In late 2020, RER interviewed a wide range of rental company owners and executives about the effects of COVID-19 on their businesses. Here Scott Cannon (second from right), CEO of BigRentz talks about getting closer to customers, the benefits to government projects and the continuing growth of rental penetration.
How has business been for you in 2020? How has the pandemic affected your business?
Existing revenues is down 10 to 15 percent, but online sales for new customers is up significantly. There definitely has been a pendulum shift toward online rental. We've adapted well to be being remote and overall our operations haven't been impacted much.
How do you expect the pandemic to affect business going forward into 2021?
I expect COVID to present choppy revenue issues through April and then a pretty robust recovery for the remainder of the year.
How has the pandemic affected and changed your company’s ability to meet with customers, go on jobsites and essentially conduct rental business as you always have?
Not at all. In fact, I think in some ways it has brought us closer to our customers. COVID has been tough on everyone and there are so many people struggling personally it has resulted in relationships mattering even more.
How have different areas been affected and how do you expect them to be affected going forward -- homeowner business, small contractors, residential construction, non-residential, industrial, petrochemical, oil and gas, power generation?
Government-related / COVID-related projects have boomed, everything else across the board has been impacted at various levels and times throughout the year. Retail operations for us has been the by far the most impacted.
This is a very uncertain time in the economy in regard to the pandemic and so many job cancelations. Does this uncertainty benefit rental in the sense that contractors would want to avoid capital expenditures on equipment and would therefore rent more?
Yes, for these reasons and the greater macro trends since the great recession in 2008, rental penetration is only likely to increase.
