Although space has often been a concern, no Stowers Rents facility is strictly rental, although rental may be the dominant activity in some.

“If we are going to borrow money to invest in a facility, how can we get the biggest bang for that buck? That's Wes' philosophy,” says rental division general manager Joel Harper. “Why limit it to just one focus if there is incremental value or incremental business to be gained from other areas of the operation?”

The west Knoxville rental branch, opened in May of this year, is 42,000 square feet with 16 service bays and has many of the features of a dealership location. “We needed more space, and Wes recognized the need to have some kind of presence in west Knoxville,” says Harper. “It's the high-growth part of the city. And with two interstate highways merging into one in the center of Knoxville, it's unbelievable the amount of traffic that flows through the center of the city. It's very inconvenient for our customers working in the growing part of west Knoxville to drive all the way across town to go to Stowers Machinery to pick up a part, discuss financing options or get service.”

And for that same reason, Stowers earlier this month opened a Stowers Rents facility on the grounds of its main dealership store in east Knoxville. The newest branch will facilitate the needs of customers in the eastern part of the city and utilize the existing dealership infrastructure, although it will have its own inventory and service bay.

Chattanooga: Chattanooga has not been the easiest market for Stowers Rents, and the company has had difficulty finding the right mix of people and machines. But the branch's performance has improved since the 2005 hiring of Marcia Gallo, who Harper calls “a breath of fresh air” for the location. Gallo is a 20-year rental industry veteran from upstate New York, starting in the industry with Rupp Rental (now Anderson Equipment) and eventually joining Caterpillar dealer Syracuse Supply (now Cleveland Brothers Equipment) as rental manager. She joined Stowers in 2005.

Gallo had to adjust to a different way of doing business when she moved to Tennessee. The pace was different, equipment terminology was different and the southeast Tennessee accent was so foreign to her that when she first started work on the rental counter she'd sometimes have to ask a salesman to come to the phone to interpret because she couldn't understand what the customer was asking for. But Gallo was conscientious, knowledgeable about equipment and quickly gained the respect of her co-workers. She adjusted to the differences and helped bring stability and improved performance to the branch.

Crossville: Located on the western edge of Stowers' territory, Crossville is a small town of fewer than 20,000 people, with 30,000 in the metropolitan area. The town has a vibrant ceramic industry, but a growing retirement community has created a need for infrastructure.

The Crossville rental branch, which the company founded in 2003, has been far more successful than the company originally expected. It shares its facility with Stowers' truck-engine service business. With more than a third of big trucks in the United States using Caterpillar engines, Crossville, located right on Interstate 40, was a natural fit for Stowers. Stowers' Knoxville locations also do truck engine repair, and both those facilities and the Crossville store have truckers' lounges where drivers can wait while repairs or servicing is being done.

The Crossville branch also sells compact construction equipment. When the Crossville branch was founded in 2003, its staff wondered how it would ever use all its space. The company built the 10,500-square-foot building to be able to add on to it, and will soon be constructing four additional service bays.

Jim Bivens leads Stowers' rental operations in Crossville.

Tri-Cities: In Tri-Cities, which includes Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport, Tenn., the Stowers branch follows a different model — a standalone rental center located on the same property as the company's dealership. All of Stowers Rents' equipment is kept on the right side of the yard, and the rental center shares the wash bay with the dealership. Although facilities are shared, Stowers Rents has its own staff and operations.

“The reason we built right on the property is that the dealership is in a good area, with easy accessibility right off the interstate,” says Harper. “If we were looking for property for a rental store, it would be the place we'd want to put one. That store has always been our most profitable branch, as a percentage of sales, because of lower overhead and they've done a great job with rental revenue; it's been a strong store since the beginning.”

Tri-Cities branch manager Louie Jones has been in the rental industry close to 20 years.