Aaron's 2Q profit up 18%
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, August 3, 2008
Atlanta — Aaron Rents earned $23.3 million or 43 cents per share in the second quarter, up 18% from the same period last year as revenues improved.
Total revenues for the rent-to-own and rental specialist grew 15% to $411.2 million.
Aaron Rents Chairman Charlie Loudermilk called the second-quarter results "exceptional." He said the company continues to grow and is "pleased that we service the large market of credit-constrained consumers who need and desire our products and services even in these difficult economic times."
President and CEO Robert Loudermilk Jr. said that in the second quarter, "we saw an improvement in same-store revenues, collection efforts and overall store level execution, and our profitability exceeded expectations." The strong performance came even with new-store start-up expenses that reduced results by 6 cents per share, he said.
Second-quarter revenues for Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership division — its largest operation — increased 16% to $381.4 million. Same-store revenues for company-operated stores in the division increased 4.1%.
Franchisees had an 18% increase in second-quarter revenues to $160.3 million and same-store revenue increased 16.1%.
During the second quarter the Sales & Lease Ownership division opened six company-operated stores, 14 franchised stores, one company-operated Rimco store and one franchised Rimco store. It closed nine company-owned and four franchised stores, merging their operations with other existing stores.
Aaron also acquired 17 franchised stores; acquired one store and the rental accounts of six other unrelated rental companies; sold four company-owned stores to a franchisee; and sold the rental accounts of three other stores to another rental operator. It also closed two corporate furnishings stores during the quarter.
It expects third-quarter revenues of more than $405 million and full-year revenues of about $1.7 billion (excluding revenues of franchisees). It raised its earnings-per-share guidance for the year to $1.54 to $1.64 from previous guidance of $1.40 to $1.55.
Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership division has 993 company-operated stores, 480 franchised stores, 30 company-operated Rimco stores and seven franchised Rimco stores. Rimco rents automotive wheels and tires. In addition, the company operates 60 corporate furnishings stores.
| Aaron Rents | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Earnings per share are fully diluted, and all figures in parentheses are losses or declines. | |||
| Quarter ended 6/30 | 2008 | 2007 | Change |
| (a) Includes pretax franchise royalties and fees of $10.9 million in the 2008 quarter, $9.6 million in the 2007 quarter, $21.9 million in the 2008 six months and $19.5 million in the 2007 six months. (b) Based on average shares outstanding of 54.1 million in the 2008 quarter, 55.1 million in the 2007 quarter, 54.1 million in the 2008 six months and 55.0 million in the 2007 six months. |
|||
| Revenues (a) | $411,191,000 | $358,985,000 | 14.5% |
| Operating income | 40,044,000 | 33,571,000 | 19.3% |
| Net income | 23,279,000 | 19,657,000 | 18.4% |
| Earnings per share (b) | 0.43 | 0.36 | 19.4% |
| 6 months ended 6/30 | 2008 | 2007 | Change |
| Revenues (a) | $848,522,000 | $746,919,000 | 13.6% |
| Operating income | 82,858,000 | 82,340,000 | 0.6% |
| Net income | 48,032,000 | 48,864,000 | (1.7%) |
| Earnings per share (b) | 0.89 | 0.89 | 0.0% |
-
Aaron’s quarterly profit jumps 18%
Jul 23, 2008
Merinos Home Furnishings opening display room, Boyles addition
‘Mega vessels' likely to boost capacity, stabilize freight rates
HOM Furniture adds flooring to six Twin Cities stores
Dan Masters joins Furniture Brands as VP, business development
21 companies from Turkey, Taiwan and China to exhibit at Showtime
Featured Company
-
FurnitureCore.com
FurnitureCore.com is a dynamic web application aimed at the furniture industry. Retailers and manufacturers alike will find our deep reserve of tools to be exactly what their furniture business needs.www.furniturecore.com... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
