Business Strategy Analysis
Background/History
Rent-A-Center is the largest chain of rent-to-own stores in the United States, which accounts for approximate 32 percent of market share based on store count. In 1963, J. Ernest Talley firstly established a rental store named Mr. T’s Rental and started his rent-to-own business. During a long period time, Mr. T’s Rental had rented washers and dryers to its customers. In 1973, Tom Devlin, a former employee in Mr. T’s Rental, established Rent-A-Center in Wichita, Kansas. He started his business with a single rent-to-own store, and then established a Rent-A-Center chain which had both company-owned stores and franchisees. In 1986, one former employee of Rent-A-Center, Mr. Speese, started his own business known as Vista Rent-To-Own, which was the predecessor of the current Rent-A-Center. Vista Rent-To-Own was invested by DEF Investment, Inc and was changed name to be Renters Choice, Inc in 1993. In order to find further growth, Talley took Renters Choice public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1995. Then, Renters Choice started a rapid merges and expansion. In 1998, Renter Choice started using “Rent-A-Center” brand to operate all of its stores.
Strategy Analysis
In order to keep continue growth and a leader position in the rent-to-own industry, Rent-A-Center focuses on follow strategies: * Enhancing the Operations, Revenue and Profitability of store locations
Because Rent-A-Center operates a great many rent-to-own stores, improving stores’ performance could be an effective strategy. Managers should pay more attention to operational efficiencies and customers’ in-store experience to improve stores’ performance. To access this strategy, Rent-A-Center can get financial information such as revenue, net income, and total assets from financial statement, and then calculate index such as Profit Margin and ROA to compare with