This New Car-Storage Facility Won’t Even Let Owners Inside

Given that the value of a high-end collectible car—from a classic to a supercar—can easily exceed the average sale price of an Old Master painting, it’s surprising how many of these dream machines are still stored in insecure, climatically unsuitable places: domestic garages, old agricultural buildings, and even public car parks. British start-up Birch aims to change that.

Its founders are serious car collectors who struggled to find suitable accommodation for their valuable assets. But they also made their fortunes in insurance, and they saw not only that art-world standard storage would reduce owners’ premiums—often by more than the cost of the storage—but also that insurance providers will increasingly demand that collectors keep their cars in such facilities, as art insurers do.

The team responsible for creating Birch includes Grahame Chilton, who sold the British insurance group he cofounded for nearly $1 billion and whose sons Max and Tom have had successful careers as racing drivers. Max raced in Formula 1 before driving for Ganassi in Indy, and Tom, who is a multiple race-winner in the British and World Touring Car series, is now Birch’s commercial director.

The start-up’s first facility is a brand-new, unmarked, dark-green warehouse near Gatwick airport, approximately 30 miles from Central London. It’s now accepting the first of the 590 cars it will hold at around £100 (about $125) per week, and it has already become the approved storage provider for a major luxury carmaker. Birch has immediate plans to build further facilities in London itself and near the Formula 1 circuit Silverstone. In the longer term, there may eventually be around ten such units in the United Kingdom alone. International expansion, possibly on a franchise model and using some of the storage techniques it’s pioneering already, is also a possibility.

The Vault, as Birch refers to the storage area, is impressive to behold: it’s just a pity that no clients will get to see it. Robb Report was recently granted special access, but once more cars belonging to clients are present, only staff will have access to ensure security and confidentiality. You won’t be able to see your car once it’s inside, but neither can anyone else.

You can, however, have it back within fifteen minutes, thanks to Birch’s unique racking system. Other storage facilities might park their cars nose-to-tail, causing delays in extracting them and increasing the risk of damage as they’re moved to let others out. Birch, though, keeps each car on its own steel bed, which is lifted to its berth in one of the long, five-car-high avenues which are jaw-dropping in their scale.

The safety and security systems are just as striking. The fire system has a dedicated 90,000-liter (roughly 23,775-gallon) water tank and 1,300 sprinklers. In the unlikely event of a “thermal incident,” only the two sprinklers directly over the unfortunate car will be activated. There is 24-hour security, of course, as well as fingerprint recognition, 40 CCTV cameras, separate fireproof strongrooms for keys and documents, and even a separate security system for the custom-built lift truck which moves the beds and without which a car can’t be removed.

Birch will valet your car on arrival, if required, and send you a photographic record of its condition. The vehicle will be connected to a battery charger, which is monitored by an app, so it’s always ready to go. You can have a dust cover if you wish (“though there isn’t any dust,” says Tom) and the cars are visually inspected daily. The team asserts that the temperature and humidity in the building have never breached their target parameters, and that’s with monitoring done in both summer and winter.

Birch also offers a concierge service, arranging for maintenance and repairs to your car, and delivering the vehicle whenever you need it. International clients might want to keep a special car here for use when visiting the UK and Europe: Birch will meet you at the airport with it. If you’d rather deliver or collect it yourself, there’s a client lounge with some very impressive race cars which you are allowed to see.

“We really just want to be the best high-end car storage available,” says Tom. “There’s a huge need for it. I think we’ll be full here by summer, and I think we’ll fill up in London even faster, as a lot of high-end cars aren’t stored correctly there. Nobody has done it like this, or built a brand in this space,” he claims. As for how he would like Birch to be viewed by the collector-car community, Tom is clear. “This will be their vault, their bank.”

Click here for more photos of the new Birch car-storage facility near London Gatwick Airport.