The story of Renta so far

2023 – The equipment rental company of the year in Europe continues to be a trailblazer

By the time 2023 arrived, Renta had firmly established its position as a significant player in the Baltic Sea region.

In January, Andrew Studdert was appointed as the Chairman of the Renta Group’s board, having been part of the board since the previous April.

In March and April, announcements were made regarding acquisitions in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, further expanding Renta’s rental network.

In May 2023, Renta Group published its first sustainability report, which outlined the impact of Renta’s operations, its ESG strategy, and the ways in which Renta intends to fulfill its promise to become an industry leader in responsible equipment rental.

Rebecca Långström was appointed to the new role of Head of Sustainability in July to lead the implementation of the ESG strategy.

The summer also brought the “Large Rental Company of the Year” award at the European Rental Awards. The jury cited significant growth, improved profitability, and expansion into new market areas as the reasons for this recognition.

Kari Aulasmaa, the CEO of the group, expressed that the award reflects the hard work, dedication, professionalism, and customer-centric approach of the entire Renta team.

Throughout the summer and fall, Renta’s network and expertise continued to grow with new acquisitions. In Norway, the acquisition of Mylift added eight branches and over 200 employees, strengthening Renta’s offerings in terms of construction site facilities and scaffolding. In Finland, Renta acquired new expertise in environmental control and specialized pumping.

Renta’s digital capabilities also expanded, with new features added to Renta Easy. Towards the end of 2023, strategic partnerships were announced regarding the remote monitoring of construction site power grids with the Spine system and the digitalization of location and usage data for small equipment with the Hilti Runtime Tag smart tag.

Both of these developments are related to the future of rental experiences, where customers can leverage the potential of real-time usage data for entirely new services.

Due to several factors, such as rising interest rates, a slowdown in construction demand, and general uncertainty, the rental market as a whole showed signs of slowing down by the end of the year – challenges that Renta will have to face in the coming year.

Nevertheless, Renta’s position in the competitive landscape remains strong. Renta continues to be an industry leader and relies on its core values: understanding the customer, an entrepreneurial spirit, reliability, and innovation.

As we move into 2024, Renta had over 2000 employees in eight countries and more than 170 depots.

2022 – Further growth, with a strong emphasis on responsibility

The year 2022 was – yet again – busy for Renta, both in “old” and new market areas.

The rental depot network expanded in the spring in eastern Norway with the acquisition of Utleisentret.

In the summer of 2022, Renta announced the acquisition of Uprent, which operates in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland, with 13 locations and more than 100 employees. The addition also brought unique expertise to the group in specialized pumping and construction water management.

In Denmark, Renta acquired Lohke Materielutlejning A/S, a machine rental company with five offices and more than 90 employees in the Copenhagen, Esbjerg, and Aarhus areas.

The acquisition of L&E Maskin machine rental company gave Renta a position in northern Sweden, expanding the Swedish network to 50 locations.

With the expansion, Renta’s position in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea region is significant, with more than 1,500 employees at 135 different depots serving our local customers.

In 2022, Renta’s operations put an even stronger emphasis on responsibility and ecological, social, and economic sustainability.

Machine rental promotes a resource-wise circular economy by its fundamental nature. However, in 2022 Renta implemented many measures to improve sustainability even further. These steps are related to zero-emission machine investments, waste sorting, use of film plastics, improvement of utilization rates and maintenance processes, occupational safety, safety training, personnel well-being, and social participation through, for example, support for local sports.

Renta also strongly highlighted responsibility in communication.

For example, in the Renta Future TV discussion format, Renta’s experts answered questions on various themes together with representatives of machine manufacturers, organizations, education, and research.

The series was a roaring success, spanning themes such as the future of construction machines, labor shortages, and new technologies.

The winners of tomorrow’s business put sustainability and responsibility at the forefront. Therefore, sustainable development themes will be a hot topic again in 2023.

The purpose of Renta is to offer our customers solutions that enable them to do their work efficiently and safely while also using resources wisely.

That’s what modern, responsible machine rental is all about.

2021 – Beginning of a new era for Renta Group

In 2021, Renta strongly increased the fleet’s share of fully electric machines per the previously concluded Green Deal commitment.

Almost 100% of the passenger lifts purchased in the year were fully electric. The first fully electric wheel loaders also arrived in Renta’s fleet.

Renta also committed to the Green Deal of Construction Plastics 2020-2027, which aims to decrease the use and promote the recycling of film plastics widely used in wrapping.

Renta depot network expanded to new areas. For example, Renta Norway AS acquired the entire share capital of Byggesystemer Norgen AS, consisting of 8 depots in northern Norway and scaffolding services in Oslo.

Late November 2021 also marked the end of an era for Renta. Intera Fund II, the primary owner of Renta since the beginning, announced that it had agreed to sell Renta Group Oy to European private equity investor IK Partners.

Group CEO Kari Aulasmaa thanked Intera for the fascinating journey to create a modern, leading rental provider in the Baltic Sea region.

Aulasmaa also emphasized the importance of IK’s international network for the partnership. He also stated that there was a lot of work ahead in developing digital and sustainable rental services and expanding the geographic rental network.

At the end of 2021, Renta had grown to a group with a turnover of almost 300 million euros employing more than 1,000 people in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Poland.

“The first goals are for our people to feel well at work and for the people to truly want to work for Renta. If we achieve those goals, that well-being will be inevitably projected on our customers, who then will feel the same way about working with us. I believe the figures will ultimately sort themselves out.”

Kari Aulasmaa, CEO

2020 – Growth even in a global pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the whole world to adapt to a state of emergency. Renta responded by increasing remote work and reducing contacts at the depots.

The pandemic also had concrete consequences for Renta’s services. There was a need to limit the number of persons per unit on the construction sites. Renta also built drive-through corona testing facilities divided into separate compartments.

The use and need for fast connections and IT-services grew exponentially. At the end of 2020, Renta launched the concept of intelligent site facilities, equipped and furnished with ready-made IT solutions and connections.

On April 6, 2020, we opened Poland’s first Renta depot in Katowice. In a few weeks, Krakow and Wroclaw joined the network.

At the end of 2020, Renta had seven depots in Norway, three in Poland, and 29 in Finland.

The Swedish network had already grown to include 41 Renta depots, each held ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certificates.

Despite the uncertain times, Renta enjoyed a very successful 2020.

2019 – The Renta brand strengthens as innovations revolutionize the industry

The transition of Swedish and Norwegian companies under the Renta brand began in the spring of 2019. The Renta logo, orange color scheme, and other visual elements built an even stronger unity and facilitated cooperation. For example, Norwegian special lifting equipment was utilized in the construction site of the E4 bypass in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Swedish rental network grew both organically and through acquisitions. Renta’s Swedish subsidiary acquired the entire share capital of JRent AB, which operated in Jönköping.

In Finland, Suomen Työmaapalvelut Oy, which had been part of the Renta Group since January 2018, merged into Renta Oy. Operating under the same company and brand brought clarity to the service offering. It also enabled the geographical expansion of site services.

In September 2019, Renta Group Oy established a subsidiary in Poland. Renta appointed Tomasz Walawender as Country Manager and a member of the Renta Group Management Team.

2019 Renta took significant steps in digitalization – utilizing artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and data.

We released a new version of Renta Easy in early 2019. We also introduced two brand new tools – Renta Modules and Renta Visuals. These tools, developed for the design and visualization of construction sites, were created by the Renta DigiOffice team, consisting of our personnel and a network of partners.

At the end of 2019, Renta had nearly 700 employees in four countries.

2018 – Renta expands to Sweden and Norway

In early 2018, Renta continued to expand both geographically and in terms of service range.

In January, Renta Group acquired the entire stock of Suomen Työmaapalvelut, strengthening its expertise as a comprehensive provider of site services. The transaction brought the company further know-how in site electrification, condition management, and temporary space planning and installation.

Renta had been preparing for internationalization since the previous autumn. In April 2018, the acquisition of Stål & Hyr Group AB’s entire stock was made public. The Swedish rental services company, founded in 1979, had 12 depots on the west coast of Sweden and in the north-west of Skåne. This network gave Renta a foothold and a platform for growth in Sweden, an important market in the Baltic Sea area.

In August 2018, Stål & Hyr signed an agreement on acquiring the entire share capital of Hyrcenter I Nerike AB, which operates in the central Swedish region. The acquisition increased the number of depots by six, expanding the network to cover the area between the big lakes of Central Sweden.

In November, Stål & Hyr acquired the entire share capital of Aros Hyremaskiner AB – expanding the network to the greater Stockholm area.

The goal was to grow into a major national equipment rental services provider in Sweden within the next two years.

In October 2018, Renta announced the acquisition of the entire share capital of Flexleie AS, a Norwegian equipment rental company. Both Flexleie AS and Stål & Hyr shared the corporate culture of Renta: based on trustworthy local professionals and strong customer orientation.

Flexleie AS has five rental depots on the west coast of Norway, Oslo, and Northern Norway and one depot in Stockholm, Sweden. The goal is to form a nationwide network also in Norway during the next few years.

2017 – Growth and Innovation

The depot network in Finland grew swiftly between 2016 and 2018. Significant steps in this part of the journey were the outsourcing of the SSR Group Oy (currently Pallas Construction Oy) equipment & machinery fleet to Renta and the associated long-term cooperation agreement.

The market situation in the construction sector was favourable and the timing of the expansion of operations was excellent. The growth in Finland clearly exceeded both plans and the growth of the market in Finland. Simultaneously, Renta was preparing for international expansion and the organization was being developed on all levels.

In June 2017, the first version of the Renta Easy rental and fleet management application was released. The application enables the customer to view the equipment divided by construction sites, to handle orders and returns as well as order maintenance and refuelling services.

During the autumn of 2017 all brands were harmonized and Telinekymppi brand became Renta Telineet.
Production capacity of site facilities doubled from the original – to further accelerate growth.
Renta scaffolding services became available in the largest cities in Finland.

2016 – Founding the Platform in Finland

The business operations were initially based on the acquisition of three well-known Finnish companies:

Kymppi-Yhtiöt Oy, founded in 2005, including the well-known subsidiaries such as Telinekymppi Oy, known for their scaffolding and weather protection services
Site facilities business of Jasoca Oy, founded in 1993
Kehä-Kone Oy, the machinery & equipment rental services company, founded in 2015

These companies formed a platform for the future development and organic growth of the company. Their values, culture and regionally strong market position were highly compatible with the values and vision of Renta.

In each transaction, the owners and the key personnel of the acquired companies continued their work as Renta shareholders. This ownership has been a particularly important value from the beginning. In fact, at the end of year 2018, approximately one-third of our employees are also shareholders.

The Renta brand was launched in April 2016. At this stage, the Group-level company was also rebranded as Renta Group Oy.

2015 – The Decision to build a new, modern rental company

Renta is a young company, but in three years more has happened than in many companies in 30 years.

In 2015, a small group of experienced equipment rental professionals decided, in co-operation with the private equity investor Intera Partners, to create a modern and untraditional equipment rental services concept. The goal was to become a major player in the entire Baltic Sea region. The founders of Renta saw a clear demand for a new type of operator in the area.

From day one, Renta was built on a strong set of core values: understanding our customers, entrepreneurial attitude, reliability and innovation. Our strategy and actions have been based on these values ever since.

Renta Facts

We are revolutionizing the playing field with digital technology and more intelligent processes. Not for the sake of it but to make machine rental easier for all.

So now you know why our customer app is called Renta Easy.