Equipment and event rental businesses expect growth to continue in 2022

As everyone moves into a new year, the expectation of a large majority of those in the equipment and event rental industry responding to the fourth quarter American Rental Association (ARA) Economic Impact Survey is for upward momentum to carry over into 2022.
 
“We launched the ARA Economic Impact Survey in March 2020 to track the extent of how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was hurting equipment and event rental businesses. We then continued monthly surveys before switching to quarterly to keep our finger on the pulse of what is happening with ARA members and provide that information to everyone,” says Mike Savely, ARA director, program development.
 
The fourth quarter survey, conducted in January, shows that the results and expectations of those in the event segment are becoming more consistent. For example, those who said things were getting better in the fourth quarter totaled 30 percent of respondents compared to 34 percent in the third quarter.
 
Those who said things were the same increased in the fourth quarter to 45 percent from 33 percent and those who said it is getting worse dropped to 25 percent from 33 percent.
 
Of the event segment respondents, 86 percent also reported a revenue increase in the fourth quarter compared to the previous year with an average increase of 65 percent.
 
In terms of the outlook for the first quarter of 2022, 75 percent expect revenue to increase vs. last year with an average increase of 40 percent.
 
The impact of the pandemic was less severe for those in equipment rental and the surveys show consistent results over the last seven quarters with 30 percent saying things were getting better in the fourth quarter while 51 percent said the same and 19 percent said it was getting worse.
 
For 2021, 78 percent of equipment rental survey respondents reported a revenue increase at an average of 24 percent while 22 percent reported a decrease with an average decrease of 20 percent.
 
Looking forward, those in the equipment segment also are positive about 2022 with 74 percent expecting an increase in revenue in the first quarter this year compared to the first quarter in 2021.
 
For more information about the survey, contact Savely at mike.savely@ARArental.org.