Under John Claar's leadership, revenue at the Salem store increased more than 25% year over year

John Claar has been named 2005's Manager of the Year for Rent One, a 36 store chain based in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Listen to audio of the presentation (2:44). See an entire photo gallery of Wednesday's award ceremony, the casino-night that followed, as well as other photos from the conference at Rent One 2006 Conference Gallery (93)

John Claar has been named 2005's Manager of the Year for Rent One, a 36 store chain based in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Claar manages the Salem, Illinois store. The award was presented by company owner Larry Carrico at a ceremony Wednesday evening during Rent One's third annual "Empowerment Through Education" managers conference at the Drury Plaza hotel in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

John started as a delivery tech in 1999. He was promoted to Store Manager in 2001. In 2004 alone, John and his crew earned 7 Store of the month awards, 3 store of the quarter awards, and were named Store of the Year. "Some people would have been satisfied with 11 awards in a single year, but not John," said Larry Carrico. "He wanted more."

In 2005, John and his crew did it again, receiving 6 store of the month awards, 2 store of the quarter awards, and beat 2004 in every category from customer growth to revenue. John's store also led the entire company with a same store sales increase of 20%. "This award is not won by one person," said Claar. "It takes a whole crew. We call it teamwork."

Fraenkel Reps James Richards and Dennis Leisenring. Fraenkel was named Rent One's Vendor of the Year for 2005.

Rent One's criteria for Manager of the Year consists of 6 key factors;

• Increase in YTD business over last year
• Profitability
• Lower turn over in employees compared to company
• Mentoring
• Community Involvement
• Willingness to share inventories and knowledge

The company also named the Store, Employee, Vendor, Regional Manager and Rookie of the year for 2005. Winners are:

• Regional Manager of the year: Murray Beck
• Store of the year: Rent One #78, Herrin, Ill. ; Manager Brian Beck (Brian was Manager of the year for 2004)
• Employee of the year: Lori McGovern, Corporate Office
• Vendor of the year: Fraenkel; Reps James Richards and Dennis Leisenring
• Rookie of the year: Justin Roberts; Rent One #74, DuQuoin, Illinois
• Impact Award: Wayne McFall; Rent One #73, Carbondale, Illinois

Murray Beck, center, was named Rent One's 2005 Regional Manager of the Year. Listen to audio of the presentation (3:18). Son Brian, left and Larry Carrico presented the award in a ceremony Wednesday evening.

Murray Beck earned Rent One's 2005 Regional Manager of the Year Award. Larry Carrico explained that, unlike other company awards, Regional Manager of the Year is chosen by the all the managers of Rent One. "As I spoke to Johns peers, I repeatedly heard him described as a 'teacher'. In my opinion, to be valued as a teacher is the highest compliment." Brian Beck, Murray's son, who was Rent One's manager of the year in 2004, was on hand to help present the award to his father.

See an entire photo gallery of Wednesday's award ceremony, the casino-night that followed, as well as other photos from the conference here. Rent One 2006 Conference (93)