About us – Rentit AG – Your partner for aerial work platf

At Rentit, it’s all about flexibility, efficiency and safety. Since 2000, we have been providing businesses throughout Switzerland with professional hire solutions for aerial work platforms, lifting equipment, scaffolding, façade lifts and accessories. Our aim: to provide you with exactly the equipment you need – reliable, modern and available straight away.

Oswald Hitz set up his own business. Initially, he specialised in façade maintenance services. He soon began letting out the equipment used in façade maintenance to other companies as well. At that time, his range included his first façade lifts, aluminium scaffolding and trailer-mounted platforms.

Establishment of the first public limited company with the aim of further expanding the business.

blaue LKW Arbeitsbühne im ausgefahrenen Zustand vor einer Metallfassade

The purchase of the first large truck-mounted aerial platform marked a decisive milestone in the company’s history. Oswald Hitz took a major financial risk, but one that would pay off in the long term. Thanks to the new Cella truck-mounted platform (see blog post), sites that had previously been difficult or impossible to access became reachable. Enquiries for manned operations increased steadily, and the hire business became increasingly important.

Two years after purchasing the Cella aerial work platform, the company wanted to focus further on the hire business and decided to acquire a large fleet of aerial work platforms. These included legendary machines such as the Grove AMZ 68 XT and the Liftlux SL 153-12 E – machines that would later form the backbone of the rental business.

Spin-off of the hire business and establishment of the hire company RENT-IT AG on 30
October 2000. With a clear focus on the hire of aerial work platforms, forklift trucks and motorised suspended scaffolding, the aim was to concentrate on the new core business.

Membership of the Partnerlift network. A network of aerial work platform hire companies (primarily from Germany) with the aim of jointly securing better purchasing terms and sharing capacity amongst themselves.

The purchase of a Ruthmann T580 marked another milestone. The vehicle boasted performance specifications that were unprecedented in Switzerland at the time. This was also taken as an opportunity to organise a major event, including press coverage. By this point, the fleet already comprised 120 units.

The first IPAF training course is held by Roger Schaffner at our site in Goldach.
From this point onwards, operator safety becomes increasingly important. Training courses for operators are offered on an ongoing basis at our sites.

Silvio Hitz is following in his father’s footsteps, thereby heralding the start of a generational change. He will initially take on a wide range of day-to-day responsibilities and will be a key point of contact for all customers right from the start. He will shortly take on key responsibilities as managing director. Furthermore, he is also initiating the certification of Rentit as a training centre within the IPAF organisation.

Alexander Bänziger is joining the company and will take on some of the management responsibilities. His duties will initially include: sales, marketing, pricing, key account management, etc.

Certification as an IPAF Training Centre.
Thanks to this certification, we will be able to offer training courses for aerial work platform operators ourselves in future.

Establishment of our own workshop department.
As the business grew, it became inevitable that we would need to develop our own workshop capacity. Nevertheless, we still maintain good relationships with external contractors today in order to ensure we maintain high levels of capacity and short response times for our customers.

Complete digitalisation of day-to-day operations

Opening of a partner company in Serbia.

Until now, many machines have been sold for export. With the establishment of a new branch, we are investing these machines in setting up a rental company in Serbia – a market with very high potential.

From 1 January 2025, we will have a third site in Zofingen. With this site, we will also take over all service and sales responsibilities from Böcker Schweiz AG.