Brighthouse Are Finding New Ways to Operate
Radio Rentals evokes memories of terrible hair cuts, Ford Escorts and series of The Sweeney on ailing television sets. However, one of its direct descendants BrightHouse is beginning to win back the place it lost on the high street through the rise of the likes of Currys, Dixons and Comet and the reduction in the price of televisions.
BrightHouse was spun off from Thorn-EMI, the owner of Radio Rentals, by Terra Firma, Guy Hands’s private equity group. It gained infamy for exorbitant APRs and costly compulsory extra cover. Currentlythe retailer is on the front foot, trying to clean up both its shops and its name as it embarks on a very important growth programme. It plans to inaugurate 21 outlets next year and estimates that there is enough demand for at least 600.
Only a dozen of BrightHouse one hundred and seventy eight brances are in Greater London, but, as Leo McKee, the sincere chief executive of the company, is fond of saying the high street turns into a very different place beyond the M25.
Its clients, almost solely from the lower socioeconomic segments are having trouble to get credit – if they ever could – as lenders cut their risk profiles.
“We’re going into areas that [Lloyds] TSB are moving away from,” Mr McKee stated. The prospect of BrightHouse stepping in to offer credit to our less wealthy areas will not make everyone happy. However Brighthouse’s CEO says that this is an invalid perception.
“When I “began my time at Brighthouse [in 2004], we “commissioned “third party “research to examine “the proposition asking: ‘Is it sufficient?’ and: ‘Does it have longevity?’ he explained.
“The results came back: your name on the high street is garbage; you’re seen as a rip-off merchant; the prices were high, the stores shabby.
“The first move I made was to change all the prices to match the high street, on the day I found out [the results].”
The previous approach was that as far as customers could afford the weekly installment, they would not notice about the final price. And this thinking had knock-on effects right through the business.
That is what Brighthouse are now trying to sort out so their image gets better amongst the general public.
