Northern California’s Rental Guys Acquires Sacramento-based Aba Daba Rents
Rental Guys, a Chico, Calif.-based equipment rental company has closed a transaction to acquire the assets of Sacramento, Calif.-based Aba Daba Rents. Aba Daba was founded in 1957 by the father of former California Rental Association executive director Dale Blackwell, who led the company for more than 30 years, and in his later years, ran the CRA at the same time. Blackwell’s wife Vicky Blackwell took over Dale’s responsibilities at both the CRA and Aba Daba, recently retiring from her role at CRA. Now with the acquisition of her business, Aba Daba, she can fully retire and enjoy traveling the country in her 5th wheel travel trailer.
Aba Daba’s Sacramento and Citrus Heights, Calif., locations, will be Rental Guys’ 13th and 14th locations.
“The new locations complement our existing location in Orangevale and strengthens our Northern California network of locations,” said Rental Guys CEO Alex DuBose. “We will be investing significantly in new rental fleet in the locations that serves the eastern foothill suburbs of Sacramento County.”
“We had a lot of interest, including some from large companies, but felt Alex and his family-owned business was the best fit for our employees,” said Vicky Blackwell.
Powers Associates (PowersAssociates.com) and Leslie Chayo, Esq. were exclusive advisors for the transaction. Rental Guys is a contractor, industrial and homeowner rental company based in Chico, Calif., with a focus on the Northern California rural markets for equipment rentals, sales and service. Learn more at rentalguys.com.
“Today we are announcing we have acquired Aba Daba Rentals two locations in Sacramento and Citrus Heights,” said Rental Guys vice president Avery DuBose in a statement on LinkedIn. “Aba Daba was a third-generation family-owned rental operation that was established in 1957. This acquisition was special for us on a personal level because of the friendship the Blackwell and DuBose families have had for many decades. I remember going to their Sacramento location with my dad when I was seven or eight years old to visit Dale and Vicky. Little did I know almost 20 years later that would be one of our stores. I want to thank Vicky Blackwell and the Blackwell family for believing in us to take Aba Daba into the future as part of Rental Guys Inc. Thank you to Point of Rental Software for helping us through the transition, Paul Powers for brokering the transaction for us and lastly our team for all the hard work they put in so far to integrate the two companies.”
“The California rental community is pretty tightknit,” Avery DuBose told RER. “We try to keep it in the family.”
Rental Guys is No. 79 on the RER 100.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.