Mr Rental's story started in 1983 when founders Glen and Kerrianne Hickman moved to Bribie Island, an hour north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia.
Little did they know this was to be the start of their successful international franchise business?
Together they started their first business venture a local video library. To complement their video rentals they started renting appliances such as VCRs and TVs to customers as well, they soon realised they were making more from appliance rentals than they were from video rentals!
They were filling a need in the market for appliance rentals; they saw the opportunity to fill this gap, sold the video store and in 1991 opened the first ever Mr Rental.
For ten years, this enterprising husband and wife team built their business in their local community, over this time developing and optimising their operations and Mr Rental systems.
In 2001 they took the bold move to start franchising, with a vision for Mr Rental to become 'the world's first choice in home appliance renting'.
Within two years they had over 30 stores renting home and office appliances throughout New Zealand and Australia and just over 10 years have grown the business to over 90 stores.
In 2006 Kerrianne Hickman won the Franchise Women of the Year QLD / NT award and in 2008 Mr Rental won Emerging Franchise of the year in Australia and Retail Franchise System of the year in New Zealand.
Shortly later in 2009 Mr Rental was announced one of the Top 10 finalists in the 10 Thousand Feet National Franchise Survey for Franchisees satisfaction in Australia. Mr Rental also took out National Winner for the FCA’s Excellence in Marketing Award in Australia and Marketing Campaign of the year in New Zealand with FANZ.
The following year in 2010, Mr Rental held their Top 10 Finalist position with 10 Thousand Feet in Australia and was very proud to take out the National Winner position for Established Franchisor of the Year with the FCA in Australia.
Both Glen and Kerrianne remain actively involved in their business with a firm commitment to their
original vision that still stands today and underpins every aspect of the business.
"Our customers will always remain our focus and our aim is to continue to Keep Life Simple! For our Franchisees this means offering people a great business system based on recurring revenue that offers a work/life balance that many other franchise systems cannot. And for our retail customers, offering the latest home appliances always at affordable prices all delivered and installed FREE. Renting from us just makes life simpler!" said Glen.
In 2007 The Rental’s arrived and Mr Rental and his family now spend their days sharing with all of us, the benefits of renting and why it really is the easiest, most affordable way to have what you and your family need when you need it!
Almost 20 years on the original video players and TV rentals on offer have expanded to include renting home appliances such as fridges, washing machines, dryers, TV’s, sound systems, computers, gaming consoles, furniture and exercise equipment. The original vision still stands and the core business remains the same, Mr Rental really is here to Keep Your Life Simple!