Rent-to-own News - Aaron Rents becomes Aaron's, Inc.

Effective April 20, Aaron Rents, will change its name to Aaron's, Inc. according to Robin Loudermilk Jr., Aaron's president and CEO, who officially unveiled the new name Monday evening to 2,000 associates in attendance at Aaron's National Managers Meeting held in Washington, D.C.

"Aaron's is creating consistent brand messaging by bringing the corporate name in line with the trade name of our over 1,575 stores," Loudermilk said. "Our customers and their friends know and trust the Aaron's name in our advertising and through our community outreach. Further, the name change reflects our unique sales and lease ownership business model which was started in 1987."

The company will also change its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol for its Common Stock from "RNT" to "AAN" and its ticker symbol for its Class A Common Stock from "RNT.A" to "AAN.A." Both the name change and ticker symbol change will be effective on April 20, 2009.

Aaron's associates today used their national managers meeting as an opportunity to give back to the Washington, D.C. area where they will invest 5,600 hours and $500,000 in product and service donations in such projects as landscaping the National Mall, providing shoes to area school children hosting an appreciation day at Walter Reed Hospital and a 5K run to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

mevans@rtohq.org