What Smart-Space does

Smart-Space (legal entity Portable Venues (Group) Ltd) is a UK-based, privately held provider of temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent steel-framed buildings, headquartered in Tamworth with a 40-year operating history. Its product portfolio spans relocatable industrial tents, steel-framed interim buildings, permanent steel buildings with up to 100m clear span and a 25-year guarantee, large-format Maxi-Space and Mega-Space structures, and a Smart Recycle refurbished-building sub-brand. Buildings use aluminium frames, PVC roofs, steel wall cladding, and configurable insulation (40-120mm), are designed to be relocatable, and are installed in 7-28 days by directly employed teams with no subcontractors.

The company operates a sales-led, direct-only distribution model: customers engage via website quote forms, phone, or an M42-based display centre, and Smart-Space handles planning permission, groundworks, design, and installation in-house. Revenue is generated through four streams — short-term and long-term rental (subscription-style, no minimum term, seven-day termination notice), outright sale of new buildings, Smart Recycle refurbished sales at up to 30% discount, and bundled project management services. Customer mix spans SMEs as the primary segment plus enterprise accounts across automotive (Kia, Jaguar Land Rover, Richmond Cars), manufacturing (Sertec, Shimizu), logistics (DB Schenker, Mitchell Powersystems), education, sports, aerospace, rail, and maritime/defence, served exclusively within the UK.

Commercially, Smart-Space holds ISO 9001/14001/45001, Made in Britain, SAPCA, Achilles UVDB, CHAS, and Safe Contractor credentials, supporting enterprise and public-sector tenders. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The company has no external institutional investment, no disclosed subsidiaries, and no current M&A activity, and operates under founder/family leadership (Antony Hunt) following a 2025 corporate restructure from family-business to limited-company form.

Name

Smart-Space

Legal name

Portable Venues (Group) Ltd

Website

https://smart-space.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Smart-Space is a UK-based, 40-year-old provider of relocatable temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent steel-framed buildings, sold and rented directly to SMEs and enterprises across automotive, manufacturing, logistics, education, and sports sectors, with full in-house planning, design, and installation.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tamworth

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Building Rental: Short-term and long-term rental of temporary buildings with flexible terms, no minimum hire period, and seven days' notice to terminate.
2. Building Sales: Purchase of temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent steel buildings. Includes bespoke design and build services.
3. Smart Recycle (Refurbished Buildings): Sale of refurbished, pre-loved temporary buildings at lower cost, providing second-life buildings cleaned, repaired, and reinstalled.
4. Full-Service Project Management: Comprehensive service including planning permission, groundworks, drawings, design, and installation handled in-house.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Smart-Space designs, manufactures, sells, and rents temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent steel-framed buildings for UK industrial and commercial customers. Its portfolio spans relocatable aluminium/PVC tents, semi-permanent steel interim buildings, and 100m clear-span permanent steel structures, all available for hire or purchase with full in-house project management from planning permission through installation.

Product overview

Smart-Space is a UK-based provider of temporary and permanent building solutions, operating as a single unified product portfolio that ranges from short-term relocatable structures to permanent steel buildings. The core offering spans five main building types: Temporary Buildings (relocatable industrial tents with PVC roofs), Semi-Permanent Interim Buildings (steel-framed with improved insulation), Permanent Steel Buildings (up to 100m clear span with 25-year guarantee), Maxi-Space Buildings (clear span with no internal supports), and Mega-Space Buildings (large-scale flexible spaces). Smart Recycle offers refurbished versions of temporary buildings at reduced cost. Building applications include warehouses, workshops, storage facilities, valeting bays, aircraft hangars, classrooms, sports facilities, and industrial canopies. All buildings are available with flexible rental or purchase options, custom designs, and full installation services including planning permission support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Smart Recycle: Refurbished temporary buildings scheme offering second-life buildings that are cleaned, repaired, and reinstalled at lower cost. Save up to 30% compared to new buildings.

Products and services

• Temporary Buildings Quick-installation relocatable industrial tents available for hire or purchase with PVC roofs, steel-clad walls, and aluminium frames; offered with flexible rental terms and no fixed contract for SMEs and growing businesses needing overflow or temporary space.
• Semi-Permanent Interim Buildings Steel-framed temporary buildings with steel roofs and aluminium frames, offering improved insulation over PVC tents for mid-term people-working applications.
• Permanent Steel Buildings Cost-effective alternative to traditional bricks-and-mortar construction, offering up to 100m clear span, available for lease or purchase with a 25-year guarantee, meeting all L2 building requirements and capable of being fully fire rated.
• Maxi-Space Buildings Clear-span buildings with no internal upright supports providing uninterrupted space for large-scale operations including warehouses, sports facilities, and industrial uses.
• Mega-Space Buildings Flexible, durable, and energy-efficient large-scale buildings for extensive storage and operational needs.
• Smart Recycle (Refurbished Buildings) Refurbished temporary-building scheme offering cleaned, repaired, and reinstalled high-quality second-life buildings at lower cost, providing up to 30% savings compared with new buildings.
• Storage Buildings Flexible storage buildings for stock and equipment storage, designed around customers' specific business operations, available as temporary or permanent structures and relocatable if needed.
• Warehouse Buildings Temporary and permanent warehouse solutions with quick installation, custom designs, and rental or purchase options, including insulated warehouses for climate-controlled storage.
• Workshop Buildings Cost-effective workshop buildings for automotive, manufacturing, and industrial sectors, available as temporary tents, temporary steel, or permanent steel options with hire or purchase flexibility.
• Valeting Bays Scalable car-valeting and smart-repair bays for the motor industry, customisable layouts with options for short or long-term hire or purchase, operational in 7–28 days.

Quantifiable outcome

• Installed in 7-28 days
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Marwood Group: UK specialist in temporary buildings, modular structures and site accommodation for construction, education, and events. Direct competitor to Smart-Space in the SME and enterprise temporary building hire market.
• Premier Modular: UK provider of modular buildings for hire and sale across education, healthcare, commercial and construction sectors. Directly comparable product offering to Smart-Space's permanent and semi-permanent steel building lines.
• Wernick Group: One of the UK's largest modular building hire and sale companies, supplying temporary and permanent buildings for construction, education, and commercial use. Comparable to Smart-Space in product range (modular/prefab buildings) and direct sales-led model.
• Spaciotempo: UK-based provider of temporary and permanent industrial buildings, including clear-span warehouses and sports facilities. Direct competitor to Smart-Space across temporary building hire, sale, and installation with a comparable UK-only geographic footprint.
• Containment UK: UK temporary building and containment structure supplier serving industrial, construction, and environmental sectors. Comparable product scope and customer base to Smart-Space's industrial temporary building offering.

Emerging players

• Mobile Mini UK: UK provider of portable storage containers and steel containers for hire and sale. Adjacent offering to Smart-Space's storage and warehouse building solutions, focused primarily on container-based storage rather than framed buildings.
• A-Plant (Sunbelt Rentals): Major UK equipment rental company (part of Sunbelt Rentals) offering site accommodation and welfare units alongside construction equipment. Partial overlap with Smart-Space's temporary building rental business, particularly for construction site customers.

Others

• Loscam UK: Pooling and rental provider for pallets, crates and containers across the UK and Asia-Pacific. Adjacent rather than directly comparable to Smart-Space, but represents the broader asset-rental business model that Smart-Space applies to temporary buildings.

Broad incumbents

• Portakabin: Largest UK modular building brand, offering temporary and permanent modular buildings (Portakabin, Titan, Pacemaker). Wider portfolio and greater institutional scale than Smart-Space, but directly overlapping in the temporary buildings for hire market.
• Algeco UK: International modular space and portable building provider with significant UK operations, supplying site accommodation, modular buildings and storage. Comparable in temporary building rental/sales but operates at much larger scale across multiple European geographies.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/portable-venues-group
• Xx.com/SmartSpaceBuild

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Smart-Space