BrightHouse, the UK’s biggest rent-to-own retailer, has announced that it plans to open a further 20 stores this year.
Figures show that the company’s pre-tax profits increased by 16% to £19.6 million to the end of March and revenue rose 5.5% to £351.7 million.
Chief executive Lee McKee said: “The business has grown consistently over the nine years. We serve a group of 7 million low-income households who have limited or no access to mainstream lenders. The products that we sell are essential. People need a sofa. They need a bed. There is huge demand for our services,. If you look at the US, where it has been established much longer, there are 9,500 rent-to-own stores. On a like-for-like basis that means there could be 2,000 in the UK,” he added. “Our two mantras are to look after the customers and look after the colleagues.”
The success of the company over the year encouraged the retailer’s private equity owners Vision Capital to employ staff from Rothschild to search options for the firm. One of the options it has looked into is an IPO worth around £750 million.
Commenting on the options, McKee said that talks have “died down” and probably won’t resurface any time soon.
He continued: “Of course they will continue to talk to people – that is what [private equity companies] do. But as far as the board of Brighthouse is concerned we are cracking on. The little flurry from 2014 seems to have died down and it is definitely not at the front of our minds.”
