Upbeat Brighthouse lighting up the high street

Brighthouse, the UK’s largest rent-to-own retailer, is to press on with expansion plans despite the gloom afflicting other parts of the high street.

The Watford-based group, which currently has 228 stores, will open another 30 this year as part of a long-term aim for a chain of 650 outlets across the UK. Sales in the year to March rose by 15.4 per cent to £227.7m, with like-for-like sales rising by 9.2 per cent.

The firm said that despite the wave of retail firms folding, its business remained “relatively buoyant”, adding that the gaps now appearing on the high street following the closures will help its expansion programme, especially if spots become free near to the giant chains that have a lot of customers passing through.

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“The majority of our customers do not own cars, so we are very much in the high street,” chief executive Leo McKee recently said.

Brighthouse has also benefited from the economic downturn because it extends credit to its customers at a time when banks are lending less. It supplies 200,000 customers, many of whom are cannot get credit elsewhere, with big ticket items such as laptops, TVs and furniture.

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