We’re not going (to the United States) to just join the industry. We’re going there to compete fairly and to try to win.
David Ingram, President/CEO, Canadian-based easyhome on his company’s just-announced U.S. expansion program

When the dust settles years from now there’s still going to be a Rent-a-Center and there’s still going to be an Aaron’s. But a lot of the smaller companies and the independent-type owners will fall by the wayside unless they can execute at a high level.
Bud Gates, Master Franchisee, easyhome, Former President/CEO of Rent-a-Center

David Ingram (left), President and CEO of Canadian-based easyhome with Bud Gates, easyhomes just announced US Master Franchisee, on stage with event MC Mike Carbone at Wednesday's general session. See a complete photo gallery (235 pics) of Wednesday's events; General Session Live and Interactive, (98) Vendor Show, (23) CSI Team Building (114).

David Ingram, CEO, easyhome. Bud Gates, Master Franchisee, easyhome. Dave Maries, VP Marketing and Merchandising. Simon Holmes, Divisional VP, Eastern Canada, easyhome. Errol Penny, Regional Manager, Region 4, Saskatchewan.

Over 300 easyhome managers, executives and vendors held the first full day of the 2007 easyhome National Conference at the Fallsview Casino and Resort in Niagara, Ontario Wednesday. easyhome is Canada's largest rent to own/leasing company. See a complete photo gallery (235 pics) of Wednesday's events; General Session Live and Interactive, (98) Vendor Show, (23) CSI Team Building (114).

RTO Online conducted exclusive podcast interviews with easyhome executives including President and CEO David Ingram and industry legend Bud Gates, who has been named as easyhome’s Master Franchisee for the United States.

Under Ingram’s six-year tenure the company has re-branded itself with a name crafted from extensive customer research, expanded heavily throughout Canada, and is now prepared to introduce the easyhome concept to American rental customers.

“We have made a very conscious decision to bring (the rental concept) up-to-date. We wanted to modernize the store environment. Our customers are good, hard-working individuals who are going to use a lot of their disposable cash to treat themselves to a nice TV or a bedroom set. Why not give them a great experience when they come to our store? The (rental) model is always changing. The industry is always evolving. You have to be very innovative when you design a store and think about what relevance it will have in five years’ time.”

Ingram’s group relies heavily on research and data to guide them in making decisions, including the design work on their latest ‘store of the future’.

“The research we did said that 53% of our revenue comes off the wall space. Given the fact that living rooms were growing faster than anything else we had for the past two to three years, we designed fixtures to allow us to put more living rooms in by using cube space. Now you’ll see 50% more living rooms merchandised in the same 4,000 square foot store.”

Easyhome has moved away from their previous monthly model, which represented 70% of payments when Ingram took over in 2001. In a complete turnaround, weekly payments now make up 75% of easyhome agreements. Ingram has also made inroads on extending his stores’ average length of agreement.

“Six years ago it was four months. But I challenged our team to grow their business by keeping existing customers longer. We’re now at an average agreement length of 5.25 months. Which when multiplied over our 190,000 units on lease becomes a big number.”

So how much of an impact can easyhome make on the U.S. rental market?

“There is no way to ‘crystal ball’ this. Everything moves so fast. We know we want to get to 300 stores in Canada in short order. In the U.S., if the industry estimates of 8,500 stores doing $6.5 billion in revenue are correct, then Bud and I have agreed that the number of stores we want to open over the next few years is in the hundreds. How far you go beyond that depends on whether we continue to execute well.”

Execution is a particular strength for Bud Gates. The well-known former Rent-a-Center CEO is a successful entrepreneur who stayed connected to the rental industry as a former franchisee for both Rent-a-Center and Colortyme. So what could have brought him back to the rental business – again?

“What I see in easyhome are two things. Number one, I am very excited about their proposition to the customer. But I also think their level of execution is tremendous. All the ideas in the world are not going to help you in this business if you can’t execute. I think easyhome’s systems and processes lend themselves to being able to execute at a very high level. You see it up and down this organization. Whether it’s marketing, merchandising, IT or training – they’ve got very solid systems in every one of those areas. If I’d been of a mood to start my own rent-to-own company after all these years, which I wasn’t and I’m not, what I see in easyhome - in terms of the proposition for the customer and the level of execution - are the very things that I would look to do myself.”

Gates readily admits that no one knows the exact growth potential for the easyhome concept in the United States.

“A lot of the expansion in Canada has been into virgin territory. In the U.S. I think a lot of growth will be from taking market share. It will be interesting to see how that happens.”

Ingram predicts the next few years will be busy ones for the easyhome team.

“We’ll do more in the next three years than we did in the previous six years combined. We have essentially the same senior management team we had six or seven years ago. We have a lot of loyal people in our stores. I’m proudest that our people have taken us to where we are now. They’ll be the ones to take us where we go next.”