06.10.2003

CEO of United Rentals to step down

Bradley Jacobs, CEO and founder of United Rentals, North America's largest rental company and owner of the world's largest fleet of aerial work platforms, has announced that he will step down as chief executive officer at the end of this year. He will, however, remain executive chairman of the company.

Wayland Hicks, currently vice chairman and chief operating officer will take over the role of CEO, while John Milne will continue in his present role as president and chief financial officer.

Jacobs said: “I am gratified that the company we started around my dining room table six years ago has grown into America's leading equipment rental company. It has been a privilege to help build United Rentals. I now look forward to building another business and have decided to scale back my responsibilities in order to evaluate opportunities in several industries."

Jacobs founded United Rentals in 1997 with Milne and six others, following the successful sale of United Waste Systems, a company they founded in 1989.

The company rapidly grew through the consolidation of the waste industry to become the fifth largest solid waste management company in North America. They then set out to do the same within the North American rental industry. The first few years saw a blistering pace of acquisitions and mergers, which took United Rentals rapidly past the other major American rental companies. Today the company operates from 750 locations, serves 1.7 million customers, and holds a fleet value of US$3.7 billion (UK£2.21 billion).

In recent years the acquisitions have been replaced with a form of consolidation as they continue to integrate the hundreds of smaller companies into a seamless single operational entity and gain the efficiencies of scale that they have always talked about.

Aerial lifts have been one of the most profitable product lines over the years. The companies policy of rapidly reducing the average age of the fleets it acquired, along with stocking up new and previously non-aerial outlets, provided a massive boost to many work platform manufacturers sales at the end of the 90s. The United fleet of aerial lifts now numbers well over 60,000 units, by far the largest in the world.

Jacobs says that he is prepared to invest $100 million of his own capital into his next venture, whatever that may be.

Watch this space!