Able Tool Rental & Equipment Sales evolved from the original company named Southeast Wholesale & Equipment Sales. That company was founded in 1982 at the same location by Edward Grennan Sr.. Ed started the business on a dirt lot with an 8' x 24' construction trailer that was 1/2 office & 1/2 storage. The business primarily built & sold equipment trailers and sold various farm equipment and tractor
s. It was also a truck & trailer rental dealer for U-Haul and provided outdoor storage and logistical service & dispatch of construction equipment for Brinderson Corp., a large national construction firm that was building many of the water treatment plants here in Atlanta at the time. Ed's son Edward Grennan Jr (Bud) was living in Greenville South Carolina where he managed the manufacture of insulated glass for Dealers Supply & Lumber Co.. In 1987 Bud moved back to Douglasville to join his father as partner. Father and son were sole proprietors and the only employees. The business grew and they began constructing the current buildings. It was in 1989 as the location and market demands were changing when Bud expressed interest in the tool rental business. Soon after, through fateful circumstance, a customer inquired about a one way truck rental to move back to his hometown in Tennessee. The customer mentioned that all he had left to do was to sell off his business assets. It turned out that he owned a small tool rental store & pawn shop in Hiram Georgia. The purchase of Hiram Tool Rental & Pawn was made and the inventory from the purchase was moved from Hiram to Douglasville and thus began the formation of Able Tool Rental. worked together to build the new business and sell off the pawn shop items. Able Tool Rental & Equipment Sales Inc. incorporated 07/11/1990. That year Ed became ill and discovered he had cancer. He remained active in the company until he could physically no longer work. In 1991 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Edward Sr. passed away leaving the business to his son. Bud worked with one employee for about a year when his wife decided to join full time. Husband and wife team (Bud & Phyllis Grennan) then managed the business as primarily a tool rental store for homeowners and contractors. They gradually grew and hired more employees. The company further expanded in 1997 when at the urging of Phyllis, Able Tool Rental purchased Merry Times Party Rental in Marietta Georgia. Able Tool entered the party rental industry thus creating Main Event Party Rental. A few years later, they grew the party division further when they purchased the party inventory of Aztec Rental in Douglasville as that company sold out to the national firm, Sunbelt Rental. Presently, Able Tool Rental & Main Event Party Rental remains a family owned business of 14 people; where Bud and Phyllis, managers Don & Rafaela Gearhart; along with a team dedicated employees are operating the business. Through all the trials, tribulations and blessings of our quarter century (and counting) in business; we have God and our customers to thank… and special thanks and remembrance to Edward Phillip Grennan SR, who made it possible.
