Two rental giants are teaming up to create the strongest rental company in the United States. Together, they’ll be able to reach 300,000 customers. So what’s going to change?

LensRentals was founded in 2006, as was LensProToGo coincidentally. After over a decade, they'll merge under one roof. Both brands will be running as normal, so customers shouldn’t notice any changes. With combined resources, the companies are not just reaching a larger market. The new private company will be able to offer the most amount of equipment and services than anywhere else in the country. With this arrangement, customers will be able to rent gear on both coasts from the same company.

The announcement was publicized today after the deal was finalized on December 1. It’s worth noting that this partnership has nothing to do with LensRentals acquiring ATS Rentals from Illinois, who distribute nationally. Although I’m sure that gave LenProToGo confidence in the current deal.

“The LensProToGo opportunity allows us to increase our visibility on the east coast of the U.S., and continue to offer a more specialized consultative approach to photography and video gear rental,” explained Drew Cicala, co-owner of LensRentals.

The websites are certainly similar.

Consolidation like this isn’t all that rare, however since this is a partnership and not necessarily a buyout, then we could expect serious competition from this deal. Earlier this year, gear-sharing startup KitSplit acquired CameraLends. It shaped them up to take on Sharegrid. While equipment sharing isn’t quite the same industry as LensRentals and LensProToGo, it’s clear that consolidation is a smart decision to compete in a competitive market.

What do you think? Is anybody a particular fan of one brand over the other? I’m interested to see what else they’ll be able to offer.