RTO Online and RTO Magazine will cover this year's show for the first time. Please check www.rtoonline.com for updates, photo galleries and podcasts.

Group photo from the 2005 easyhome conference. RTO Online and RTO Magazine will cover this year's show for the first time. Please check www.rtoonline.com for updates, photo galleries and podcasts.

easyhome managers and executives will gather at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario this week for the company's 2007 National Conference. easyhome, formerly RTO Enterprises, is Canada's largest furniture leasing/rent to own company.

Over 200 easyhome will attended the event that will feature two days of training, strategy sessions and recognition of company and individual results.

The conference kicks off Wednesday morning with a Main Assembly followed by a vendor tradeshow. The event continues Thursday with training and planning sessions followed by an awards ceremony Thursday evening.

RTO Online and RTO Magazine will cover this year's show for the first time. Please check www.rtoonline.com for updates, photo galleries and podcasts.

easyhome will webcast it's management conference call with shareholders to discuss results for the fourth quarter at 11am EST today (Tuesday), March 6, 2007. Audio of the call will be broadcast live. A link to the live webcast is available from My RTO Portfolio.

easyhome Factoids From RTO Online:
Based in Edmonton, Alberta, easyhome is Canada's largest home-goods rental purchase company. The Company operated under the name RTO Enterprises until June 2003.

easyhome President & CEO, David Ingram (second from right) kicks off last year's 2006 conference.

David Ingram was hired as easyhome Chief Operating Officer on December 4, 2000 and appointed President and Chief Executive Officer on May 24, 2001. Prior to easyhome, Ingram ran Rent-A-Center's 29 store Canadian operation in 1996-97 and a 380 store U.S. division for Rent-A-Center.

After his appointment as CEO of the struggling company, Ingram implemented a turnaround strategy for RTO Enterprises that consisted of four simple steps designed to, in his words, "re-engineer RTO Enterprises." Those steps were -1. Restructure the organization; 2. Implement the basics; 3. Execute flawlessly ; and 4. Leverage opportunities for the C3 (cash and credit constrained) consumer.

Ingram focused his team on implementing the traditional rent-to-own business model including a much more disciplined approach to collections as well as moving easyhome's rental agreement renewal frequency towards weekly payments rather than monthly. Ingram said later that increasing weekly agreements, "Helped our efforts to develop the relationship with our customers and showcase our product assortment as our ‘stock turns’ become faster." By the end of 2001, RTO Enterprises was reporting its best growth in three years.

easyhome raised over $52,000 and supplied 2,000 kids with a backpack and school supplies during the company's 2006 backpack Challenge.

Responsibility for implement the back to basics strategy of rent-and-collect fell to Randy Robertson, Senior VP Operations. Robertson and team implemented two very simple processes - "Best Collection Practices" and "Best Sales Practices." These programs contained very specific daily and weekly responsibilities for each key area while clearly defining accountability for each Associate.

During each quarter, every store was given a complete financial audit and is examined in accordance with the newly introduced Standards of Operation.

With the implementation of ‘Best Collection Practices’, easyhome's month-end number of delinquent accounts decreased an average of 32%. Past due accounts dropped 40% and charge-offs were reduced by over $1.5 million, finishing the year at 2.5% of store revenue versus 4.9% in the year 2000. This was significantly lower than the company's US peer group that averaged charge-offs of 4.4% of revenue for the same period.

Also in 2001, easyhome introduced an annual bonus program. In addition to improving performance, the initiatives helped reduced employee turnover rate by 26%.

In march of 2002, RTO enterprises began a Canada-wide test of the easyhome re-branding concept. Over a 10-month period, stores that were re-branded increased their monthly rental agreement portfolio 30% compared with 7.5% for non-rebranded stores, increased their average rental rate per agreement by an average of $3.02 compared with a decline of $0.68 in non re-branded stores and grew customers by 3.7 per store per month, compared to 1.4 in non re-branded stores. In addition, increases were seen in customer retention rates.

By the end of 2003, RTO Enterprises had re-branded all stores to the easyhome label, becoming the dominant single rent to own brand in Canada with a 65% market share. (As a sidenote, 126 stores were converted from six different brands to easyhome in 90 days. The conversion was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.) Revenue for 2003 approached $80 million, up from $67 million in 2000.

2004 was the breakout year for easyhome. The company doubled its same store growth goals, increased customer count by over 16%, increased units on rent by 24% and increased earnings by 117%.

In 2005, easyhome continued its dominance by achieving the highest RTO industry revenue growth rate in North America, increasing revenue by 16.5%, meeting its store revenue growth target of 7-9% and growing its customer base 16%.

Also in 2005, easyhome cut by half the estimated population necessary to support an easyhome location from 40,000 to 20,000. The revised estimate was based on extensive market testing and resulted in easyhome entering more rural markets and raising its potential store count to 300.

easyhome's mission is simple and clearly stated : "We are a relationship driven business that thrives on the opportunity to provide customers access to household goods and services that enhance the quality of their lives."