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About East-West Rental Center

East-West Rental Center, founded in 1972, is Guam’s first and largest equipment rental company. We service homeowners, contractors, the government, and the U.S. Military from our Upper Tumon store. If you need rental equipment anywhere in Guam, from Yigo to Merizo, Andersen Air Force Base, & Naval Base Guam, East-West Rental Center is your best choice for equipment rentals, tool rentals, and party rentals.

Our Equipment Rental service is the most complete on the island for everything from chainsaws to aerial lifts. When you need equipment, East-West Rental Center is here to serve you with reliable, professional equipment and friendly staff who know our customers' needs.

Nobody on Guam has a more complete Party Rental service than East-West Rental Center. We have chairs, tables, canopies, and popcorn, cotton candy, & snowcone machines to make your party special. Our canopies range from 15’x15’ all the way up to 40’x100’. We also have Way-Cool air-coolers to make those hot days more comfortable when having a party outdoors.

With our fleet of delivery vehicles, we can deliver our equipment to your doorstep or job site when you need it. We also offer delivery and transport services for your equipment. If you need a lift or excavator to be transferred to another location, give us a call. We have competitive rates with no minimum charges for our services.

Here’s a short list of rental equipment that we offer:

And for Parties & Events:

Please browse our Equipment Rental catalog and Party Rental catalog and then give us a call or use the shopping cart feature to get a quote.

Rent the Best at East-West Rental Center!


History

In its 43-year history, East-West Rental Center has had significant milestones of ingenuity and resourcefulness. When James L. Adkins purchased a drill in 1970 to drill a few holes in the concrete wall of his apartment, little did he know that a $12.95 investment would be the catalyst for an enterprise that would touch so many lives. Six months later, after discovering the drill at the bottom of his closet, it occurred to him that Guam could use an equipment rental store, so he began researching what it would take to start one.

On October 21, 1972, East-West Rental Center, Inc., opened its 700 sq. ft. store in the village of Maite with Jim as the only full-time employee. It was the first general equipment rental store on the island and had two other investors at the time of opening, Denny Cleveland and Ben Palomo. Inventory totaled about $25,000 worth of equipment which included a couple of cement mixers, 100 metal chairs, Televisions, Roto-tillers, 4 lawnmowers, some drills, an engine hoist, a riding lawnmower, and some small generators. The first month’s revenue was about $400.00 while the SBA loan was $591/month. However, the second month saw $700 in revenue, the 3rd month $1100, and the 4th month was $1800. "It looked great on a graph!" the elder Adkin reports.

The beginning, as with many small businesses, was rough. Subsisting on a diet of Vienna sausage and crackers, Jim Adkins did not receive a paycheck for the first four months, and his only days off during the first six months were Christmas and Good Friday. During this time, the income was invested in more equipment, and the struggling business slowly grew.

On May 21, 1976, Super Typhoon Pamela devastated the island of Guam with 140 mph sustained winds, destroying many homes and businesses overnight. When Jim woke up in the morning, he found that the power was off but the phones still worked. He made a call to a Mr. Gordon Loui, owner of Hawaiian Rent-All, a man he had never met before but from whom he had ordered parts. He told Gordon, "Send me every generator, water pump, and chainsaw you can get. I don’t know when I can pay you, but I will!" As a testament to the neighborly care so outstanding in the rental industry, the equipment was on the next Pan-Am plane from Honolulu to Guam. If it weren’t for Gordon Loui, Jim claims East-West Rental Center may not have survived.

EWRC not only survived but flourished as business increased dramatically after the typhoon. Rosita Borja Santos Adkins, whom Jim married in 1974, quit her job at IBM in 1978 to do the accounting for EWRC. The accounts receivables had been piling up and needed to be collected. The first month that Rose worked at East-West Rental Center, she collected more money than they had for last year. Within one year, using Rose’s IBM stock and other savings, Jim and Rose were able to buy out their investors to become the sole owners of the corporation.

With more equipment than the current store could handle, the business moved in 1980 to a 4,000 sq. ft. warehouse building in Upper Tumon. Inventory expanded to include contractor and construction equipment as well as rental canopies. EWRC opened a second store on the sister island of Saipan, and in 1983, EWRC Guam built its current facilities which total 24,000 sq. ft. Guam’s economy boomed from the late 1980s to the early 1990’s thanks to the Japanese economic boom. The construction of many large hotels to accommodate Japanese tourists in Tumon Bay led to a boom in rental revenues. To keep up with construction demands, EWRC purchased its first high-reach machine in 1991, a Snorkel UNO 4x4 41D. This was the first boom lift available for rent on the island. Now high-reach equipment is one of the most popular items for rent at EWRC, with boom lifts up to 126’ in height and many scissor lifts as well.

When the Japanese economy collapsed in 1996 and the U.S. military closed two bases on Guam at the same time, the island faced a massive recession. Jim and Rose’s son, James, returned home to Guam from college to join the family business, but even young blood and fresh ideas couldn’t seem to boost business. East-West Rental Center was dying. By 1999, tens of thousands of residents had left the island looking for work stateside. EWRC employees were reduced to 32-hour workweeks, and revenues were about 1/3 of normal. When two employees told Jim they could not survive on 32 hours of work per week, he decided it was his duty to ensure that his employees could earn a living. EWRC went back to full-time hours, and Jim set off on a quest to find some way to bring money back to the island.

After much thinking, Jim decided that the U.S. military was pivotal in getting jobs and money back to Guam. Determined to get naval ships to use Guam as a liberty port, he and others from the Chamber of Commerce visited the headquarters in Japan and convinced the admiral to send one ship as a test. On March 14, 2000, a welcoming committee was organized for the sailors and free transportation was provided from the Naval Base to Guam’s entertainment district in Tumon. The ship visit was a great success and now Guam has more than twenty ship visits per year.

Slowly the economy has picked up steam, and now Guam is on the verge of accepting 6,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to be permanently stationed there. It will be the largest military movement in the last 50 years. The estimated cost for the move exceeds $15 billion dollars, and EWRC intends to play a part in making the move successful.

Jim’s son James Adkins reports, "East-West Rental is now in the process of updating our fleet, our buildings, and recently has upgraded our computer systems to Point-of-Rental to help us track our business better and make more sound decisions on what equipment mix to have. The next ten years are going to be interesting on Guam, and we want to make sure that East-West Rental is the major player in the buildup construction."

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