Cash America 2008 Annual Report Download - page 24

1
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
General
Cash America International, Inc. (the “Company”) provides pawn loans, short-term cash advances,
check cashing services and other specialty financial services to individuals. The Company also sells
merchandise in its pawnshops, primarily personal property that has been forfeited in connection with its
pawn lending operations.
The Company was incorporated in 1984 to engage in the business of owning and operating
pawnshops. Since its formation, the Company has significantly broadened the scale and geographic scope
of its pawn operations so that, as of December 31, 2008, it was the nation’s largest provider of pawn loans
and, it believes, is the largest operator of pawnshops in the world. The Company also has expanded its
financial services offerings by offering cash advances and other specialty financial services.
As of December 31, 2008, the Company operated 501 pawnshops in 22 states throughout the United
States (including 15 pawnshops that are franchises). Most of the Company’s pawnshops located in the U.S.
operate under the “Cash America” trade name; 43 pawnshops (located in Arizona, California, Nevada and
Washington) operate under the “SuperPawn” trade name. In addition, the Company is the majority owner
of the company operating pawn shops under the name of “Prenda Fácil”, which, as of December 31, 2008,
included 112 pawn lending locations in central and southern Mexico.
The Company offers unsecured cash advances through 431 of its pawnshops, in 74 standalone Cash
America Payday Advance locations, in 174 locations operated by its wholly-owned subsidiary Cashland
Financial Services, Inc. under the “Cashland” trade name, and, since September 2006, over the internet
under the trade name “CashNetUSA” at www.cashnetusa.com in the United States. In July 2007, the
Company began offering short-term unsecured loans to customers who reside throughout the United
Kingdom through its internet platform under the trade name “QuickQuid” at www.quickquid.co.uk.
Through its wholly-owned subsidiary Mr. Payroll Corporation (“Mr. Payroll”), the Company offers
check cashing services through 128 franchised and five company-owned check cashing centers. Many of
the Company’s pawn and cash advance locations also offer check cashing services and other retail financial
services such as stored-value cards, money orders and money transfers.
On July 23, 2008, the Company, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, Primary Cash Holdings, LLC
(now known as Primary Innovations, LLC, or “PI”), purchased substantially all the assets of Primary
Business Services, Inc., Primary Finance, Inc., Primary Processing, Inc. and Primary Members Insurance
Services, Inc. (collectively, “PBSI”), a group of companies in the business of, among other things, providing
loan processing services for, and participating in receivables associated with, a bank issued line of credit
made available by the bank on certain stored-value debit cards the bank issues.
Since its inception, the Company has grown by acquiring existing pawnshops and establishing new
ones in locations that can benefit from its centralized management and standardized operations. The
Company has pursued a similar strategy for acquiring and establishing cash advance locations since 2003.
With both pawnshops and cash advance locations, the Company seeks to increase its share of the consumer
loan business and concentrate multiple lending locations in regional and local markets in order to expand
market penetration, enhance name recognition and reinforce marketing programs. The Company intends to
continue this strategy for acquiring and establishing new lending locations oriented to pawn lending
locations, and intends to offer new products and services at its physical lending locations in order to meet
the growing financial services needs of its customers.