Member profile: Schulhoff Tool Rental — a Cincinnati staple since 1935
By Connie Lannan
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Member profile: Schulhoff Tool Rental — a Cincinnati staple since 1935

Schulhoff Tool Rental, Cincinnati, has gone through many incarnations over the years. Founded as an electrical repair shop in 1935 by George Schulhoff, the business evolved into a hardware store and then transitioned into a full-service rental operation in 1958. Since then it has continued to grow while adapting to the needs of both the construction and homeowner markets it serves.

The transition to rental was a pretty natural evolution, according to Mike Whalen, who has co-owned the business with his brothers, Patrick and Mark, since the 1980s.

“When it was still at a hardware store, there were some customers who came in who didn’t want to buy a drill or grinder for the short period of time they needed it, so the idea of renting came pretty naturally to Mr. Schulhoff,” Mike says, adding that they gradually replaced hardware with tools that customers could rent.

Many well-respected rental operators got their start at Schulhoff Tool Rental. “In the late 1950s and early 1960s, George Bruner of Cincy Tool Rental and Art Arlinghaus of Art’s Tool Rental came to work here as did my father, Ed,” Mike says, adding that his father stayed on, moving up the ranks to general manager and then president of the company.

The company made major expansions during that time. In 1962, it purchased a warehouse next door from the location it had been in since 1936. In 1963, the company offered its first drive-in tool rental, at which drivers could enter the warehouse through a large garage door. Throughout the decade, the company continued to expand its inventory from small tools to large towable equipment.

Mike began working at the business while in high school. “I started coming in on Saturdays during the summers. I kind of grew up here. I then started at the University of Cincinnati but continued to work here two or three days a week. It got to the point where I was spending more time here than at school. It got into my blood and I decided to stay here,” he says.

While he didn’t initially think of it as a career option, it started to “lean that way when, in the late 1970s, my father was giving me more and more responsibilities,” Mike says with a laugh.

During this time, the company continued to innovate and grow. For instance, in 1970, the company began job-site delivery, making delivery trucks a necessity.

In 1976, the company continued to add onto its location. It purchased a building on the south side of the entrance gate, and construction of a 100-ft.-by-40-ft. pole barn warehouse began in 1982.

After Mike began working at the company, his brothers quickly followed suit. Throughout the years, Mike and his brothers started buying a couple shares of company stock at a time from their father and Schulhoff. “When Mr. Schulhoff passed in the late 1980s, his main stock was retired. That left us three boys with ownership of the company,” Mike says.

Business continued to grow. A larger variety of equipment required more covered storage areas to protect tools. That meant erecting a new rental office and showroom building and purchasing a lot in the area for employee parking.

Eric Vettel and Pat Whalen discuss a battery-powered mini excavator.

Technology also was needed to track inventory, so the company installed its first computer system in 1988. “That was a very big and traumatic change, from writing everything by hand and getting our inventory in the system so we could track everything. That was a big change for us,” Mike says.

Other improvements included purchasing and tearing down three buildings on the east side of the street in 1989 to erect a new warehouse and employee parking area, which was finished in 1990, setting up an equipment wash-down bay in 1993, installing a propane fill station behind the warehouse in 1994 and erecting a scaffold storage building behind the warehouse in 1996. Then, in 2006, a new warehouse and offices opened.

Today, the company has almost 50,000 sq. ft. under roof on one side of the street. This includes different buildings and warehouses. On the other side, there is a 15,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. “We take up about half of one side of the block and a third of the other side of the block,” Mike says.

Throughout the years, the company has relied on the American Rental Association (ARA) for resources, networking and support.

“I would follow my father to the monthly meetings for the Greater Cincinnati Tool Rental Association (GCTRA). I served on the board in the early 1980s and 1990s. Then I got involved with the ARA of Ohio and just completed my state board service as secretary,” Mike says.

For him, board service has always been important. “It goes back to the idea of getting everyone together and bouncing ideas off each other. This is in addition to the great seminars, educational trainings and legislative work with the passing of the theft of services and workers’ compensation program,” he says.

No matter how much the company has expanded, the mission always has been the same: “to take care of our customers and make sure they have what they need,” Mike says. “We do our best to educate and make sure the rental is successful for both them and us. To us, the golden rule of treating others how we would want to be treated is important. It is how we operate with our customers and our employees.” 

While the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, mainly supply chain issues, have made that mission more challenging, it has not deterred the Whalens or their team from being there for their customers and each other.

What Mike has found over the years is that only rental can offer the variety of customers and projects and the satisfaction of hearing from a customer that their business has helped them successfully complete a job.

“With this business, there is always a new challenge. Every day is different. One day you are renting heaters and propane, the next day you are handling floor sanders and drywall, and the next day you are tearing up concrete. There is always a different set of circumstances. Then, when a customer comes in and says, ‘I was working with this team member at the counter and he did a great job of helping me. I appreciate you being here,’ that is very satisfying,” he says.

The Schulhoff Tool Rental team has seen so much change and growth over the years, and they aren’t done yet.

Inside the warehouse

“We would like to get back to the growth portion. We have tried to do the best for our neighborhood and be a good neighbor, but we don’t have any other properties adjacent to us to purchase that are in the right zoning. Growth will require another location. We are slowly looking at other possibilities to determine the best place to put up a new building,” he says.

But whether they expand beyond their two-block area or not, they will continue to stress what is important. “We want to make sure our customers are satisfied and we do a good job in taking care of them,” Mike says.

Connie Lannan

Connie LannanConnie Lannan

Connie Lannan is special projects editor for Rental Management. She helps plan, coordinate, write and edit ARA’s quarterly regional newsletters, In Your Region. She also researches, writes and edits news and feature articles for Rental Management, Rental Pulse, supplements, special reports and other special projects. Outside of work, she loves to bake for others, go for walks with her husband and volunteer for her church and causes she believes in.

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