History
The rent-to-own business was started by Ernie Talley in Wichita, Kansas during the 1960s when he told customers of his store, Mr. T's Rental, that they had rented a washer and dryer for a long enough duration that they had paid for it in full and now owned it.[9] Thomas Devlin, a former employee of Mr. T's rental, recognized the potential of renting name-brand products and partnered with W. Frank Barton and founded the Rent-A-Center brand in Wichita, Kansas in 1973.[10][11]
Mark Speese joined Rent-A-Center in 1979. In 1986, Mr. Speese and a colleague left Rent-A-Center and started a competing business known as Vista Rent-To-Own.[12][13] Ernest Talley then joined Vista Rent-To-Own as chairman of the board of directors in 1989 and remained Chairman through Vista's transition to Rent-A-Center.[13] In 1987, Thorn EMI acquired Rent-A-Center for $594 million.[14]
Vista Rent-To-Own changed its name to Renters Choice, Inc. in December 1993, in connection with the acquisition from DEF Investments, Inc. and certain related entities of an 84 store rent-to-own chain operating in 12 states.[15]
Renters Choice went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1995 under the symbol "RCII".[16][17] In August 1998, Renters Choice acquired Thorn Americas, Inc., which operated 1,474 stores in 49 states and the District of Columbia under the name "Rent-A-Center". On 31 December 1998, Renters Choice changed its name to Rent-A-Center, Inc. and began operating all of its stores under the "Rent-A-Center" brand name.[18]
In 2001, Talley retired and Speese was appointed as Rent-A-Center's Chairman and CEO.[19] In February 2003, Rent-A-Center acquired 295 stores from Rent-Way, Inc.[20] In March 2004, Rent-A-Center commenced operating in Canada with the acquisition of five stores located in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta.[21] In May 2004, Rent-A-Center completed the acquisitions of Rainbow Rentals, Inc. and Rent Rite, Inc.[22] Rent-A-Center completed its acquisition of competitor Rent-Way, Inc. on 15 November 2006, for a price of approximately $600.3 million. At the time of the acquisition, Rent-Way was ranked number three in the rent-to-own industry with 782 stores in 34 states.[23] The Rent-Way store acquisition program brought the store total to 3,535 stores. Given that the acquisition resulted in over-penetration in some markets, Rent-A-Center carried out the closing or merging of 282 stores between 2007 and 2009.[24] With 123 Mexico stores as of December 2019, Rent-A-Center is continuing its expansion in Mexico.
Launched in 2006, under the brand name RAC Acceptance, Rent-A-Center, Inc. operates lease-to-own kiosks within third-party retail locations across the country. The kiosks transitioned to the AcceptanceNOW brand in January 2014.[26]
Mark Speese retired as Rent-A-Center CEO at the end of January 2014. Rent-A-Center CFO Robert Davis served as CEO from January 2014 to January 2017, when Mark Speese returned as interim CEO.[27]
In January 2018, Mark Speese stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by former president Mitchell Fadel.[28]
In August 2019, Rent-A-Center completed the acquisition of Merchants Preferred,[29] a nationwide provider of virtual lease-to-own services. After acquiring Merchants Preferred, Rent-A-Center unveiled its integrated retail partner offering, Preferred Lease. Preferred Lease is the combined business model of AcceptanceNOW's staffed lease-to-own business with Merchants Preferred's virtual lease-to-own business.[30]
On February 27, 2023 Rent-A-Center, Inc. changed their corporate name to Upbound Group, Inc. and consolidated several brands from their acquisition of Acima Holdings two years prior.[31][32]
