NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. last month opened a branch in Nashville, Tenn., that appears to signal a new direction for the rental industry's second-largest rental company, RER has learned. With a 4,000-square-foot showroom and 8,000-square-foot warehouse, HERC is continuing its experiment with point-of-purchase contractor supplies.

HERC's new Nashville branch is a consolidation of three smaller outlets it operated in the Nashville area before, which included its own branch and two it acquired from Care Supply. Manager Chris Coleman told RER that the branch, a prototype of HERC's new direction, has 16 service bays and 70 employees, and is designed to be a one-stop shop with a full gamut of equipment from point-of-purchase contractor supplies to large earthmoving equipment. And after doing business here as Hertz Care, the transition name has been dropped in favor of Hertz Equipment Rental & Supply.

In a departure from its past emphasis, Hertz has, within the past two years, also acquired Cleveland-based Phillips, Day & Maddock and Kansas City, Mo.-based Contractor Supply Co. - rental companies that, in addition to renting large construction equipment, sold significant quantities of contractor supply items.

BEAUMONT, Texas- Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. last month acquired Service Pump & Compressor, based here, a leading supplier of pumping equipment for industrial and construction customers and municipal and offshore markets.

Its 13 locations (Theodore and Hueytown, Ala.; Tampa and Orlando, Fla.; Broussard, Sulphur, Baton Rouge, Belle Chasse and Shreveport, La.; Jackson, Miss.; and Clute, LaPorte and Beaumont, Texas) will operate under the name Hertz Service Pump & Compressor.

"With an already expanded line of pump equipment, the addition of Service Pump provides us with the ability to service well-pointing and dewatering construction and petroleum-chemical water sites," said Gerald Plescia, HERC president. "We're very pleased, too, that principals Loddie Naymola, Dennis Mitchell, Ashley Walker and Donald Lewis will remain with the acquired company."

Service Pump & Compressor's net revenues for 1998 were $13.8 million. No price was disclosed for the cash-for-stock transaction.

HERC, Park Ridge, N.J., is No. 2 on the RER 100, with estimated 1998 rental revenue of $603.1 million.