The three publicly held North American rent-to-own companies, who combined represent more than half of all rent-to-own stores, had a net store gain of 19 locations in 2008.

On a percentage basis, the top six rent-to-own companies in North America grew combined store-count by 0.87% in 2008. The largest percentage growth came from two companies - easyhome (9.5%) and The Premier Companies (45%). Aaron's had a larger net gain than any other company. See table below.

The three publicly held North American rent-to-own companies, Rent-A-Center (NASDAQ:RCII), Aaron's (NYSE:RNT), and easyhome (TSE:EH) - who combined represent more than half of all rent-to-own stores (4,823 as of December 31, 2008) - had a combined net store gain of 19 (0.39%) for the full year.

For your convenience, RTO Online has combined 2008 Annual reports from easyhome, Aaron's and Rent-A-Center into a single searchable document.

In addition, the following bulk PDFs are available for download:

All Rent-A-Center Annual Reports 2002-present in one searchable document.

All Aaron Rents Annual Reports 1997-present in one searchable document.

All easyhome Annual Reports 2000-present in one searchable document.

The Premier Companies had the highest growth on a percentage basis, adding 23 locations (45%) in 2008. easyhome had the second highest growth, adding 20 locations (20%). Aaron's grew its net store count by 43 (2.8%) for the year. Bestway finished 2008 flat at 74 locations.

Rent-A-Center reported a decrease in store count of 44 (1.4%) in 2008.

Correction: Company operated RimTyme stores are not included in Rent-A-Center's annual report as part of the ColorTyme system. We initially reported a 5 store loss for ColorTyme. With the addition of the uncounted RimTyme locations, ColorTyme gained 3 locations (1.3%) for the year. The table has been updated.