June 13, 2024
As it hits its 15-year anniversary in 2024, All Choice Rentals, based in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada, also is hitting a sweet spot for an equipment rental operation: big enough to compete head-to-head with the large, nationwide players yet nimble enough to pivot quickly according to customers’ needs.
“We’re not small, we’re not huge — I would say we’re a midsize rental company that can react, adapt and make decisions quickly without having to go through 45 levels of approval,” says Blake Menning, All Choice Rentals vice president, adding that through its combined nine locations, his company can service “85 percent of Alberta within two hours of a phone call, and Alberta is almost the size of Texas.”
Established in 2009 by employees of a local CAT Rental Store that closed its doors, All Choice Rentals provides general construction rentals with a heavy focus on aerial and earthmoving equipment. But the company has its hands in a whole lot more.
“We also have a waste management, scrap metal and recycling division; a portable toilet, luxury wash car and septic division; a temporary fencing division; we specialize in office trailers for job sites; and lastly, we have a specialty tooling division for plant shutdowns,” Menning says.
By combining all these specialties, All Choice Rentals covers its customers’ needs from A to Z.
“Our goal is to be a one-stop shop for 99 percent of every equipment rental,” Menning says. “The way we look at it, the first three things on any site are waste bins, portable toilets and temporary fencing. If you can get those three items on a project, you have about an 80 percent chance of providing everything else for that job site. We’re trying to make project managers’ lives easier by just having one phone call.”
Up until the spring of 2024, All Choice Rentals operated from four Alberta locations — Drayton Valley, Rocky Mountain House, Olds and Hinton. In March, a major step in the company’s evolution took place through its acquisition of Alberta-based Select Equipment Rentals, which adds an additional five locations to the mix: St. Albert, Athabasca, High Prairie, Slave Lake and High Level.
The acquisition of Select essentially doubled All Choice Rentals’ footprint overnight. “This was our largest acquisition to date. We’re going from four to nine locations and a staff of 55 to about 115,” Menning says.
Menning adds that not only does the move significantly expand All Choice Rentals’ presence, it also diversifies its product offerings.
“We [All Choice] were very heavy into oil and gas, and Select Equipment Rentals had a focus on forestry and commercial/industrial rentals. By bringing the two companies together, we now have a well-balanced approach,” he says.
The consolidation of the companies is also enabling All Choice Rentals to continue its goal of what Menning describes as “trying to disrupt the market.”
“We kind of fly under the radar,” he explains. “A lot of people don’t understand how big we are and how much equipment we have. With this acquisition, I think the national players have to respect us now because being able to service our customers — especially with 85 percent of Alberta being within two hours — I don’t think they can make that statement. That certainly allows us to build our brand recognition and solidify our footprint in Alberta.”
Michael Doerksen (left) and Blake Menning
Additional acquisitions are in the cards for All Choice Rentals, but the company isn’t constantly on the prowl.
“I do anticipate further acquisitions, but they are strategic in nature,” Menning says. “We’re not just going to open a rental location on the other side of the country. We work on a hub and spoke system. The goal is to eventually move into other provinces in western Canada, build a strong footprint in that region, and then look at other opportunities as they come. Whether that’s moving into the United States or moving toward eastern Canada, it’s always open. After an acquisition, we like to find all the efficiencies and inefficiencies and then optimize the business before adding to it. There might be a one-year period where we fine-tune and reassess, get inventory, cycle equipment — we focus on the business before we look at expansion opportunities.”
Future growth for All Choice Rentals also means expanding into new types of service offerings.
“We look at all opportunities. We have invested in a telecommunications company that deals with Starlink, cellphone towers, surveillance cameras and radios,” Menning says, adding that with this investment the company intends to ramp up its on-site services and disaster relief. “With climate change and dealing with more unpredictable weather events, we are looking at different avenues and how we can navigate, adapt and change our business model.”
All Choice Rentals’ growth strategy — carried out by a team led by Menning and his business partner, CEO Michael Doerksen — helped land the company on Rental Management’s list of equipment rental Market Movers for the second year in a row in 2023. Market Movers is a listing of the industry’s fastest-growing independent businesses measured by revenue growth.
What — beyond smart financial planning — accounts for the company’s upward growth momentum?
“It’s our customer service,” Menning says. “We are not a low-cost provider like a national rental provider. We are very much on the top end of our rental rate. But with that comes the expectation that when a customer calls after hours or on weekends or holidays, we respond quickly. We have a peace of mind rental guarantee that states that if we’re not on the road within 60 minutes of a phone call, that rental is free. So, we try to differentiate ourselves by providing an elite level of customer service.”
The principals at All Choice Rentals also offer a high level of inward-facing service.
“We invest in our employees,” Menning says. “We do quarterly profit sharing, which is unique in our industry. And we’re transparent with our company. We share financials with everyone in our company to let them know the impact of their decisions. We also empower our employees to make decisions on the fly.”
Meaningful Christmas bonuses and presents for employees’ children, free or discounted equipment rentals for staff, and a commitment to not let anyone miss their kid’s dance recital or hockey game all contribute to the All Choice Rentals culture — and that pays off on the customer service side, too.
“Not many people want to get up at 2 a.m. to swap out a light tower or get up on Christmas Eve to fix a ground thaw unit, but because of all the things our company has done in terms of establishing a culture, our people are willing and happy to do it. It has really helped our customer service offering because our staff is always, ‘How can we help you right now?’ It’s not a ‘deal with it on Monday’ mentality, like some of the larger national players would react,” Menning says.
All Choice Rentals’ efforts to provide for its people and customers in its ever-expanding market are not going unnoticed.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Menning says, adding that in addition to their listings on Rental Management’s Market Movers list and other rental industry-specific accolades, “Michael and I received EY [Ernst & Young] Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 — Prairie’s region, and All Choice Rentals won Alberta’s Best Business Award through the Alberta Chamber of Commerce. I think this all stems from our customer service, supporting the communities in which we serve and building a strong culture. I think a lot of people are seeing that and recognizing it. And being nominated for and winning these awards has really solidified that we are on the right track, and I’m hopeful we can continue going forward.”
A mandate to serve
Many businesses can claim to be strong community partners. Then there is All Choice Rentals, based in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada, which takes it to the next level by viewing community support as a mission.
“We have a mandate to support the communities in which we serve,” says Blake Menning, All Choice Rentals vice president.
For All Choice, that community is large indeed. Now with nine locations, the company’s service area stretches across a wide swath of the province of Alberta.
“Our goal is to give back as much as we can to the community,” Menning says. “One of the things that I’m proud to say is that since 2009, our company has donated over $650,000 back into the community, either through charities, not-for-profits, community events and in-kind donations. Anytime there’s a music festival we’ll donate light towers, generators, stages, toilets, temporary fencing — anything that can bring the community together.”
All Choice’s community service mandate is about even more than coming through with dollars and equipment.
“We’re a huge advocate for mental health,” Menning says. “Whenever you can get anybody together and smile, I think it really does a number on the community. So as a result, we have a really big presence in all the locations we are servicing.”
And as the saying goes, the more you give, the more you get.
“If you support them, they support us,” Menning says of the two-way street of support between the business and the community. “It’s funny — when another rental provider shows up in any one of our communities, I’ll have about five or six phone calls in a matter of 10 minutes saying, ‘Hey, did you know that these guys are in town?’ It’s a very tight-knit community. That’s kind of been our differentiating factor — community involvement and customer service.”
