Lease-to-own home goods retailer The Aaron’s Company has swung to net loss for the first quarter after posting a considerable drop in its revenue.

The company’s sales fell 7.7 per cent year on year to $511.5 million, primarily due to lower lease revenue and fees at The Aaron’s business and lower retail sales at BrandsMart.

The Aaron’s business posted a 7.5 per cent decrease in revenues to $381.1 million, while BrandsMart’s sales dropped 8.1 per cent to $132.5 million.

The size of the company’s lease portfolio was down by 4.8 per cent year on year but improved by 220 basis points from the end of Q4 2023. Same-store lease portfolio size decreased by 1.4 per cent.

The company swung to a net loss of $14.2 million from net earnings of $12.8 million in the year-ago period.

Douglas Lindsay, The Aaron’s Company CEO, said the performance was in line with previous guidance, adding the company is seeing positive momentum in its operations.

“Our new omnichannel lease decisioning and customer acquisition program at The Aaron’s business is driving significant growth in lease merchandise deliveries, and we continue to expect mid-single digit lease portfolio growth by the end of 2024. 

“At BrandsMart, we continue to achieve operational efficiencies, and despite the challenging retail demand environment, comparable sales improved sequentially,” Lindsay elaborated.

For the full year, the company expects revenues to be in the range of $2.055-$2.155 billion and net loss to be in the range of $7-19 million.