Business Spotlight of the Month: Rebel Rents San Jacinto
The San Jacinto City Council recognized Rebel Rents San Jacinto as their business spotlight of the month. At their city council meeting last night Randy Williams, Economic Development Senior Specialist with the city, gave a short speech about Rebel Rents and shared some of his own personal experience with Rebel Rents. The San Jacinto mayor was there to present Rebel Rents a plaque which acknowledged Rebel Rents "in appreciation for business services rendered to our community." On hand to receive the award were Doug Fleury, Marketing Manager and Harry Coffman, the San Jacinto Branch Manager. We would like to congratulate Harry and everyone at San Jacinto for this prestigous award.
Business Spotlight of the Month / Economic Development SpecialistSpeech by Randy Williams, Economic Development Senior SpecialistCity of San Jacinto
Good evening Council. I am pleased to present Rebel Rents as our Business Spotlight for August 2005. Founded in 1995, the Company has grown from a single store in Riverside County to 10 stores in 3 counties – Riverside, Orange and San Diego – and relocated to San Jacinto from Hemet in May, 2005. Today it has 120 employees, a rental equipment inventory in excess of 30 million and its annual revenues ranks 69th nationwide out of thousands of rental companies. It is headquartered in Temecula and is the largest independent rental company in Southern California.They looked for an opportunity to expand and relocate their Hemet store on State Street. They chose the City of San Jacinto and a location near the intersection of Esplanade and Santa Fe due to the growing market and San Jacinto’s proximity to their customers.The San Jacinto store had the largest grand opening of any store. Rebel Rents catered a meal to over 300 people who came to welcome them to the community. The store has exceeded their expectations. The new store is on an acre and a half, has a 10,000 square foot building, and employs up to 10 full-time employees.
Doug Fleury, their Marketing Manager, has been an integral part of their success. He is with us tonight and I would like to invite him to the stand.Rebel offers the public the opportunity to rent an item as small as a drill and as large as a Skip Loader. They rent lawnmowers to large construction equipment, along with specialized equipment such as a rock splitter that no one else rents. They made national headlines when a major home builder built a large residential track near a hill that had boulders as large as buses. A geological inspector informed them the boulders would need to be removed but the problem was the homes were already framed and getting equipment in let alone removing a bus sized boulder was impossible. The developer could not find a company to solve the matter till he hooked up with Rebel Rents and their rock splitter.
As of last weekend, I can attest to the value of Rebel Rents. I needed a trailer to haul some large items and called open a rental company in Temecula I used in the past. They had the right size trailer and made a reservation. I drove my Van towing a personal trailer there with some items I would then need to transfer to the new trailer. When I arrived I asked if I could leave my personal trailer there till I returned and the employee called his supervisor to get permission. I was told due to past experiences the supervisor declined. The employee who made my reservation then noticed I was driving a van. He said the trailer he reserved for me, per company policy, can only be towed by a truck. I said it would have been nice to have known that before I came here. Instead of an apology the person responded by saying why trucks were better than vans. I left but was fortunate that there was a Rebel Rents nearby.The Rebel employee who greeted me had never seen me before and I did nothing to revel to him that I was interviewing their executives or going to spotlight the company. He reviewed the van, engine, towing assembly, asked what I was hauling, where, etc. and said the van will work. Then, observing I was towing a personal trailer said “Would you like to leave your trailer here till you return?” That would be a big help I said. The service did not end there. He said my towing assembly might work better if it was reconfigured. This would not only help with the Rebel trailer but any trailer I towed in the future. I agreed. They took parts of the package back to their work shop and reconfigured it. I was on the road in about the same time the other company took to inform me I could not utilize their services and why.
Rebel Rents can expect to have me back and I suspect that is why so many others are using their services. And for their success and contributions to our community, we are pleased to spotlight them for August 2005.
