How do I assess an outdoor store’s rental gear fleet and repair program?
Count and inspect the rental fleet item by item, then compare its condition with the rental records. Check what each item has earned, what it costs to maintain and how soon it needs replacing. For the repair program, look at who does the work, what it brings in and whether that person is staying.
Ask for a fleet list with the purchase date, the number of rentals and the repair history for each item. Then inspect a sample in person. Look for worn fabric, cracked frames, missing parts and anything that looks patched too often. Rental gear that has been rented heavily is cheap to replace in some categories and costly in others, so note which is which.
Ask how rentals are priced, how damage and late returns are handled, and what the store writes off each year. Watch for a fleet that looks healthy only because the best items are rented least.
For repairs, ask who does them and where they learned. Is the repair person a skilled employee or the owner? Find out how the counter gets its work: walk-ins, shipped packages or referrals from the store’s sales staff. Check whether repairs draw customers who later buy gear. That link is often the reason to keep the program, even when the counter itself earns little. Ask, too, what happens at the end of a season. Gear that is retired, sold off or kept in the pool tells you about the fleet’s real condition. A store that sells used rental gear may also have a small income line a buyer would not otherwise see.
Key takeaways
- Inspect a sample of rental items in person against the fleet list.
- Ask what the fleet costs to replace and maintain each year.
- Find out who runs repairs and whether they will stay on.
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Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentEquipment valuation: How to do it
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
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