Rent-to-own News - ColorTyme celebrates 30 years of RTO franchising at annual convention

The longest running rent-to-own franchise, ColorTyme, will host its national convention Jan. 19-21 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Frisco, Texas, where the iconic company will celebrate three decades of growth, innovation and entrepreneurship.

More than 288 franchise owners, partners and managers representing 52 of ColorTyme's franchise groups will join some 67 exhibitors representing 35 vendor companies for three jam-packed days of activity including a buying show, general session, industry updates, owner roundtable and manager's training.

The convention also includes ColorTyme's annual awards ceremony including the naming of the 2008 Franchisee of the Year and the New Franchisee of the Year.

ColorTyme's flexibility and attention to relationships between the company and its franchisees -- and between its franchisees and their customers -- are the keys to its longevity, according to ColorTyme CEO Bob Bloom.

"We see ourselves as a local, hometown-operated chain," Bloom said. "We care much more about our customers than your average corporation. Rent-to-own is built on the relationships between managers and customers. Nobody's done that longer than ColorTyme."

Listen to podcast with ColorTyme CEO Bob Bloom.

ColorTyme claims 210 stores in 34 states owned by 77 franchisees. Roughly 54 percent of those franchisees are single store operators, 14 percent are two-store operators, 20 percent have three stores and 12 percent have four or more locations.

With the majority of its dealers running smaller operations, the "hometown" moniker seems as appropriate today as when ColorTyme was founded in 1979, or even when Ernie and Willie Talley founded the forerunner of ColorTyme in Wichita, Kansas, in the 1960s. Since then ColorTyme has launched the careers of many distinguished industry leaders, including Rent-A-Center President Mitch Fadel.

Rhonda Davis, director of sales and purchasing for ColorTyme, has been with the company for nearly 27 of its 30 years. Although she acknowledged fundamental changes in the industry have taken place over the years, ColorTyme's core values have remained constant, she said.

Rhonda Davis, ColorTyme director of sales and purchasing.

"There are changes, sure," Davis said, "but what matters are the basics -- the way you treat your customers matters. Here at the corporate office, our customers are our franchisees. If we treat our franchisees fairly and with the respect they deserve, there's a ripple effect, and they in turn treat their customers the same way. Our franchisees are our biggest assets."

Commitment to these values has allowed ColorTyme to preserve the mom-and-pop feeling of a neighborhood store by nurturing the connection between company and community.

Especially in tough economic times, ColorTyme will become increasingly important as customers face credit restrictions and an uncertain economic climate. The company's flexibility will continue to win over customers, Bloom said.

ColorTyme offers not only customer flexibility, but franchisee flexibility as well, Bloom said. By allowing franchisees the freedom to choose their own products and manage their operations as they deem best, the ColorTyme business owner wins by offering customers an invaluable, debt-free purchase option.

"We do all we can to let franchisees operate within the brand’s framework, while giving them the independence to be locally owned and operated," Bloom said. "ColorTyme exists to help small-businesspeople realize their dreams.”

mevans@rtohq.org