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DTR has been around since the first days of television in New Zealand.
Television rental firm DTR started in 1961 as the first TV signals were being beamed into New Zealand homes.
Forty-five years later, DTR, which makes half its $28 million annual revenue out of finance charges,
is stocking mobile phones and MP3 players. And, for the first time in nearly 40 years, the company will return to local ownership.
Dominion Television Rentals - as it was originally known - was taken over by UK-based investment firm Thorn Group in 1969, where it remained until earlier this month.
Thorn decided last year to sell out of its Australasian assets and Thorn Asia-Pacific chief executive Gordon Howell has been overseeing the sale of Australian chain Radio Rentals through an initial public offering.
On November 3, Howell joined New Zealand general manager Mark Spring in a management buyout of the 26 DTR branches on this side of the Tasman.
Spring says the company that started renting out television sets has a much wider focus now including renting, hire purchase and selling electrical equipment, whiteware and audio visual technology for commercial users.
In the early days of television, the rental business boomed because TV sets were expensive and retail finance, common today, was not available.
With retail chains such as Foodtown and The Warehouse offering low-cost electronic equipment, the market appears limited. But Spring said that low-cost options lacked quality and, while some prices have come down, new technology has moved prices up.
More importantly, DTR has focused on people with a poor credit history who have problems obtaining hire purchase elsewhere.
The reliance on financing leaves the company exposed to defaulting borrowers but Spring says DTR has become adept at assessing risk.
Sales of gear including MP3 players and phones also made up about 5 per cent of the annual revenue.
The three arms meant the company was protected from economic changes and a downturn in the economy was actually good for its renting and hire purchase arms, Spring said.
He would not detail the price paid but said the buyout was financed by himself and Howell and the company was undertaking a substantial rebranding, including refurbishment of stores.
Recent revamps in Henderson and Palmerston North, allied with the rebranding effort, had delivered improved sales of 56 per cent, he said.