Rent-to-own News - BrandSource Florida becomes Nationwide Florida

BrandSource Florida, a division of BrandSource, will be moving its membership over to Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) as of June 1 and will continue operations under the new name, Nationwide Florida.

This decision was made at a BrandSource meeting held last week in Orlando attended by the group's board of directors and a majority of their membership, Nationwide said.

The vote comes a day after a BrandSource announcement that it is creating a "new" Florida region "in an effort to better serve consumer electronics, furniture, floor covering and appliance dealers in Florida (where they) have been underserved." The new group is called simply, the Florida Region of BrandSource.

BrandSource and NMG are parent companies to rent to own industry buying groups TRIB Group and RentDirect Nationwide, respectively.

BrandSource CEO Bob Lawrence declined to say how many individual retailers were involved in either the new or old Florida divisions of BrandSource, though he noted the change-up would have no impact on TRIB Group nor would it diminish BrandSource's influence in the region.

The true tally of which Florida dealers choose to stay with BrandSource and which choose to join NMG will be determined in coming weeks, he said.

"I see no negative ramifications, only a positive upside," Lawrence said. "Any sub-corporation can make any decision as an entity it wants, but in reality it can't make a decision for its individual members."

Though neither buying group reported how many individual retailers were involved in the new divisions or what the annual sales of each group generates, Nationwide claimed in a statement that BrandSource Florida's membership "represents the majority of independent appliance buying group dealers in Florida."

For 15 years, Tom Jessup has led the BrandSource Florida group as president. Nationwide said BrandSource Florida has a much longer history in the region as one of the original buying organizations started nearly 30 years ago under the Key America Group. When the breakup of Key America Group occurred nearly a decade ago regions affiliated themselves with other buying groups including Nationwide Marketing Group.

"We have been watching the direction and focus of Nationwide over the past seven years and like what we have seen," said Jessup. "We reevaluated what we have today with AVB/BrandSource and decided along with our board of directors and members that we would get a much higher level of service as a division of Nationwide so we decided to join their organization," he said in a statement from Nationwide.

According to the most recent sales estimates of both buying groups by TWICE in the May 2, 2011 issue, BrandSource had sales of computer electronics, major appliances, furniture and bedding of $14 billion annually and 4,500 members while Nationwide had combined sales of $12 billion and 3,000 members.

In the same press statement, Nationwide said it will now have the power of six regional divisions servicing the independent channel across the country including NECO, Nationwide Southwest, Nationwide West, Nation's BrandDirect, United Stores and Nationwide Florida.

"We are very pleased and proud to have such a large group of successful dealers join us to form our new Nationwide Florida division," said Robert Weisner, CEO of Nationwide in a statement. "We believe this will make our group a dominating force in the state of Florida's retail marketplace."

TRIB Group's Executive Director Dennis Shields said TRIB's autonomy within the larger BrandSource framework keeps the rent to own buying group from being impacted by such regional change-ups.

"This will have no effect on TRIB Group whatsoever," Shields said. "All rental dealers are members of TRIB Group as an independent entity regardless of where our members are located in the nation."

BrandSource will host it's biannual Convention and Buy Fair alongside TRIB Group's 2011 Meeting of the Minds Buy Fair August 28-31 at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Nationwide Marketing Group will celebrate 40 years of service at its biannual Nationwide PrimeTime! buying show and strategic conference on August 21-24, 2011 at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas.