfjord Minilager

Storfjord Minilager currently offers five unit sizes, all with a 2.75-metre ceiling — high enough that tenants can stack upward and use more than just the floor area.

There’s no binding period on any size, so tenants rent for as long as they actually need the space — a model Sharefox has broken down more generally in its guide to how self-storage pricing works. Availability for each size can be checked directly on Storfjord Minilager’s own booking page.

How to rent a unit at Storfjord Minilager

1. Check availability online and pick a unit size that fits what’s being stored.
2. Book and pay directly on the website — no phone call or in-person visit required.
3. Receive access details by email, usually within minutes of payment.
4. Drive in and load up, any time of day or night, using the access details provided.

Tenants never need to schedule a meeting to collect a physical key. If something comes up along the way, the brothers are reachable directly by phone or email — the self-service model doesn’t mean nobody is there.

From newcomer to full self-storage operation with Sharefox

Neither brother had worked in self storage before launching Storfjord Minilager. After comparing several providers, they chose Sharefox‘s self storage software, which combines the website, booking, payment and access control in a single system rather than stitching several tools together.

During setup, Sharefox Customer Success team member Andreas Mork worked closely with the brothers — and since he lives nearby, he was able to visit in person rather than only supporting remotely.

“Sharefox has been incredibly good at guiding us — we were completely new to this game. Andreas has walked us safely through a jungle of technical terms in completely unfamiliar territory, and we got answers to every question we had, even the ones that felt silly,” says Nils Magne G. Valde.

That kind of hands-on onboarding matters more for self-service storage than for a traditionally staffed facility: when there’s no front desk, the booking-to-access workflow has to work correctly from day one, because there’s no staff member standing by to fix a stuck door or a failed payment on the spot.

What the data says about self storage right now

Storfjord Minilager isn’t launching into a niche market — it’s launching into one that’s still growing and still has real headroom in less urban areas. According to the Federation of European Self Storage Associations’ (FEDESSA) 2025 industry report, Europe now has an estimated 10,571 self-storage stores, yet 37% of the public surveyed across Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Portugal said they had never heard of self storage at all — down from 45% the year before, but still a clear awareness gap outside the biggest cities.^[1]

A parallel 2026 market report on Germany and Austria, produced by CBRE together with the German self-storage association, found a similar pattern: occupancy and rents both continued to climb even as more than half of Germans surveyed said they still didn’t know what self storage was.^[2] For a facility like Storfjord Minilager, sitting in a smaller coastal municipality rather than a major city, that combination — real demand, low awareness — is exactly the gap a local, easy-to-find drive-in facility can fill, which is part of why visibility in local search results matters as much as the facility itself; Sharefox covers that angle in its local SEO guide for self-storage operators.

More space is on the way

The brothers are already planning a second building phase, expected to start in the autumn. It will add larger units, up to 8 m², and they’ve sketched further expansion if demand supports it.

“We want to be flexible and responsive to our customers,” Valde says. “With their feedback, we’ll deliver quality, safety and predictability for a long, long time.”

Storfjord Minilager isn’t the only small Nordic operator taking this path — Sharefox has also worked with facilities like Lagerbox Fyn in Denmark and Opbevaring.nu on similar self-service launches, and the self-storage marketing guide covers how newer facilities like these build awareness in their local area once the doors are open.

Congratulations on the launch

We at Sharefox are proud to deliver the system behind booking, payment and access at Storfjord Minilager, and we wish the Valde brothers the best of luck going forward.

Need storage space in Skodje or the surrounding area? Visit Storfjord Minilager and find a unit that suits you.

Running a self-storage facility, or thinking about starting one? Book a demo with Sharefox, and we’ll show you how the Sharefox self storage system can work for your facility.

Summary

Storfjord Minilager shows that an empty, single-tenant warehouse doesn’t have to sit idle or wait for the next big lease — splitting it into drive-in self-storage units, run on a connected booking-payment-access platform, turned it into a facility with no binding period and round-the-clock access from day one. A second, larger building phase is already in the works.