Chicago, Chicago Suburbs and Northwest Indiana tent and party rental company since 1958.
Wilson Rental History
Wilson Rental is a third generation family business that was established in 1958 by Henry Wilson and his wife Bernice. They started with a small inventory of lawn and garden equipment, some tables and chairs and china. Henry worked seven days a week maintaining business hours and making the deliveries after hours. Bernice was the head checker at a National Food grocery store and worked at Wilson Rental on Wednesdays to take care of the bookkeeping as well as waiting on customers.
Bob joined the company in 1963 with his wife Karin starting shortly after. Bob’s brother Bill joined in 1967. This was truly a family venture as these five people were the company.
Henry's sons Bill and Bob, along with Bob's wife Karin, ran Wilson Rental from 1972 until recently. During their time Wilson rental progressed into a tool and equipment rental serving mostly contractors and industrial firms in the south suburbs and northwest Indiana.
Bob's sons Dennis and Mike joined Wilson Rental in 1981 and took an interest in tent and portable restroom rental. Being in an industry that is so diversified, it was easy to add these items to the mix. The tents were becoming very popular and the portable restrooms could be offered to the existing commercial base as well as the tent customers.
A major portion of Wilson Rentals business was with contractors doing maintenance in the steel mills of southern Lake Michigan. This business died off as the mills were being rebuilt with modern facilities. At the same time, the box stores with their massive buying power started selling equipment at a price lower than Wilson Rental dealer cost.
Tent and portable restroom rentals were picking up at a rapid pace at the time the construction rental began struggling. Wilson Rental was going through a transition and started investing in growing their inventory of tents, tables, chairs, stages, dance floors and more. The handwriting was on the wall that Wilson Rental was becoming exclusively a special event rental company.
In 2003, Bill retired from Wilson Rental resulting in Bob and Karin becoming the sole owners. Dennis and Mike continued taking more of a management role. The fall of 2005 brought the final change of the construction rental equipment portion and was sold off with the proceeds invested into special event equipment.
Today Dennis and Mike are managing the company and the the story continues…
Wilson Rental has never changed its philosophy that "Total Customer Satisfaction" assures success. We take great pride in maintaining our equipment and rental items and to responding rapidly to our customers needs.
Matteson, Mokena, Naperville, New Lenox, Oak Brook, Orland Park, South Holland, Tinley Park, Western Springs, Westmont, Wheaton, Willow Springs, Woodridge, Burr Ridge, Homer Glen and more.