Verde Valley Rentals in Cottonwood, Ariz., was established in 1976 as a small equipment rental store. Purchased in 1979 by Ross and Maryann Willoughby, it is now run by their children with Maryann still at the helm. This store, along with its more recent sister event rental operation, Verve Events & Tents, has become a staple in northern Arizona during these past 46 years, with no signs of slowing down.
Verde Valley Rentals received new life when the Willoughbys purchased the operation. Even though Ross had no experience in rental, he was bound and determined to make it work, leaving behind the corporate world and constant travel as an electrical engineer for Honeywell in Indiana.
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| Ross and Maryann Willoughby |
Why would someone from Indiana move all the way to Arizona to start a new career? Well, a business trip that took him and Maryann to Sedona, Ariz., home of the majestic red rocks and evergreen vegetation, made a deep impression on them, notes Krysta Gornick, current general manager and daughter of the Willoughbys.
“My dad and mom fell in love with the area and looked for businesses that were for sale. The Verde Valley Rentals was a fledging store that was for sale, so they bought it, and moved the family across the country to Cottonwood, which is about 20 miles from Sedona,” Krysta says.
Although it was a learning curve for her parents, they thrived on the change. “My dad enjoyed that it was a new challenge and loved learning about all the different equipment,” she says. “He also loved being involved in the community as they were part of any new project in town. The community involvement and the challenge of new equipment was enticing to them,” she says.
Her mom began serving as the bookkeeper and handling customer service. “All of us kids worked at the store during our teen years, but we all left. None of us kids were involved in the business for many years, but Mom and Dad kept things going,” Krysta says.
Throughout the years, the business grew. Starting as a rental operation offering construction, homeowner and automotive equipment in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it added tables, chairs and wedding supplies.
When the Willoughbys learned about the American Rental Association (ARA), they knew this was an association that could help their business.
“Mom and Dad were ARA supporters through and through,” Krysta says. “They went to every convention and always encouraged us to go. Where we are at is pretty rural, so they weren’t able get involved in the leadership, but my dad did go to the Arizona state meetings as much as he could, living two hours from the other rental stores.”
As usually happens in many family rental operations, the second generation found their way back to the business. The first one to return was her brother, who stayed until his death in 2015.
In 2008, the Willoughbys decided it was time to retire from the business. “The market had crashed and it seemed a good time,” Krysta says.
“At this time, my husband, Philip, and I were living in Tacoma, Wash. I was doing special event fundraising for nonprofits. My husband was teaching elementary school art. We were looking for a change — something we could do together. It seemed like a good opportunity for us to work together and see how it went. We decided to come back and try to help them retire. We were going to give it two years. It has now been 12 years,” she says with a laugh.
When the Gornicks joined the operation, with Krysta serving as business manager and Philip as operations manager, they knew it had to grow.
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| Tami, Maryann, Krysta and Philip |
“We invested in a new rental software system and our website. We also bought a new warehouse,” she says. “The plan was to move everything into the new, 10,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. As we started processing everything, we decided to split the stores and just move party and keep tool and construction where it was at. We named the party store Verve Events & Tents. While acknowledging our mother company’s name, we chose ‘Verve’ because it means enthusiasm and vigor, which perfectly matches the way we approach our events.”
The move turned out to be profitable for both operations. “Once we moved it over, the party took off. We have space to keep things cleaner. The new building has dock space for quicker and easier loading. The tool store also did better because it had room to grow and manage what they had. By splitting it up, both stores did better. The event side really expanded to serve all of northern Arizona, particularly for destination weddings, and the tool side to better serve the homeowner and small contractor markets,” Krysta says.
All was going well and then the coronavirus (COVID-19) hit about the same time as a personal tragedy.
“My father died in March 2020, right when things were hitting the fan. We were pretty distracted anyway. It turned out that it was a blessing in disguise. We closed the party store for about one and a half months and closed the tool store for about three weeks because we had staff who were high risk. We felt it was not worth it to put them into that stressful position. This allowed us to spend time with my mother. It was a stressful time, but we could not have asked for a better time for it to happen because we needed the downtime,” she says.
“When things started to come back, we had a number of false starts, particularly on the party side, where we started and had to cancel again,” Krysta adds. “It has built uncertainty. Things have started to pick up in the right direction for the event side as destination weddings are back. One of the big lessons we are trying to learn is to manage what we take on and not just get ourselves in a hole. We need to be able to turn down jobs before we get ourselves in a pinch. The tool side has picked up right where we were before. Now, with the supply chain issues, we are doing a lot of maintenance and repair. There are some things we can’t get and other items seem to have just a slight delay. We have been able to get through for the most part by trying to take care of what we have.”
Finding good help had been an issue even before the pandemic. “With our growing area, we see an increasing demand for product, but a lot of workers can’t afford to live here. We have built a good crew and invested in our people with more training and increased wages. When we find them, we try to hold on to them. We want to make sure they know we appreciate them, and we help them see it as a career,” Krysta says.
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| Krysta, Maryann and Tami |
Now they are 24 strong on the event side with more seasonal help as needed during the busy season and seven strong at the tool store. Just last year, Krysta’s sister, Tami Elmer, started working at the business, placing all the Willoughby children back at the family rental operation.
All are ready to move forward and continue to grow. Just recently they underwent a strategic planning process for both the tool and event operations.
“The whole staff sat down and went through the process,” Krysta says. “I think it was great for people to think about who we are as a company. We talked mission statement and core values. We did an analysis of our strengths and weaknesses. The whole staff brainstormed on ways to improve and how to deal with challenges and communication issues. It was nice to sit down in a format where everyone’s feedback was welcome. What kept coming up was that we are small but mighty. We all felt that described us.”
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| Philip in the linen area |
For Krysta, coming back to her family’s rental operation has allowed her to carry on their legacy, which always centered around offering excellent service and caring for people — the employees and customers.
“I am able to continue something that my family built, now working with my husband, who has been an integral reason for our success, my sister and, hopefully, my daughter someday. It branches out from our immediate family to our employees who have become our family and then to our community. We are part of our community. I love helping our community grow and being part of this industry. My father was so committed to the business and the industry,” Krysta says, adding that it is now her turn to do the same.