When Mark Speese took over as CEO of Rent a Center, he said; "I prefer to under-promise and over-perform". That philosophy was proven again today when Rent-A-Center announced that it expects to exceed the high end of its previously announced first quarter 2003 guidance of $1.37 per diluted share by approximately $0.04 to $0.05.

Mark E. Speese
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
"Our increased guidance is primarily a result of higher than anticipated same store sales of 6.2%, largely driven by increased merchandise sales due to income tax refunds that exceeded our expectations. Furthermore, the rent-to-own market continues to have significant potential for new store development and continues to present acquisition opportunities due to industry fragmentation. In fact, we opened 20 new store locations in the first quarter of 2003 and acquired one new store in addition to the 295 stores acquired from Rent-Way in February 2003. All of the Rent-Way stores have been fully integrated into our system, 176 have been merged with existing Rent-A-Center locations and 119 we kept as new store fronts."

Rent-A-Center will host a conference call to discuss the first quarter financial results and other business updates on Tuesday morning, April 29, 2003, at 10:45 a.m. EST. RTO Online will provide a link to listen in on our stock page.