Radio Rentals evokes memories of terrible hair cuts, Ford Cortinas and episodes of The Sweeney on knackered tv sets. However, one of its immediate descendants BrightHouse is beginning to win back the place it lost on the high street through the rise of the likes of Currys, Dixons and Comet and the reduction in the price of TVs.

BrightHouse was created out of Thorn-EMI, the owner of Radio Rentals, by Terra Firma, Guy Hands’s private equity group. It gained infamy for very high APRs and costly mandatory extra cover. Todaythe group is on the front foot, trying to clean up both its shops and its reputation as it embarks on a very challenging growth programme. It plans to open 21 branches next year and estimates that there is enough market for at least 600.

Just a dozen of BrightHouse one hundred and seventy eight outlets are in within the M25, but, as Leo McKee, the straight-talking chief executive of the group, states the high street turns into a very different place beyond the M25.

Its clients, almost solely from the lower socioeconomic layers are having problems to get credit – if they ever could – as lenders cut their risk profiles.

“We’re going into areas that [Lloyds] TSB are moving away from,” Mr McKee stated. The idea of BrightHouse stepping in to offer credit to our less wealthy areas will not fill everyone with joy. Nevertheless Brighthouse’s CEO insists that this is an old perception.

“When I “began my time at Brighthouse [in 2004], we “commissioned “external “research to examine “the offering asking: ‘Is it sufficient?’ and: ‘Does it have longevity?’ he said.

“The results came back: your name on the high street is garbage; you’re seen as a rip-off merchant; the prices were high, the stores shabby.

“The first thing I did was to change all the prices to match the high street, on the day I found out [the results].”

The old approach was that as far as customers could afford the weekly payment, they would not notice about the cash price. And this thinking had knock-on effects across the whole business.

That is what Brighthouse are now trying to sort out so their image improves amongst the general public.