Realistically, we can grow Bestway to 300 locations in the next ten years.
David A. Kraemer, President and CEO, Bestway Rent to Own

Over 100 Bestway Rent to Own executives, managers and vendors are gathering this week at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee for the company's annual meeting. See photo gallery here.

Bestway managers spent Tuesday afternoon in a team-building exercise called "Swamped." Bestway VP Benny Cheek explained that Swamped is a role playing exercise meant to reinforce the fact that a team will always outperform an individual. "Without exception, teams make better decisions. If you have happy employees working together in the same direction, business prospers."

Spend more than a few minutes with Bestway president and CEO David Kraemer and you'll quickly learn his feelings on a well trained, well motivated and well compensated team. Building a strong team has been Kraemer's focus since being named Bestway's President and CEO in 2002 after serving as executive vice president of Rent-A-Center. "The first decision I made as CEO was to improve employee compensation," said Kraemer. "At the time, Bestway was not paying managers a competitive wage. People and product have been my focus since that day."

Bestway Chief Financial Officer Beth Durrett is the 10 Questions subject in September's issue of RTO Magazine. Click here to read this months issue.

Kraemer sees his employee-centric attitude as a passion that pays dividends. "Most of the really good ideas come from the field," he says. "My job is to bring them back and spread them around. Rent to Own is a simple business model that is difficult to execute. If co-workers on our team have the 'want-to', we're going to have the teamwork behind them to help them be successful."

Bestway team members enjoyed a bowling tournament Tuesday evening. See a complete photo gallery of the bowling tournament here.

Kraemer began his RTO career in 1983 as a delivery driver for 3 store operation called Leastown. The biggest change he's seen in the RTO industry in the last 23 years is professionalism driven by customer demands. "Increased competition and an ever evolving, ever more demanding consumer have forced a step-change improvement in rent to own operations."

Consumers are also demanding lower prices. Bestway offers a low price guarantee. "Because there are so many choices out there, you have to be competitive on price. You cannot have the highest price and convince customers it's in their best interest to pay you more."

Over 100 Bestway Rent to Own executives, managers and vendors gathered this week at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee for the company's annual meeting. Above are Bestway's District Managers; Back row - Greg Morris, Ronnie Green, Jim Ford, Ray Ruppe. Front row - Matt Frazier, Edna Hayes, Chris Daughtrey, Chris Stromeyer, Mark Minge.

Bestway has seen an amazing turnaround under Kraemer's leadership. The company has increased revenue 25% in 48 months. Both stockholders and employees have reaped the benefits of that increase. Fully One third of the increase has been reinvested in employee salaries. "I firmly believe the best investment we can make is in our employees."

What's in Bestway's future? "Realistically," said Kraemer, "we can grow Bestway to 300 locations in the next ten years."

Click here to view a complete photo gallery of Tuesday's team building session and bowling tournament.