ATLANTA, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aaron Rents, Inc. (NYSE:RNT), the nation's leader in sales and lease ownership, specialty retailing and rental of residential and office furniture, consumer electronics and home appliances and accessories, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Kelly Rentals, Inc., operator of 23 Kelly's Sales & Leasing stores in North Carolina and Virginia, to convert its stores to franchised Aaron Rents stores.
The stores will enter the Aaron's franchise system and operate as Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership stores. Due to some geographic overlaps between the Kelly's stores and currently operating Aaron's stores, the transaction will involve several acquisitions, dispositions, and account mergers between Kelly's, Aaron's, and several of Aaron's current franchisees. After the transaction is completed, Kelly's will operate 15 Aaron's stores in Virginia and 3 Aaron's stores in North Carolina.
Kelly's has also entered into an area development agreement to open three additional franchised Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership stores over the next several years.
"We are extremely pleased to announce this store conversion transaction with Kelly's," said Ken Butler, Chief Operating Officer of Aaron Rents. "Last month marked the 25th anniversary of Kelly's operations and we are excited to have them bring their knowledge and expertise into the Aaron's system. It is apparent from this transaction that they also see great value in joining our well-established, highly successful franchise program. We are eager to explore the numerous opportunities that exist in the future to convert other rental operators into Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership franchisees." Aaron Rents, Inc., based in Atlanta, currently has more than 1,557 Company-operated and franchised stores in 48 states and Canada. The Company's MacTavish Furniture Industries division manufactured approximately $69 million at cost of furniture and bedding at 12 facilities in five states in 2008. The entire production of MacTavish is for shipment to Aaron Rents stores.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this news release regarding Aaron Rents, Inc.'s business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include factors such as changes in general economic conditions, competition, pricing, customer demand and other issues, and the risks and uncertainties discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007. DATASOURCE: Aaron Rents, Inc.
CONTACT: Gilbert L. Danielson, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Aaron Rents, Inc., +1-404-231-0011 Web Site: http://www.aaronrents.com/
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