Business Profile: Durante Rentals, Carmel and Brewster
With the holiday season approaching John Durante, co-owner of Durante Rentals, has plenty to be thankful for.
Durante Rentals has been a household name since it’s inception and with two locations now in Putnam County, many area contractors know how effective the company is. One of the top construction rental companies in the tri-state area, Durante Rentals has proven to be rock solid reliable.
But for all the success, it didn’t come without taking huge risks and tons of hard work.
Durante almost lost everything when the stock market fell off a cliff in 2008 and the Great Recession began. Invested heavily in real estate, Durante was facing financial doom.
That’s when he decided to get back into the business his father taught him. He knew starting an equipment rental company was his best, and possibly his last chance to recover money he’d lost. His cousin was in a similar boat so they opened the business together.
“It was a huge risk, but at the time I was losing everything,” he said. “So it was either go big or go home. If I didn’t do something big I would have lost everything I had built up to that point. It was a hail Mary pass.”
Durante worked for his father when he owned the same type of company all through high school before his father sold it, picking up critical business traits. The most important, Durante said, was the idea of hard work. Describing his father as a man who worked seven days a week, Durante saw his father treat people with respect, keep his promises, and put everything into his business and family.
Durante said the company has been built up on great customer service. When a client needs something from the Durante, they know how valued they are.
The reason Durante has great customer service is because the company’s employees are treated well. Durante said the company throws a summer and winter party for employees and their families and book other trips, including to major league baseball games. Impressively, the company pays for an employee’s health insurance 100 percent, even through all of the increases from the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
“If you treat your employees right, they’re going to treat your customers really right,” he said.
To a certain extent, Durante Rentals is a family business. John owns it with his cousin Anthony (and another co-owner not related) and a couple of cousins also help out. Durante said communication is key like in any partnership.
Durante said the company hopes to continue to expand in Putnam, on top of their Carmel and Brewster locations.
“We’re so happy being in Putnam County,” he said.
Durante said looking back to when the company first started is pretty incredible. One bank laughed when he went seeking a loan because the bank never thought the venture would work. But seven locations later, it clearly has and Durante only wants to expand more.
“I’m proud of us,” Durante said. “It was always part of the plan and still part of the plan to keep going.”
