Lensrentals Acquires BorrowLenses, One of Their Main Competitors

Acquisition

by Jose PradaMarch 11^th, 2024

Lensrentals, one of the largest companies in the US for video, audio, and lighting equipment rental and production resources, has announced the acquisition of Borrowlenses, the online supplier for photography and video equipment rentals.

The same week Nikon announced the acquisition of RED, Lensrentals made public the acquisition of BorrowLenses. With this action, the company, founded in 2006 and with headquarters in Tennessee, US, expands their customer base and increases their inventory (more than 400,000 copies of 6,000 filmmaking products). 

Expanding their reach

Lensrentals will also boost the used gear program known as Keeper by expanding its inventory. With the slogan ‘If you like it, keep it’, the program allows customers to buy gear they have previously rented at a reduced price. This can be a good time to look for offers since the company could start liquidating excess or redundant equipment. 

As a big group of employee-owners, via our Employee Stock Ownership Plan, I think I speak for all employees when I say: we’re collectively delighted and genuinely grateful to strengthen the Lensrentals family with the addition of the BorrowLenses brand, alongside whom we’ve served customers for nearly two decades, while pushing each other to excel. The acquisition will enable us to extend our high-quality rental and production experience to a growing customer base that demands the highest-quality technical equipment a creative needs to produce movies, video and audio, and photographic content without the up-front expenses associated with buying gear outright and continued maintenance.

Tyler Beckman, CEO of Lensrentals.

Lensrentals has a good reputation in the industry if we take a look at the most trusted online review sites. The company’s reputation lies in good customer service and equipment care. Lensrentals cleans and inspects all the gear so that it can arrive on time, and ships their technical equipment in weatherproof, hard shipping cases. A return label facilitates the return after the rental.

BorrowLenses had a different territory approach than Lensrentals, with the latter covering all the national territory while the former focused more on areas close to San Carlos, CA, where the company is located. The company had based this approach on offering different services like local pickup, educational content, tips, and guides to give the customer a complete rental experience. 

Lensrentals acquires BorrowLenses – what’s to come

After this acquisition, we don’t know if Lensrentals, the more prominent company, will retain their prices now that one of their biggest competitors is history. Anyway, the company has a good reputation as a good place to work, given the fact that their employees largely own it.

For those who just rented or are about to rent gear on BorrowLenses, here is some useful information about how things will work for the next few days.

What do you think of Lensrentals acquisition of BorrowLenses? What do you think will change in the gear rental industry? Let us know in the comments below!