RER magazine has released its annual RER 100 listing and analysis of the equipment rental industry’s 100 largest companies based on rental volume. Based on 2009 rental volume, the total rental volume of the 100 companies was $10.312 billion, the lowest total for the 100 largest companies since 2004’s listing and a 25.3-percent year-over-year decline compared to 2008 volume, which totaled $13.802 billion.
The year-over-year decrease was the largest drop in the history of the chart, which was first published in 1986.
For the top 10 companies on the RER 100 chart, the decline was slightly larger than the rest of the chart, with the top 10 companies totaling $6.568 billion, a 26.3-percent drop compared with $8,907 billion in 2008 rental volume.
RER 100 companies were almost unanimous in reporting revenue declines, with fewer than a handful of exceptions, with double-digit decreases being normal. RER 100 executives were less unanimous in their expectations for 2010. Some companies already sense a more positive business environment in 2010; others expect small improvements in the second half of this year, while others don’t expect much improvement before 2011.
Most RER 100 companies dealt with the challenging environment in 2009 by aging their fleets, reducing the size of their fleets, cutting staff and putting a variety of cost-cutting initiatives into effect. While several companies opened new branches to utilize under-performing fleet, in general RER 100 companies were more conservative, closing branches and cutting expenses wherever possible.
Figures for the RER 100 are obtained from records of public companies, numbers reported by participating companies and estimates by the RER staff.
The RER 100, printed in RER’s May issue, will be arriving in subscribers’ mailboxes within the next week. The listing will soon be available at www.rermag.com.
