ARA PREVIEW
Growth on all fronts
ARA is expecting as many as 625 exhibitors at the 58th Rental
Show, being held in Orlando on 9-12 February 2014.
IRN
previews the event.
Show schedule
Sunday, Feb 9
7 am – 5 pm
Registration open
8 am – 5 pm
The Rental Show seminars
Noon – 1.30 pm
Lunch With ARA
5.30 pm – 8 pm
ARA Young Professionals Network Reception
Monday, Feb 10
7 am – 5 pm
Registration open
8 am – 10 am
Keynote Session – Presented by Billy Beane
10 am – 5 pm
Exhibit hall open
4 pm – 5 pm
Canadian Rental Association
annual general meeting
5 pm – 6.30 pm
Regional Receptions
Tuesday, Feb 11
7 am – 5 pm
Registration open
8 am – 9.30 am
The Rental Show seminars
9 am – 5 pm
Exhibit hall open
5 pm – 6.30 pm
ARA Foundation Charity Auction and Reception
5 pm – 7 pm
International Reception
7.15 pm – 10 pm
ARA’s Big Splash at SeaWorld
Wednesday, Feb 12
7 am – 1 pm
Registration open
9 am – 1 pm
Exhibit Hall open
Show details
WHAT: The Rental Show
WHEN:
9-12 February, 2014
(Trade show, 10-12 Feb)
WHERE:
Orange Country Convention Center,
Orlando, Florida
HOTELS:
F
or several years now the backdrop to the
American Rental Association’s annual Rental
Show has been a very positive one as the
rental industry enjoys a resurgence that the ARA is
forecasting will accelerate in 2014 and 2015.
The association is saying that North America’s
rental sector, after growing by 6.2% this year, is likely
to further expand by 8.4% in 2014 and by 11.3% in
2015. Alongside this growth – helped by the house
building sector and by an energy boom – the ARA is
expecting fleet investment to expand again next year,
before “jumping” to US$14 billion in 2015.
This is good news for rental companies and good
news for the 625 companies who will be exhibiting
over three days at the Orange County Convention
Center in Orlando next February, to where the ARA
returns for the first time since 2010 for its 58th
annual show.
Popular location
Orlando is traditionally the most popular destination
for the show – even more so than Las Vegas – so ARA
will be expecting a good turn-out of visitors, even if
it will be facing competition for international visitors
from Conexpo-Con/Agg, taking place little more than
a month later in Vegas.
If reports on rental growth can
sometimes have an academic feel
to them, there is no doubt that
rental companies on the ground
are expanding. A good example is
Phoenix-based Sunstate Equipment,
now majority owned by Sumitomo
Corp, which has seen significant
expansion of its fleet – particularly
aerials and telehandlers – over the
past two years.
“It would be easy to assume [our
growth] has something to do with
the Sumitomo relationship, but that’s
not really the case,” says Chris Watts,
Sunstate’s president and COO. “It’s
simply the demand and growth
of the markets we’re in and it
doesn’t have anything to do with
capitalization, change in strategy or
company focus”.
Sunstate’s growth also reflects a key trend in the US
market, the growth of industrial rentals. “One of the
key strategic things Sunstate has done is really going
after more non-construction-like revenue streams,”
Mr Watts says. “Manufacturing, warehousing,
refineries and a number of other industries that
aren’t actually constructing something, but do
have needs for rental equipment, are great revenue
streams because they’re less price-sensitive, they’re
more consistent. And it certainly helps take some of
the major ups and downs out of the cycle if you have
a larger percentage of your revenue base coming
from non-construction sources.”
This is the kind of strategy that will come under
the spotlight at the show’s many seminars and panel
discussions being held during the event, with a full
day of seminars on Sunday 9 February and additional
sessions on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12.
For those in the construction and general tool
rental sectors, there are seminars on the implications
of Tier 4 engine regulations and DOT (department
of transportation) safety regulations, among other
topics.
This year’s keynote speaker – the curtain-raiser
for the trade show opening on Tuesday morning
– is baseball manager Billy Beane,
the general manager of the Oakland
Athletics, who was played by Brad Pitt
in the film Moneyball.
That promises to be fun, but for ARA
it is the trade show that is all-important.
The 2013 event was sold out for the first
time and had 616 exhibitors, with the
highest number of rental businesses
attending since the 2006 show. ARA will
be hoping for more of the same.
IRN
Custom Equipment will show its newest low-level scissor
lifts, including the HB-830, HB-1230 and compact HB-P3.6
lift (pictured). The company is optimistic about the
2014 rental Show; “Rental companies are still
re-fleeting from the last economic downturn
and there have been even further gains in the
industry, which should lead to an even more
successful show this year.”
The Rental Show returns to the Orange
County Convention Centre in Orlando
for the first time since 2010. The ARA is
expecting 625 exhibitors to attend.
IRN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013
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