The
opportunity for rental dealers to take part in a show of this
size is just amazing. Tony Battaglia, Blue Ribbon Rentals
Video Interviews from RentDirect-Nationwide Trade
Show Floor
Tony Battaglia of Blue Ribbon Rentals talks about
his company’s growth and future plans
More RTO Online Vendor Video From
RentDirect-nationwide Buying show.
Mike
Bertolani of SED International shows how CPU’s are
getting smaller and monitors are disappearing altogether
Leo
Grossman, District Manager for Electrolux describes the
newest features of Frigidaire laundry and refrigeration
products
Chet
Pensak of InForm Print & Promotions exhibits
cutting-edge signage options and promotional specialties
Brown
Councill of Baseline Licensing Group hits a home run
with his line of Sports Home Lifestyle furnishings
More coming soon....
RTO
Online (www.rtoonline.com)
conducted nearly a dozen video interviews with leading rental
vendors and dealers, including a conversation with Tony
Battaglia from Blue Ribbon Rentals. Battaglia, a twenty-plus
year veteran of the rental industry is a strong believer in the
importance of participating in buying groups and sees the
RentDirect show as an important part of how he continues to grow
the Blue Ribbon business. Click play to view RTO Online's
VideoCast interview with Tony Battaglia. (slow
internet connections may result in buffering. If this occurs,
click pause until the video is approximately 50% downloaded.)
More than 200 vendors displayed the latest electronics,
appliances, furniture and more to the rental dealers in
attendance at RentDirect--Nationwide’s buying show at the Dolphin
Hotel at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Vendors report
doing brisk business as dealers planned to stock their showrooms
with smaller computers, flatter televisions and better laundry
pairs.
The trade show spans nearly two hundred thousand square feet.
Services of RentDirect such as advertising support and fixture
design were up front so dealers could see for themselves how to
integrate the various benefits of the group into their overall
business plan. The rest of the vendors on the enormous trade
show floor were grouped like departments, making it easy for the
dealers to competitively shop all of their options in a
concentrated area.
Earlier in the day, Executive Director James MacAlpine announced
the upcoming Member2Member Summit would be held in Atlanta,
Georgia May 7 – 9, 2007. MacAlpine expects 120 companies to
attend this year’s summit, more than double 2006.
“One of the important benefits of being associated with the
RentDirect-Nationwide group is the fact that because of our
large retail membership, the purchasing programs we make
available are some of the best deals anywhere. We have worked
hard to bridge any gap between retail (wholesale) pricing and
rental (wholesale) pricing.”
MacAlpine reviewed the database of competitive shop information
available to RentDirect members, including 24 months of rolling
data gathered monthly from rental dealers both large and small
including rate, term and offer specifics. The competitive shop
data also includes information on specific products, brands and
which company was being shopped.
The competitive shop data was helpful in RentDirect’s creation
of new advertising programs created exclusively for rental
dealers. These programs include the free use of coordinated
circulars, signage, postcards and price tags along with
television and radio spots that can be completely customized.
According to Steve Bryant of RentDirect-Nationwide, “These
television spots give dealers the chance to run a
professionally-produced HD television commercial for just a few
hundred dollars to cover the cost of voice-over, shipping and
placing their logo in the spot. With one of these commercials
and a call to your local cable salesperson, any rental dealer
can afford television advertising and to do it in a way they can
be very proud of.”
There were several new inventory financing options presented to
RentDirect members, who had identified more financing help as an
important issue at previous meetings. Paul Belt of Capital
Solutions announced a new RentDirect financing option that
effectively doubles the length of time rental dealers have to
pay for their inventory from 90 days to 180 days.
“Since we met with RentDirect leadership last year we have been
looking for a better cash flow situation for their members. This
new program from Capital Solutions allows customers to choose
1/4, 1/5 or 1/6 payment programs for an extended scheduled
liquidation program. This should greatly help rental dealers
manage their cash flow by giving them longer to pay off their
inventory purchases.”
Todd Leonard of Capital Solutions’ Dealer Solutions Group
reviewed three other financing opportunities for RentDirect
members including an equipment finance program with a term of up
to seven years that dealers can use to convert liquid assets to
cash.
“This program can be used for several reasons. It can help ease
the implementation burden of new signage or assist with
financing business software purchases. We can also purchase
certain assets from the dealer and then lease them back to the
dealer, freeing up extra operating income.”
Leonard also rolled out a real estate financing program and a
Business Productivity MasterCard program with an accelerated
application process for RentDirect members.
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.
The
opportunity for rental dealers to take part in a show of this
size is just amazing.
