Rain for Rent was a trailblazer in the irrigation business
Rain for Rent Inc., 3397 State Route 86, Imperial, is a well-known supplier of irrigation components.
Founded in 1934 by Charles Lake in Bakersfield, the business started as Western Oilfields Supply Co. (WOSCO) with an original focus on buying, restoring and selling used pipe and oilfield equipment.
In 1936, the company set up an office in Oildale, Calif., near Hoover Camp, the shantytown mentioned in John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” For the next several years, the company provided irrigation lines for farmlands throughout the San Joaquin Valley, made from used oilfield pipe.
In 1950, Rain for Rent was incorporated as the nation’s first irrigation equipment rental company. The breadth of Rain for Rent’s irrigation and construction business expanded as the company continued to grow and offices were opened across the Western states.
Working alongside his two sons, Jerry and Don, Charles Lake encouraged his family to expand their engineering and sales talents and worked to grow the company into a fruitful family business.
Rain for Rent pioneered the irrigation rental business and to this day remains one of the largest pipeline rental companies in the world. Although WOSCO remains the parent company, most business is done under the Rain for Rent name and trademark.
The WOSCO Foundry was established in 1957 to manufacture aluminum fittings made from sand cores and permanent molds, producing an average of 540,000 pounds of fittings annually. The WOSCO Foundry remains one of only a few foundries still operating in California. It has produced over 30 million pounds of aluminum fittings to date.
Rain for Rent started its operation in Imperial Valley in 1969 with three employees. The company thrived here and continued to grow throughout California. In 1971, Jerry Lake became the company’s president, and the 1970s ushered in a new level of growth. An inhouse engineering department was opened; new equipment was purchased for the foundry, and Lake Co., a new wholesale sales division, was formed.
Lake Co. worked side by side with Rain for Rent under the WOSCO umbrella. With Rain for Rent’s advertising slogan, “Factory to Farmer,” Lake Company expanded the brand name of WOSCO products as a national and international wholesale distributor of its irrigation product line.
WOSCO founder Charles P. Lake passed away in 1988 at the age of 94 leaving a legacy of family values, hard work, honesty, integrity and commitment. The Charles P. Lake Memorial Scholarship was created in his honor and has provided over $300,000 in scholarships to students majoring in agriculture, engineering and business.
To apply for this scholarship, contact the Imperial County
Farm Bureau. Application deadline is April 30. Applicants will be accepted within the following criteria:
• Must have completed their freshman year at an approved college/university and be currently enrolled for the next school year.
• Must have a 3.0 or higher overall grade point average.
• Must be a U.S. citizen.
• Emphasis of education must be primarily agricultural or engineering in nature, with a major in an accredited school of agriculture, engineering or construction management program. Business majors are accepted from California State University, Bakersfield.
Applications must be submitted directly to scholarshipcoordinator@rainforrent. com or by mail to: Scholarship Coordinator, P.O. Box 2248, Bakersfield, CA 93303-2248. Official transcripts must be provided with each application.
In 1990, the company transitioned from Jerry Lake’s stewardship to a third-generation family manager, John Lake, who became CEO. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, industrial business opportunities became the focus of unprecedented growth, and multiple acquisitions were made that created new diverse opportunities for the company to expand further into petrochemical, environmental and industrial markets across the United States.
Rain for Rent’s product line promptly grew to include new tanks, pumps, filtration and containment designs. Power Prime Pumps was created to develop and build Rain for Rent’s innovative pump product line.
As part of a companywide diversification strategy, Rain for Rent International was established in 2014. Rain for Rent now serves the European market through locations in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany.
The retail store in Imperial Valley now has 36 staff members with managerial oversight currently from the Yuma office under the leadership of George Casey Smith. While the company first started here to serve the needs of the extensive agricultural community with sprinkler pipe, booster pumps and filter systems for drip irrigation, the mix now includes supplies and equipment for the geothermal industry here.
This geothermal link returns the company to its roots in the energy industry.
Agriculture continues to be a major focus with two sales division, with the industrial division as a single entity serving all the Valley.
Saul Huereque, a Calexico native and graduate of Calexico High School, is the sales manager for the north end, covering all the area north of Keystone to the Coachella Valley and Blythe. Huereque has been with Rain for Rent for two years but had prior experience with another irrigation company.
For his clients, the major product is aluminum rental pipe and the booster pumps. The irrigation pipe is used for germination. For the vegetable crops that means late August to the start of harvest season in late November. Some of the clients also use Rain for Rent’s design service with global positioning service (GPS) for the drip irrigation. The drip irrigation also uses Rain for Rent’s filtration system and may include an installation service option.
Charles Lake founded the business with the Golden Rule, “To treat others like you would like to be treated.” Another steadfast credo of the company is, “Each and every employee is sent home safely each and every day.” Every member of the Rain for Rent team knows that their safety is of the highest priority, and each employee is empowered to look out for each other, colleagues and customers alike, and “stop the job” if safety is ever in question.
Today, under the leadership of Paul Harrington, CEO, with 87 years of history and over 65 locations worldwide, Rain for Rent is an established industry leader, well-positioned to deliver high value liquid-handling solutions, which makes it another important cog in the Imperial Valley economy.