Aaron's, Inc. Acquires Eight More Weekly Stores

ATLANTA, Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Aaron's, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), the nation's leader in the sales and lease ownership and specialty retailing of residential furniture, consumer electronics, home appliances and accessories, today announced that it has acquired eight stores from Buzz's Lease Purchase & Sales.

Buzz's operated stores located in Louisiana and Texas. In the coming months all of the locations will be converted to HomeSmart stores. These stores offer weekly payment lease agreements for products which are similar to those in Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership stores.

"With the purchase of Buzz's stores, along with the 30 store Crusader acquisition announced in July, we expect to reach our goal of having approximately 60 HomeSmart stores in operation by the end of this year," said Ken Butler, Chief Operating Officer of Aaron's. "We are very excited about the new HomeSmart concept which we feel will serve the weekly pay rent-to-own customer more effectively than other competitors.  Although still in the developmental stage, early indications and results are quite positive for the HomeSmart stores now open, and future growth prospects at this time appear excellent."

Aaron's, Inc., based in Atlanta, currently has more than 1,890 Company-operated and franchised stores in 48 states and Canada.  The Company's Woodhaven Furniture Industries division manufactured approximately $79 million, at cost, of furniture and bedding in 2010 and currently has plants at 13 facilities in eight states.  The entire production of Woodhaven is for shipment to Aaron's stores.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this news release regarding Aaron's, Inc.'s business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.  These risks and uncertainties include factors such as changes in general economic conditions, competition, pricing, customer demand, litigation  and other issues, and the risks and uncertainties discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010.  

SOURCE Aaron's, Inc.