The company was founded in 1950 by terry who invested $600 to start a small business to rent chairs to auction houses. The business expanded from there into party equipment and sickroom gear. Later in 1970 he shifted to residential furniture and other household goods. According to the case Terry took a “though love” approach with his employees, especially with his son. In 1984 Coe’s went public and took in over $ 2 billion a year in revenue and became a lease to own chain. They recently open they 1000th location. In the 1900s they had a successful expansion into Canada. They also try to venture in Puerto Rico which was unsuccessful. More than half of their customers become owners by the end of their leases, compared with 25% for their competitor Mr. Rental. Everybody can go to Coe’s to get something unlike other stores where you can get a product with only cash or credit, Coe’s rent stuff to his customers. They want to expand in another country and are trying to figure out is Mexico is the best choice. Mexico might be a place to start a small business and many people don't have access to credit there. The market is large, and competition is weak. People don't have a similar alternative. But in the past they had the trouble with shrinkage, and couldn’t find the right personnel.
Coe’s operates primarily in a single industry, the rental of furniture and household goods, which means that Coe's has adopted a corporate level strategy of concentrating on a single business unit. For Coe's there is one general type of corporate strategy that best suits their needs a concentration on a single business strategy. A single business unit strategy means that Coe's is concentrating on competing successfully within the confines of a single business unit. An advantage of choosing such a strategy is that the Coe's can focus its total and collective resources to dominating and becoming successful in this business area. If Coe’s were to attempt to pursue some other strategy such as diversification, they might spread their resources out too thin, thus inhibiting them from taking advantage of some other opportunities that may come about due to a lack of available resources. Another advantage to pursuing a single business unit strategy is that Coe's is remaining within an area with which it has a great deal of competence and experience. This decreases the likelihood of Coe's partaking in a
