Granada moves into rental

Granada Group, the broadcasting and leisure company, has paid £22.6m for DVR, a catalogue television rental operation based in Dunstable.

A further £10m will be payable in 1996, provided certain performance targets are met. Granada is also taking on £22m in DVR debt.

The acquisition takes Granada, already the UK's largest home entertainment rental company after Thorn, into the direct rental market for the first time.

"This gives us two chances of talking to two different sorts of customers," Henry Staunton, Granada's finance director, said. Customers who bypass retailers tend to keep a single model and for up to five years without upgrading. "They know what they want," Mr Staunton said.

By contrast, retail customers are more likely to upgrade to larger television sets and rent additional equipment following demonstrations in the shop.

Rentals have been in decline in recent years, while the direct-to-consumer market has grown sharply.