Xtra-vision
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Xtra-vision Limited is Ireland's largest chain of video rental stores, founded in 1979. They have 205 stores across the island of Ireland and have a workforce of almost 1600 [1] employees. The company offers VHS and DVD movies for both rent and sale. In addition, the company has recently branched out into consumer electronics (through their Xtra-Vision Centres) and video gaming (available to rent in most regular outlets, however there are also dedicated Xtra-Game stores).
The company slogan is "Entertaining You".
Owned by Blockbuster since 1998, the chain has never rebranded, citing market research that the Xtra-vision name was better known and more respected than Blockbuster. Even in Northern Ireland the Blockbuster name is not used as it is in the rest of the UK. However, the few Xtra-vision stores outside of Ireland - those in Manchester, London and New Hampshire were rebranded to Blockbuster after the takeover.
The company (as Xtra-Vision plc) was involved in what was once Ireland's largest corporate bankruptcy, with massive expansion of their retail network causing a massive increase in their stock price on the Irish Stock Exchange. The company's value reached IR£27 million, but the low turnovers in the video rental market meant that there was no cash to continue their huge expansion-- up to 10 new stores a week-- and the company went bankrupt with its shares valued at 1/8th of a penny on its sale to Cambridge Investments, who in turn went bankrupt and the business was sold for cIR12m to a consortium of Montague Private Equity, 3i plc and the partners behind NCV (a local wholesaler of videos, etc..). Less than 2 years later the consortium sold to out to Blockbuster. The failure of the group, in both guises, was notable enough to be mentioned in Dáil debates [2] in 1994.
The company has an exclusive deal meaning that any movie with funding from the Irish Film Board will initially be provided for rental and sale solely through their network of stores.
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[edit] Future
The current owners of Xtra-vision, Blockbuster, have announced plans to sell off Xtra-vision.[citation needed]
The Sunday Times - Business
The Sunday Times November 19, 2006
Xtra-vision team star in remake of Blockbuster Joe Brennan MANAGERS at Irish video chain Xtra-vision have been sent to Britain, Denmark and Italy to oversee operations at the beleaguered Blockbuster chain on behalf of its American parent.
The team, headed by Martin Higgins and his chief operations officer Gerry Butler, will oversee 1,250 DVD and video shops.
Higgins and Butler, who head up 150 stores in the republic and 48 in Northern Ireland, are now charged with injecting life into Blockbuster UK after the recent exit of its managing director Alex Sparks. They have also been appointed to oversee existing management in Italy and Denmark.
While Xtra-vision and the wider European business have been surrounded by perennial rumours that Blockbuster is looking to sell off its international division, Butler said that the group has no such plans.
Recently filed accounts show that Xtra-vision’s outlets in the republic posted a 13% increase in sales last year to almost €123m, though operating profit only edged up less than 3% to €9.6m. The company is now sitting on retained earnings of more than €34m.
In addition to its traditional market of renting and selling movies, in recent years Xtra-vision has branched out into other areas of the consumer electronics market.
It now sells computer games consoles and recently announced a deal with 3 Ireland to sell the mobile phone operator’s handsets in its stores. It already had deals in place with 02, Vodafone and Meteor, the other three mobile operators in the Irish market.
“We are also considering ways of offering a digital proposition for customers to download movies,” said Butler.
