Special Rent to Own Industry Franchise Issue of RTO Magazine

The May, 2007 issue of RTO MAGAZINE features profiles of the top rent-to-own industry franchising companies in North America.

Franchisees exist in a world half in, and half out of the box. They combine the talent and drive of the entrepreneur, with financing and time tested procedures that produce results. Not all franchises are the same. When investigating various franchise opportunities, it is critical that Rent to Own professionals give serious consideration to not only what works, but why and how it works.

-Aaron’s Sales and Lease Ownership
-ColorTyme
-easyhome
-JD Byrider
-Premier Rental Purchase
-Premier Home Furnishings
-Premier Wheel Rentals
-U-Getcha Cash
-RIMCO
-SEADRA

"These companies represent the 'cream of the crop' in franchising," said Roy Griffaw, founder of RTO Online (www.rtoonline.com), the leading source of online trade news for the rental purchase industry, and publisher of RTO MAGAZINE, the leading print trade publication in the home-goods rent to own and leasing sector.

In addition to company profiles, the May issue profiles 20 successful franchisees currently operating in the Rent to Own/leasing sector including an in-depth feature on Bud Gates, former CEO of Rent-A-Center, currently the U.S. master franchisor for easyhome, Canada's largest home-goods rent to own company. In March pf this year, easyhome announced it's intention to open franchise operations in all U.S. states.

Excerpts from "Golden Gates", RTO MAGAZINE’s Exclusive Profile Of Rent to Own Industry Icon Bud Gates.

Crossing the bridge between franchisor and franchisee has become second-nature for rental industry legend and former Rent-A-Center CEO Bud Gates. This time, Gates has announced his intent to serve as master U.S. franchisor of the successful Canadian easyhome rental concept. Those who have followed Gates’ career know this is a competitor who never does anything small, and the easyhome deal will be no exception.

In a career that spans nearly forty years, Bud Gates has had the chance to pretty much be anything he wanted. From an early start as a popular math teacher in the town of Weston, Massachusetts before paying his way through the storied Harvard MBA program, Gates has embarked on a one-way road to success.

As the Chairman and CEO of Gates Enterprises, Inc., Bud Gates oversees a diverse portfolio of companies that until recently included Pizza Hut franchises and Rent-A-Center and Colortyme franchises.

“I’ve had the unique opportunity to be both franchisee and franchisor for the same organization. At Pizza Hut and then at Rent-A-Center, I worked for the franchisor then became a franchisee. I’ve seen the world twice on both sides (of a franchise organization),” said Gates. “It gives me a tremendous appreciation for a well-run franchise system.”

In fact, it was when Gates left Pizza Hut in 1985 to become Executive Vice President of Rent-A-Center, Inc., that he first became a Pizza Hut franchisee. He remained one until this past January, when he sold his nine locations so that he could focus on his three-year-old restaurant endeavor, B.G. Bolton’s.

While it might seem unusual to be overseeing the development of multiple franchise concepts within one company, it’s all in a day’s work for Bud Gates.

The Rental Cycle
Gates spent 11 years (1985-1996) at the helm of Rent-A-Center, steering the nation’s largest rental company through incredible growth but also through some challenging times. There was the 1987 sale to Thorn EMI Home Electronics (UK) Ltd., which could have stirred major cultural issues between the new British owners and their predominantly U.S. employees were it not for Gates’ strong relationship-building skills.

Once things were running smoothly under the new ownership, Gates had to deal with the fallout from the infamous Wall Street Journal expose piece where undercover reporters gained access to a Rent-A-Center annual meeting and categorically skewered the company and its efforts to provide merchandise to hard-working but credit-constrained consumers.

“Seeing that piece by the Journal was like being punched in the stomach. Anyone who knows this business knows we serve – and the key word is serve – a lot of people who choose RTO as a source of the things they want and need for their homes. When a business is run right, and someone attacks you with lies like the Wall Street Journal did, it’s hard to describe what that was like. Two-and-a-half weeks later they printed a major retraction. But although they raked us over the coals on the front cover above the fold, the retraction appeared on the lower left corner of page 39.”...

About RTO Online
RTO Online, Inc. publishes trade news, editorial and other original content on www.rtoonline.com. The Company also publishes a bi-monthly trade magazine - RTO MAGAZINE (www.rtomagazine.com), the most widely distributed print publication in the rental purchase sector.

RTO Online is the official channel for Rent-to-Own Industry News and the only independent source of news for the rent-to-own, rental-purchase, lease-purchase trade. RTO Online (Rent to Own Online) represents the choice of the entire RTO Industry for trusted information, as it happens.

Tell us what you think
Rate the article at the top of this page