Central Filing Ltd has tripled its storage space with a $300,000 expansion in Southampton.

The new facility on Industrial Park Road opened this month, and is designed for high-value business records, archival material, historical documents, special book collections and personal archives.

“We are really excited about the fact that it is new space where we can expand our services,” Jonathan Smith, Central Filing’s chief executive officer, said. “Ever since we bought the company in 2005, we’ve tried to be innovative and responsive to consumer demand.

“Clients were making specific requests for higher-level security measures such as fire suppression, and CCTV cameras, and longer-term retention.”

Clients range from individuals to corporations. Mr Smith said preservation of business-critical documents, and disaster recovery remain key priorities for businesses on the island.

“Our aim is to provide superior facilities, technology and service to businesses and clients,” he said. “Global companies are here and we have to meet that global standard. We have clients who demand and expect the highest standards in our industry.”

Mr Smith said there is a trend in his industry towards digitisation, but there is still a need for paper storage.

“The big picture on that is that we have certainly seen a slow down in traditional document paper storage,” he said. “That trend has been evidenced for the last eight to ten years. It has slowed down, but at this stage, paper still has demand for quality off-site paper service, and archive storage.”

Mr Smith said it’s important to stay creative and watchful in his industry.

“There is also a lot more forward planning that is done in terms of being able to adjust total amount of cubic feet that we have under our management,” he said. “No one wants to be caught with too much space.”

The expanded facility covers an area of over 4,500 square feet on two levels, and is fitted with access control, CCTV cameras, security systems, leading-edge storage technology, and a clean agent fire suppression system. The facility’s climate-controlled environment helps to protect documents and archives from damage caused by extreme weather, heat and humidity.

The fit-out included racking systems from Konstanz in Canada and inventory tracking technology from O’Neil Records Management Software, a California-based enterprise. Local vendors included Efficiency — for air-conditioning and dehumidification systems, BAC-Universal Electric for a state-of-the-art clean agent fire suppression system and 2Tech Ltd for security systems, CCTV cameras and access control.

“We intentionally align our business with global leaders such as O’Neil and partner with local service providers with reputations for excellence,” Mr Smith said. “The needs of our customers are constantly evolving and we aim to provide industry-leading, high-quality storage options for them.”

Central Filing is moving from a third-party location to this new, expanded facility which they have secured through a long-term lease with the National Warehouse Group of Companies. No new staff have been hired for the expansion.