entertainment founded 1983 headquarters suite 1.03 level 1 12 15 lyonpark road macquarie park sydney new south wales australia area served australia new zealand thailand indonesia singapore and malaysia key people paul uniacke ceo and edward nedelko company director products retailing and renting of dvd blu ray video games and digital content parent franchise entertainment group website videoezy.com.au video ezy is an australian based rental and retail chain offering dvd blu ray and video games for hire and purchase . the brand consists of more than 35 franchised stores and over 700 rental vending kiosks within australia . contents 1 history 2 marketing 3 industrial relations 4 competition and threats 5 presence in other countries 6 references 7 external links history edit video ezy commenced trading in 1983 when kevin slater opened his first store in the sydney suburb of hurstville renting out a small selection of vhs and betamax format movies . the first franchised store opened in september 1984 at miranda . the franchisees at miranda were peter mclaughlin and bill coe . other stores to open in quick succession were in the sydney suburbs of bankstown liverpool and chatswood . in the majority of these stores kevin funded 50 % of the capital required to open . by 1986 video ezy comprised 18 stores and by august 1987 there were 34 stores located across new south wales and queensland . 1 expansion followed throughout other australian states before opening its first international location in auckland new zealand in 1988 with the master licence commencing in 1991 under video ezy international . in march 1999 video ezy australasia pty ltd expanded into the asian market with its first outlet opening in bangkok thailand . 2 3 in late 2000 video ezy introduced ezyretail a video store specific point of sale windows based system exclusively used by video ezy . the software was first developed by radek soucek and robert gongorra and allowed information to be centrally created and pushed down the line to stores both as real time and locally stored data . it provided comprehensive reporting capabilities inventory management and collection abilities giving the store network one of the most comprehensive databases in retail history . this new system replaced videominder a then dos based system once used by blockbuster and some older video ezy franchisees . 3 in 2001 the first video ezy outlet opened in singapore within the jelita shopping centre . since then the singapore network has comprised 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 can 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 . 4 5 in 2003 video ezy sold its corporate owned stores in australia leaving only 2 stores narellan and rosehill some 10 minutes from its new head office at rhodes although in 2006 it had acquired additional corporate owned stores . in 2003 video ezy also went on to market a subscription model with dvd unlimited not associated with the new zealand company with the same name . also in that year video ezy commenced selling and renting ezy exclusive tv series and movies on dvd such as dinotopia kingpin will & grace taken the believer and other exclusive titles from hallmark entertainment and nbc . these titles were usually branded with video ezy s logo and carried slightly different artwork to dvds sold outside the region 4 market ezy exclusives were phased out in 2006 . 2 3 in august 2005 business partners paul uniacke and edward nedelko who between them owned 24 video ezy franchises in victoria purchased the shares held in video ezy australasia pty ltd by perpetual trustees and ivany investments to become majority shareholders in the company . they replaced robert maidment as executive chairman . at that stage video ezy branded outlets numbered 560 in australia 156 in new zealand 128 in thailand 135 in indonesia 19 in singapore 9 in malaysia 1 in fiji and 1 in the united arab emirates . 6 7 in february 2007 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 370 outlets nationwide 29 owned by the company and 341 owned by franchisees . video ezy had 518 australian outlets all of them being owned by franchisees pushing the combined group s market share to 40 % of the country s video rental sector . 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 . as a consequence of the deal the company changed its name from video ezy australasia pty ltd to franchise entertainment group . 8 9 10 in january 2009 franchise entertainment group bought failed video retail non rental chain ezydvd from receivers ferrier hodgson for an estimated 10 million . the transaction included the ezydvd brand and online business the 25 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 . soon after ezydvd s head office warehouse and distribution facility in torrensville closed and currently as of october 2012 only 3 branded stores remain in launceston browns plains and elizabeth . most of its sales are now generated from the website . 11 12 in august 2010 paul uniacke and edward nedelko s other company surrealus bought the failed entertainment group stomp entertainment which included the australian operations of play4me and cd wow for an undisclosed sum . by october that year surrealus had reorganised stomp and given it a new name lan media partners . uniacke and nedelko also arranged for the transfer of the video ezy australia blockbuster australia and ezydvd online businesses from feg to lan media partners leaving feg to manage the franchise relationships with individual video ezy blockbuster outlets and the three remaining ezydvd branded stores . 13 14 15 in may 2011 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 allows 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 . in addition flash rewards offered discounts from partner companies such as donut king eagle boys pizza amf bowling anytime fitness acp magazines and 25 % off cinema ticket prices at village cinemas event cinemas greater union birch carroll & coyle hoyts reading cinemas wallis cinemas dendy and palace cinemas . 16 17 18 however the deals involving outside partner companies ended in early 2013 . 19 in june 2011 a select group of video ezy blockbuster franchises incorporated metcash s lucky 7 convenience stores stocking more than 500 different products including newspapers bread milk and various snacks . if deemed successful lucky 7 could roll out nationally across video ezy and blockbuster s 650 store network . 20 21 22 in october 2011 it was announced that former chief executive of video ezy and their largest franchisee daryl mccormack would partner his 15 stores with franchised food company s cold rock ice creamery to open smaller express oulets within stores becoming dual franchises . the first video ezy cold rock express outlet reopened in kew melbourne to dollar for dollar sales with the core business of video rental and retail . this concept has also extended to mccormack s co owned chain souvlaki hut now souv hut with point of sale systems being updated to combine sales from both video and ice cream or souvlaki meals and ice cream . like the lucky 7 deal before it franchised food company is offering cold rock express outlets to other video ezy blockbuster franchisees wishing to diversify their business . 23 24 25 in november 2011 video ezy found itself embroiled in a social media backlash when it refused to end its long term sponsorship with southern cross austereo s networked radio program take40 australia after its co host kyle sandilands made sexist comments about a news limited journalist on his 2day fm breakfast program the kyle and jackie o show . even though the comments were made on another program and 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 . 26 27 sandilands was removed as co host of take40 australia during this period and video ezy continues to sponsor the program . in december 2011 franchise entertainment group switched on its first video ezy express dvd and blu ray rental kiosk after announcing their roll out in may that year . feg bought 1 000 dvd kiosks through us company ncr corporation for 2 million with uniacke adding we re looking to get to 3 000 within three years . i m looking to own the market within a two year period . video ezy express kiosks can be purchased from feg by local video ezy blockbuster franchisees and located in high foot traffic areas like shopping centres and supermarkets . for these franchisees overheads are low as rent for 2m 2m blocks of space is significantly less than shops with large floor space . there are no staff wages to pay and once the system is set up they are self sufficient . for consumers prices to rent are much lower no membership cards are required there are no late fees just a nightly flat rate . video ezy blockbuster express currently competes in australia and new zealand with the 300 hoyts kiosk network . they also competed with approximately 100 redroom kiosks for the first month until feg acquired the entire seven year old business taking out a significant competitor while adding capacity . 28 29 30 31 marketing edit the current red coloured video ezy logo used in new zealand that is slightly different from orange coloured logos used in other markets except indonesia that logo uses less shadowing . the slogan used in nz reads we heart movies . all logo s asterisks are actually the spool from inside a vhs tape . 3 in 1993 the get it first time or get it free was launched . video ezy re launched their guarantee under the movie guarantee umbrella in april 2007 . this includes rental guarantee price guarantee and an ex rental guarantee . video ezy utilises rent only releases with the rent it the only way to get it campaign . another advertising campaign used by video ezy is upsize your entertainment when a consumer rents a specific title they have the opportunity to upsize by buying a specified similar title for only 4.95 in april 2007 video ezy had charlotte s web as the rental title & paulie as the upsize title . slogans include in the mood 1990s relax 1998 2000 ezy does it october 2003 present the choice is ezy