Brighthouse Are Amending Their Ways
Radio Rentals conjures images of mutton-chop sideburns, Ford Escorts and series of The Sweeney on ailing television sets. However, one of its immediate 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 created out of Thorn-EMI, the owner of Radio Rentals, by Terra Firma, Guy Hands’s private equity group. It earned infamy for exorbitant APRs and costly mandatory extra cover. Currentlythe retailer is on the front foot, attempting to clean up both its shops and its reputation as it embarks on a very significant growth programme. It plans to inaugurate 21 branches next year and estimates that there is room 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 when you leave the borders of London behind.
Its clients, almost exclusively from the lower socioeconomic classes are having trouble to find credit – if they ever could – as lenders cut their risk profiles.
“We are targeting areas that [Lloyds] TSB are pulling out of,” Mr McKee said. The prospect of BrightHouse stepping in to give credit to our most deprived communities will not satisfy everyone. However the Scot insists that this is an invalid perception.
“When I “took over [in 2004], we “requested a “third party “study to examine “the offering asking: ‘Is it sufficient?’ and: ‘Does it have longevity?’ he said.
“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 decision I made was to change all the prices to match the high street, on the day I found out [the results].”
The old approach was that as far as customers could afford the £10 a week, they would not care about the final price. And this thinking had knock-on effects right through the business.
That is what Brighthouse are now trying to fix so their image gets better amongst the general public.
