Rent-A-Center's annual reports (10-Ks) are a gold mine of information that traditional independent operators can use to gauge their performance versus the industry as a whole.

Rental merchandise purchased by Rent-A-Center by category since 1996. See other graphs below.

If you're looking for accurate, verifiable, statistically viable rent-to-own industry operational data that can be used as a benchmark to judge the success of your independent stores, look no further than SEC filings of public companies like Rent-A-Center (RCII).

From average store size to the the amount spent per location on rental inventory, Rent-A-Center's annual reports (10-Ks) are a gold mine of information that traditional independent operators can use to gauge their performance versus the industry as a whole.

With over 3,000 locations, it is not an overstatement to say that, as Rent-A-Center goes, so goes the rent-to-own industry. No other source of RTO industry operational data can match the reliability and consistency of SEC reports.

RTO Online is in the final stages of development of an online system that will allow visitors to enter their information and have it compared automatically to Rent-A-Center's performance in the same area. The system will be launched in 2008.

RTO Online has catalogued Rent-A-Center's/Renter's Choice SEC filings going back to 1992. Following is a small sample of the data available.

Notes: Unless otherwise indicated, all revenue numbers are rental revenue only. All calculations requiring store-count use stores open at the end of the period. Our analysis of the data may differ from your own. Don't take our word for it; Verify the information by reviewing SEC filings here before making decisions based on this data.

Click image to enlarge graph

Rent-A-Center Factoids:

Rental Revenue Per Employee
Rent-A-Center 2006 Rental Revenue per employee - $121,209.57.

Rental Revenue per Home Office Employee
Rent-A-Center 2006 Rental Revenue per Home Office Employee - $4,843,475.71.

Monthly Revenue Per Location
Rent-A-Center's 2006 average monthly rental revenue per location was $58,540.74, down 18% from 2005. Note; Rent-A-Center's monthly revenue per location was negatively affected by the Rent Way acquisition.

In 2005, Rent Way stores averaged $45,811.02 per month in rental revenue versus Rent-A-Center's average of $69,326.42, the highest ever recorded by RAC.

Rent-A-Center's lowest average monthly rental revenue per location ($29,797.00) was reported in 1998, the year Renters Choice acquired Rent-A-Center.

For the entire 11 year period - 1996 through 2006 - Rent-A-Center's average monthly revenue per location is $56,998.05.

Rental Revenue Per Square Ft
Rent-A-Center 2006 Rental Revenue Per Square Ft. - $152.71.

Average Store Size
Rent-A-Center stores averaged 4,600 square ft. in 2006.

Rental Merchandise Purchased Per Location
Rent-A-Center 2006 Rental Merchandise Purchased Per Location - $222,900.76.

Purchases vs Revenue Ratio
Rental Revenue divided by Rental Merchandise Purchased in 2006 was 3.15.

Card Close
Week Ending Past Due has averaged 6.28% since 2000.

Charge-offs
Rent-A-Center's Charge-offs have been stable for the company's entire history, averaging 2.39% since 1995. Charge-offs for 2006 were 2.4%.

Suppliers
Ashley Furniture, Rent-A-Center's biggest supplier, accounted for 16% of all rental merchandise purchased in 2006. Whirlpool accounted for 14.3%. No other company accounted for more than 10%.

Total Rental Revenue
Rent-A-Center/Renters Choice has collected $17.28 billion in rental revenue since 1992. In case you're having difficulty visualizing $17.28 billion, it's equivalent to a stack of $100 bills 11.73 miles high.

Acquisitions
Rent-A-Center has spent approximately $2.27 billion on acquisitions since 1996.

About RTO Online
RTO Online, Inc. is the leading source of trade news and information for the rental purchase and lease purchase sector. The company publishes trade news, editorial and other original content on www.rtoonline.com and publishes a bi-monthly trade magazine - RTO MAGAZINE (www.rtomagazine.com), the most widely distributed print publication in the rental purchase sector.