Rex’s Rentals is approximately 45 minutes to an hour north of Boeing’s Everett, WA plant, yet what happens in that city directly impacts rental revenues where they're located in Arlington, WA. “Up here, we're surrounded by agriculture, but the real economic drivers are Boeing and the high-tech companies,” said Rex’s president Rex Bartlett. “Both seem to be doing well so we expect to have a good year. It’s not just about the people who they directly employ, it’s also about the subcontractors that supply them.”
Rex’s has been in business 10 years, employs four full-time people, and serves the local homeowner and smaller contractor market. The store rents a few party items, but it’s main focus is equipment under 10,000 pounds and tools of all sorts. Bartlett plans to add two new excavators to his inventory this year.
“Our biggest challenge is finding good help,” he emphasized. “I was a grease monkey as a kid. You don’t find many kids doing that kind of work today. But the fact we are in a farming area gives us more opportunity to find potential employees with some equipment experience.”
If labor is top on his list of challenges, overhead is number two, and that includes insurance, taxes and other indirect expenses. “Sure, if our tax burden were lowered, we would be able to spend more money on equipment,” he related. “We could replace more units and even add to our inventory. In this business, you’re always trying something new to bring in more customers.”
Sounds like his rental center shares another common bond with Boeing and area high-tech companies, and that's the need to continually attract more customers by trying something new.
