The rental industry tends to be something of its own community — the kind of business where owners and employees know the owners and employees at other rental businesses in surrounding areas. There are often links and ties from one rental person to another, and one rental business to another. That is certainly true for Gerken Rent-All and its Overland Park, Kan., store at 15273 Metcalf, a building that has been witness to thousands of rental transactions throughout the years.
Its walls have many stories to tell about the rental equipment business past and present. The building has seen owners come and go, signs over the front door change names, it even sat empty for a few short months, waiting for familiar faces, the crisp, fresh sheets of expectant rental contracts and the pungent scent of gasoline to return and fill it with verve. Chapter after chapter, owner after owner, it has remained a rental equipment business with each turn of a page.
Gerken Rent-All, which is headquartered in Paola, Kan., came to own and operate the rental store on Metcalf, which RER recently visited, when it acquired two-location Action Rental in October 2012, adding Overland Park, Kan., and Harrisonville, Mo., to its growing assemblage of rental stores.
The Overland Park location is actually the fourth rental branch for the Gerkens. The brothers — Rusty, Wes, Bo and their brother-in-law Mike Valent — hail from a farming family but didn’t see enough growth potential for it in their area to make a career of it.
“Basically with no future for us in farming, we decided to look for something else and we saw an ad in the local paper that there was a rental company for sale in Paola,” says Rusty Gerken. Deciding to pursue a career in equipment rental, the brothers, who ranged in age from 23 to 17 at the time, purchased the business from the Hamlins in November 2002. The largest of its seven locations, Paola, Kan., functions as the company’s headquarters and has the biggest yard, the biggest equipment storage area, and serves as home base for the semi-trailer the company uses for deliveries and transfers of large equipment. It also offers customers self-storage, a provision unique to that location. Rusty, Wes and Bo, who don’t use official titles in the day-to-day operations of the business, stay at the Paola store most of the time, though they do go out to the other stores if they need equipment to be moved from another location.
“We don’t really have titles,” explains Gerken. “We basically just all get together and make a decision together. I’m the key one who takes care of the finances so everything does have to go through me, but for the most part we all just make a decision together.”
The Gerkens’ father, Gary, also works in the shop with his sons when he’s not farming. “I have a lot of respect for anyone that farms because if you can farm you can run any business, so we use my dad for a lot of advice,” Gerken says. “He’s kind of like the old man on “Pawn Stars” — at least that’s what we tease him of being.”
After getting a few years of experience under their belts in Paola, the brothers decided in 2005 to buy another existing rental company, formerly known as Rent Masters, 25 miles to the west in Ottawa, Kan. The Gerkens’ brother-in-law Valent helps run that location and Gary Hamblin (no relation to the Hamlins) is the store manager there.
Five years later in 2010 the brothers were ready to add a third location. This time they headed 11 miles east of Paola to Louisburg, Kan., and started up the new location from scratch, securing rental equipment coverage for customers spanning from west to east across the southern edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side of the state line.
A couple years passed before the Gerkens had an opportunity to expand again, this time by acquiring Don Brown’s Action Rental businesses in Overland Park, Kan., and Harrisonville, Mo., starting their chapter in the storied rental building at 15273 Metcalf.
“Don’s been a real key player in helping us,” says Gerken. “A lot of people know Don Brown in the rental industry. He’s been in the rental business for years. He’s helped us with a lot of good advice.”
“I’ve known of the Gerkens for a few years, but actually got to know them better after visiting with them at a rental store auction a couple of years ago,” explains Brown. “I like the way they do business, which means — a lot like my operation — so selling to them was a natural fit. It also meant a less disruptive situation for my employees, some of whom I had worked with for 25 years.”
Though he’s out of the rental business once again, Brown still owns the buildings in Overland Park and Harrisonville that Gerken Rent-All now occupies. Brown’s original Action Rental business was acquired in 1996 by Ellmen Rent-All, which occupied the building on Metcalf for about six months before United Rentals bought them out later that year. United had a good run there in O.P., operating the branch for seven-and-a-half years before deciding to close the location in favor of its larger branches in the Kansas City metro.
In the six months between United vacating the building and the expiration of its lease, the building sat empty. But soon Brown decided to reopen his Action Rental store, calling on former United Rentals branch administrator Lois George personally at her home in Louisburg to ask her to come back to the Overland Park building on Metcalf to work. George worked at the location for the duration of the United Rentals years and Brown knew her not only because he owned the building, but also because he owned the property across the street from her home.
“Don came to my house and told me he was reopening Action Rental at this location and wanted to know if I’d come back to the building, so I did — I stay with the building,” George says laughing. “I worked here for United, then I worked here for Action and now I work for Gerken.”
“I’ve known Lois for 17 years,” says Brown. “She actually started working for the outfit I sold to back in 1996. She is very knowledgeable and no one is better at customer relations.”
Prior to their acquisition of Action Rental George, who now manages the Overland Park branch, had never met the Gerkens, but she knew of their rental store in her hometown of Louisburg.
Beginning with the Action Rental acquisitions in the fall of ’12, growth for Gerken Rent-All has continued fast and furious. In March, the company acquired its sixth store — this one in Gardner, Kan., a strategically positioned addition to its sprinkling of rental locations about 20 miles north of Paola in a fast-growing southern Kansas City suburb. Then, just last month the company acquired Mitchell’s Rental Yard in Leavenworth, Kan., its seventh location and the farthest north geographically, expanding its reach to customers more than 50 miles north of its headquarters in Paola.
Gerken Rent-All caters to small contractors, municipalities and homeowner customers at all of its locations, and carries equipment from a variety of manufacturers including Genie, Bil-Jax, JLG, Bobcat, Ditch Witch, John Deere, Vermeer, Mi-T-M, Husqvarna, Stihl, Billy Goat, Wacker Neuson and Groundhog. Depending on the location, however, customers and fleet mix vary. Categories of equipment Gerken offers include air compressors, automotive tools, concrete tools, floorcare equipment, generators and light towers, hauling and dump trailers, high-reach equipment, trenchers, heaters, post-hole diggers, pressure washers, drain-cleaning equipment, water and trash pumps, and more.
The Overland Park store, for example, is situated near a heavy concentration of single-family housing developments, making it a popular destination in spring and fall for lawn and garden equipment such as aerators, verticutters, overseeders, stump grinders, roto tillers, chainsaws and more.
“Our fall season starting in September last year was awesome because of the drought,” George says. “Everybody was wanting to save their yard. When we got the flooding here a couple months ago, all our pumps and carpet fans went out on rent.”
In addition to its strong homeowner customer base, several large-scale commercial projects in Overland Park also have Gerken equipment on them, including Tallgrass Creek, a full-service retirement community, with ongoing construction planned through 2014, and Corbin Park, an upscale shopping development with continuing expansion into 2015. McPherson Contracting, a contractor for the local public school district is also a frequent customer.
“Construction is picking up so we are renting out a lot of stuff that hasn’t been rented out, but that also has a lot to do with the season,” says Dan Shumate, rental coordinator in Overland Park.
The Ottawa, Kan., store, which is about 40 miles southwest of O.P., has very different customers. A smaller, more rural community, Ottawa is home to a lot of farmers and people who have been taking apart equipment since they were youngsters. Unlike the homeowner customers in O.P. who are often unsure if they need a front or a rear-tine tiller for their job, the Ottawa clientele are generally much more equipment savvy.
Gerken Rent-All’s Ottawa and Louisburg locations also serve as dealers for the Husqvarna brand, and Ottawa is a Stihl dealer as well. In addition, the company sells and fills propane bottles, sells moving boxes and supplies, and offers torch bottle exchange at each of its locations.
Customers in Harrisonville, Mo., are another demographic yet. Lawn & garden equipment there is not in high demand. Where the Overland Park location has 25 verticutters, Harrisonville has but one. Skid-steer loaders and telehandlers, however are rented nearly four to five times as often.
“Down there they dig a lot of water lines so they use the mini-excavators and the skid steers,” explains George. “We use them here too, but they’re on the smaller jobs where a contractor, for example, has a gravel driveway to replace or raised flower beds to install.”
Doorway to the jobsite
Gerken Rent-All fills a unique niche that often serves as an introduction of the business to new customers. The company added portable toilet rentals to its equipment offerings about six years ago after a successful stint at sub-renting them through an individual in La Cygne, Kan., who owned 40 units. “He found out we were the ones doing all the renting of them and if it weren’t for us he wouldn’t be in business, so he sold them to us,” Gerken explains. “We started out with 40 units and now we own 350 of them.”
The company offers a couple different types of portable toilets, including handicapped units and sink units for use on construction sites or at special events. Though they aren’t the largest part of the business for Gerken, the Porta Potties are a significant portion because they require a lot of labor, including a full-time employee who handles pick-up, delivery and maintenance of the units.
“What helps with the Porta Potties is it helps us get into the construction side of jobsites with the contractors,” Gerken says. “Once they call for a Porta Potty we’ll ask if they need any other equipment. It’s the same way with events — if there’s a big concert event they’ll call wanting portable toilets and we’ll then ask them, ‘Do you need portable generators and light towers and stuff like that?’ That gets us in the door with that group of customers too.”
Like family
The Gerken brothers are very hands-on owners and have a strong customer-centric philosophy, providing high-end service to customers at all seven of their locations, treating them how they would want their family members to be treated.
When a customer rents an item, the rental coordinators will go over it with them, show them how to operate it, review the safety features and then load it into their vehicle for them. When equipment is returned, someone generally meets the customer at the curb, ready to unload the item for them while they close out their rental contract.
“The Gerkens are great,” says George. “We are very customer friendly. Any question, any concerns, we try to tackle those things up front before the customer actually gets the piece of equipment and gets it home. But if they do get it home, and something happens and they call back, we try to talk them through it over the phone, and, if necessary, we will go out to them. I’ve gotten numerous calls from homeowners about how they couldn’t believe the politeness and the helpfulness they get from us compared to your Home Depots and some of your other rental locations. We try to greet them as they come in the door and always thank them for using us. We always ask them how the equipment ran.”
No matter how big or small the item a customer comes to Gerken Rent-All for, the service is the same. When a customer brings in a propane bottle to be filled, a Gerken employee will go out to their car, get their bottle, fill it and then walk it back out to their car.
“There aren’t a lot of companies that seem to have the actual customer service that will go out and open the door for somebody and then help them unload something,” George adds. “We’re willing to help them. We’ve got a lot of customers who have been coming here for the past 15 years to this building. They’ve been here with us through all the changes.”
Rusty Gerken says Gerken Rent-All differentiates itself from competitors by being hands-on and accessible owners and operators.
“Well, the big corporate guys, I’d say as owners you don’t see their CEOs out fixing a piece of equipment that’s broken down,” Gerken says. “A lot of times you’ll see one of us coming out working on equipment or making that delivery. At the age we are, we’re not out on the golf course every day; we’re actually in the business running it. There’s always one of us here at the shop no matter what, usually two of us, that can answer any questions that any of the other store managers have in a heartbeat. I would say that’s what differentiates us from any other store — we’re more involved than the normal rental store.”
Still growing
With the ink still drying on its latest acquisition in Leavenworth, Kan., and passionate, ambitious owners still in their early 30s, Gerken Rent-All has no plans to slow down its recently amped up growth pace.
“At the age we’re at, to be honest with you, we’re not looking at retiring any time soon,” says Gerken. “As far as I’m concerned, the sky’s the limit. I’m not saying we’re going to be a United/RSC one of these days, but I’d like to at least double what we are now eventually.”
With construction projects holding steady and homeowner projects picking up in the southern Kansas City area, it seems the family-owned business is well on its way to reaching that goal. Gerken Rent-All has added four locations since the fall of last year — Overland Park, Gardner and Leavenworth, Kan., and Harrisonville, Mo. — and is beginning to add larger equipment such as forklifts, telehandlers and boomlifts to its fleet.
The geographic expansion has helped its customers as well.
“We’re getting a lot of customers that Gerken has had at its other locations who, now that we have the extra four stores, instead of driving all the way there they can just come to us,” says George. “So we’re seeing new faces up here, but they’re existing customers. It’s just more convenient for the customers with having seven stores.”
In the post-recession economy, people are starting to pick back up with their home improvement projects. “People wanted to start their patio projects at their house, but they didn’t know if they were going to have a job next week,” says George. “They were scared to death. So were we, you know? People are feeling a little more secure with their employment and saying ‘maybe I’ll start a little patio project and then we’ll go from there.’”
For a customer returning this fall to one of Gerken Rent-All’s seven locations, particularly one of the four the company acquired in the past year — Harrisonville, Gardner, Leavenworth or that Overland Park store on Metcalf — a familial atmosphere and top-notch customer service are sure to greet them, even if the sign above the door has changed. rer
