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By Cindy Chan
From portable offices to tool and supply sheds, Secure-Rite Mobile Storage Inc. cares about providing functional workspaces and secure onsite storage. 

The 10-year-old company is owned and operated by Lucas Griffin and serves Western Canada from its four locations in Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton, and Calgary. Secure-Rite Mobile Storage rents, sells and modifies shipping containers for several uses. In addition to jobsite office spaces and storage units for tools, the containers can also be modified into washroom containers, lunchroom containers and first-aid stations, to name a few. Secure-Rite Containers are repurposed steel shipping containers that are strong, weather-tight, and secure.

“On the resale side, we sell new and used containers,” Griffin explains. “The used units have worked hard on the ocean for 10 to 14 years. When their ocean-life is over, they make really good storage containers for businesses, farms, construction sites, and many other locations.”

Griffin says many companies rent Secure-Rite Containers for job-site storage to protect tools, supplies and equipment.

“Our containers are very secure. They’re weather-proof so they work really well for anything that needs to be out of the elements and protected,” Griffin elaborates.

Griffin believes having a storage container at a jobsite is also financially beneficial.

“The worst thing, for a contractor, is to show up to a site and find his tools stolen,” Griffin says. “He’s got guys standing around with no tools to do the work at hand. This will cost the contractor wages, time and money, in addition to the replacement costs of the tools. We feel that a storage container on site, protecting contents, actually creates efficiency and saves money in the long run, by preventing tools and supplies from being stolen.”

Site office units are a popular Secure-Rite product as well. Building an office container involves using a standard shipping container and adding windows and doors. The interior of the container is fitted with insulation, paneling, electrical and data connections, light, heat and air conditioning.

“They work really well on a jobsite,” Griffin adds. “Secure-Rite office containers are comfortable, quick to set up, extremely durable, easy to move, and offer ground level entry.”

Griffin also mentions that he’s been noticing that project footprints in big cities are often quite small, making traditional offices a cumbersome presence.

“What we’ve done recently is we’ve created a container walkway. It sits on the sidewalk just outside the worksite, so pedestrians can walk through the container and pass the site in safety,” Griffin explains. "Often, we place office containers on top of these walkway containers, and the offices are accessible only from the jobsite. This combination of custom containers creates an efficient worksite while protecting the nearby general public.” 

The storage-container company hit its 10-year mark this past March, and Griffin is excited for the future as he sees many possibilities for growth in his industry.

“On the modified container side of things, we believe the sky is the limit, and we’re going to see more and more complex container buildings in the future,” says Griffin. 

Currently, several low-income housing and training centres are built out of containers—and that’s only the beginning. 

Griffin started Secure-Rite Mobile Storage Inc. in March of 2005, with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in one hand and a passion for commerce in the other. Griffin says he always wanted to have his own business, but he was simply waiting for the right idea at the right time. At the end of 2004, he was researching the self-storage industry but was discouraged after realizing he needed a large amount of capital to get that idea off the ground. However, when he came across the idea of mobile storage, he knew he had found his calling.

“It fit with my blue-collar background, my marketing experience and my logistics expertise,” Griffin says. “It was one of those things I realized was a great fit in multiple ways.”
Griffin developed a business plan, quit his previous job and put all his effort into this business.

“Since we’ve started, we’ve been exceeding expectations,” Griffin says. 

The company was named Rising Star Business of the Year in 2007 as well as Small Business of the Year in 2013 at the Business Excellence Awards by the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce. 

This article first appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of SICA's Construction Review Magazine. To read the entire magazine click here.