Aarons 2007 Annual Report Download - page 4

To Our Shareholders
As always, we experienced another exciting and
challenging year. We take particular note of the people
who enable our Company to keep setting records year
after year — our customers.
This annual report communicates the foundation
of Aaron’s long-term success in the words of our
customers. In the following pages, our customers
tell it like it is — and we are extremely proud of what
they say about our way of doing business.
During the past year, we reached new milestones in
several key categories.
• For the first time, we exceeded the $2 billion
mark in combined Company and franchised store
revenues. Company revenues were a record $1.495
billion, an increase of 13% over last year, while
franchised store revenues, which are not included
in the Company figures, reached $559 million, a
15% gain. Net earnings were $80.3 million with
fully diluted earnings per share of $1.46 impacted
by expansion costs and other factors.
• Our total store count reached 1,560 by year end,
an increase of 16% for the year.
• The number of customers being served at our
Company-operated and franchised Aaron’s Sales
& Lease Ownership stores increased 15% during
the year to over 925,000, also a record.
• We awarded area development agreements to open
a record 182 new franchised stores, resulting in a
total of 284 stores in the pipeline to open over the
next several years.
• For the fourth consecutive year, we increased
our quarterly dividend to the current rate of $.016
per share, a 6.7% increase over last year. Our
Directors authorized the repurchase of an addi-
tional 2,329,498 shares of common stock, almost
doubling the previously approved repurchase
authorization and bringing to 5,000,000 the total
number of Aaron Rents common shares authorized
for repurchase. In the fourth quarter of 2007, the
Company repurchased 692,042 shares of common
stock, which we view as a judicious use of capital
and an investment in supporting shareholder value.
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