We plan on putting seven stores in Austin proper, and between five and six in the greater Waco area.
Trent McKenzie, Franchisee, easyhome

Bud Gates (left) with Trent McKenzie. McKenzie's father-in-law was one of the early investors in Rent-A-Center.

Bud Gates, Chairman and CEO of easygates, LLC announced the signing of a new easyhome franchise to develop several markets in Central Texas. The franchise, easycompany, LLC will develop at least 10 stores over the next 4 years.

Gates commented, "We are extremely excited to have Trent join the easyhome brand. He understands what it takes to build a strong business based on outstanding customer service. He has been very successful in his career and has tremendous experience running multi-unit businesses. We believe Trent will be a great asset to our franchise ranks."

David Ingram, President and CEO of easyhome Ltd. commented, "With Trent's proven background in multiunit franchising operations in both the automotive and restaurant industries, we are confident that he will be successful in the merchandise lease-to-own industry. We expect to have the first two easygates' stores opened in mid to late November and plan to follow this with Trent's first store opening in the first quarter of 2009. With this multi-site announcement of 10 stores, we now have a total of 26 stores in the pipeline for development in the U.S."

McKenzie has spent most of his career in multi-unit retail operations. For eleven years, he owned a chain of automotive repair centers that he sold in 2007 to Meineke Car Care Center. Currently, he is a partner in 14 Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich franchises, with plans to grow that business to 30 locations within 24 months. While McKenzie owns some upper Midwest Jimmy John's locations, his primary area is Austin, Texas. It was that first-hand market knowledge of Austin, combined with a long-time connection to Bud Gates, that made this easyhome Area Development deal so appealing to McKenzie.

"Growing up in Wichita with Rent-A-Center here, is seems everyone knows about rent-to-own. My father-in-law was a Pizza Hut franchisee, and he was also one of the early investors in Rent-A-Center when Tom Devlin was building that company. He later became a Rent-A-Center franchisee, so we've got numerous connections to Bud that even pre-date my joining the family," said McKenzie.

McKenzie says he signed on to develop two Designated Market Area's (DMA's) for easyhome - Austin, TX and Waco-Temple-Bryan, TX, markets that both rank in the country's Top 100 DMA's. McKenzie said that acquiring the rights to develop an entire DMA is fairly standard in the franchise industry and allows franchisees to take advantage of marketing scales of economy, while providing a pretty clear geographical boundary for customers.

"We plan on putting seven stores in Austin proper, and between five and six in the greater Waco area," said McKenzie. "Our first store will open in February 2009, then we plan on opening a store per quarter and fulfilling our Area Development plan within the next three years."

McKenzie had strong praise for the Austin market, and felt this opportunity represented not just the right location, but also the right time, to become involved in the RTO industry.

"I can't think of a better time to join with easyhome, especially considering the credit restrictions that customers will continue to be faced with. easyhome's got a little more upscale look that will attract a new retail customer and traditional rent-to-own customers will be thrilled with our presentation. We use wood flooring, a bright color scheme, and we really focus on the presentation of the merchandise. Other than being on board with a really good management team assembled by Bud Gates, easyhome has an incredibly attractive presentation," said McKenzie. "And that was one of the most impressive things to me."