No matter where you were, a video store would always be nearby. Founded in , Video Ezy, a video rental business, quickly dominated the Australian home entertainment industry. Consumers started looking for cost effective, convenient forms of entertainment, which video rental businesses including Video Ezy did not forecast for. The introduction of online streaming services and social media video platforms all contributed to the downfall of video rental businesses. They were in Katikati, Carterton and Hamilton.
The Whanganui store was still considering its future. Video Ezy calls it a wrap as final days loom for New Zealand stores. Matthew Rosenberg , May 02 Torbay Video Ezy staff member Stephen Fleet stands outside the shop which will be closing at the end of May. The total number of Video Ezy stores in New Zealand has dropped from in its "heyday" to only six.
In February , Blockbuster , seeking to rationalise its international operations and concentrate on its home United States market, sold its entire Australian store network to Video Ezy Australasia Pty Ltd. At the time, Blockbuster Australia comprised outlets nationwide: 29 owned by the company and owned by franchisees. Video Ezy committed to the master franchise agreement with Blockbuster for 10 years operating the brand with the possibility of renewal for a further 10 years after that.
The transaction included the EzyDVD brand and online business, and its store franchise network in addition to stock, plant, equipment and the remaining 11 company-owned stores. FEG CEO Paul Uniacke said to the media after the deal, "We don't have video rental stores in high-traffic areas such as the major malls because you can't rent a DVD and the next day just easily park your car and return to it.
The EzyDVD stores are in all the major mall chains and this cements us well and truly in this market. As of only EzyDVD's website and online store have remained operating. In May , a new loyalty card branded as Flash Rewards was introduced by Video Ezy superseding DVD Unlimited , offering customers who sign-up and pay a fee, discounts and extended services in all participating Video Ezy stores.
This allowed customers to upgrade their basic rental membership, with Paul Uniacke adding, "when someone joins Flash Rewards, they can then rent from any participating Video Ezy store and access their Flash benefits without the need to sign up with each store every time.
However, the deals involving outside partner companies ended in early In June , a select group of Video Ezy and Blockbuster franchises incorporated Metcash 's Lucky 7 convenience stores, stocking more than different products including newspapers, bread, milk and various snacks. Even though the comments were made on another program with Video Ezy having the added complication of being a naming rights sponsor of Take40 Australia , complaints piled up on its Facebook page to such an extent that after a month the brand was forced to pull advertising from the show temporarily during the summer.
Sandilands was removed as co-host of Take40 Australia during this period, and Video Ezy continued to sponsor the program. Video Ezy opened its first international location in Auckland , New Zealand in , with master licensor Video Ezy International Ltd established in to expand the brand worldwide. In March the company opened its first outlet in Bangkok , Thailand.
The company aimed to open stores in the country by the end of the year , and in Malaysia by The first Indonesian Video Ezy outlet opened in March The Singapore network consisted of a mixture of corporate-owned and franchised stores located in either outdoor shopping strips like Holland Village , residential towers such as International Plaza , or large shopping centres such as VivoCity.
Unlike Australia, Video Ezy Singapore could operate in most shopping centres due to 7-day-week late night shopping hours and its population less reliant on private automobiles needing to park outside stores. The company planned to open 17 more stores throughout Dubai in the following 10 years. In its Asian franchises, Video Ezy also offered Video CD and LaserDisc movie rentals to its customers due to the increased popularity of the formats there.
However one of Video Ezy's biggest challenges in doing business in Asia was the rampant video piracy in the region. This had particularly affected Video Ezy's plans for expansion in Malaysia. In the four years to , Video Ezy Indonesia closed 51 of their stores, blaming the closures on the continuing wide availability of pirated movies on DVD and Video CD as well as the rise in popularity of Pay TV channels and internet downloads, leaving outlets left in the country.
In the two years to January , the Indonesian franchise had shut down a further 60 of their outlets. By mid Video Ezy had 90 stores left in New Zealand. The company eventually pulled out of New Zealand in , with only 6 stores still operating at the time of closure. The company sold off its three remaining Singaporean outlets to local video rental chain Movie Magic in I'm looking to own the market within a two-year period.
Video Ezy Express kiosks could be leased from Evolve by local Video Ezy and Blockbuster franchisees and located in high foot-traffic areas such as shopping centres and supermarkets. For consumers, prices to rent are much lower, and no membership cards are required with the initial rental fee and extended fees being charged direct to the consumer's credit card.
They also competed with approximately RedRoom kiosks for the first month until Evolve acquired the entire seven-year-old business, taking out a significant competitor while adding capacity.
In November , Evolve acquired Hoyts Kiosk with all machines replaced with Express-branded kiosks. A small number of Blockbuster-branded rental kiosks also continued to operate. Video Ezy's kiosks initially operated under a " hub and spoke " distribution model, with a franchisee operating a store supported by several kiosks in surrounding areas. While the kiosk would feature new release movies, consumers looking for older titles would come into the store which had a much larger video library.
As stores began to close, franchisees moved on to operate only kiosks. At a March general meeting of the company it was decided that Evolve Entertainment would be wound up and liquidators appointed. In , the "Get it first time, or get it free" guarantee was launched.
Video Ezy re-launched their guarantee under the "Movie Guarantee" umbrella in April Due to the franchise nature of Video Ezy stores, each store also ran their own promotions and set their own pricing. Video Ezy were major sponsors of the Canberra Raiders between and Video Ezy dominated the New South Wales market; however, in other Australian states like Queensland , it had a similar number of stores to its rival Civic Video, and in Tasmania , its chain of Video City outlets were more numerous and larger in floor space.
From , local DVD rental-by-mail business Quickflix also emerged as a competitor. However, the proliferation of high speed internet in the late s and s that saw consumers gravitate towards more convenient online entertainment in the form of legal services such as iTunes , or illegal BitTorrent movie downloads ultimately became the greatest challenge to Video Ezy's established business model. By continuing to use this website you agree to the use of these technologies.
Video Ezy Australasia Pty Limited is a locally-owned private company that provides video rental, retail and franchising in Australia. The company is headquartered in Shepparton, Victoria and employs approximately people throughout its operations. Note: we do not provide a full financial details for all company profiles. Understand the competitive threats and opportunities within the industries Video Ezy Australasia Pty Limited operates in.
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