Courts now giving cash loans

COURTS is known for furniture and appliances, but has recently entered the financial services sector by offering cash loans to customers.

That was the word from managing director of Unicomer (Caribbean) Ltd Errol Le Blanc during a networking session at the group’s TT headquarters, 1 Courts Way, Calcutta Settlement, Freeport on June 26.

Courts is a member of the Unicomer group of companies, which also includes Lucky Dollar and Servitech. In a PowerPoint presentation, Le Blanc described Courts as an “integrated retailer” which is now offering cash loans as an alternative means of generating revenue.

“In 2018, we started setting up the Courts Ready Cash brand. The Courts Ready Cash Brand is basically to offer cash loans.” He said the loans were now one of the big sources of group revenues, and it has cash loan stores in Jamaica and Belize. The cash loans are also available through Courts stores.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Le Blanc said the cash loans are an extension of the credit facility offered to customers. “If you would like to borrow cash from Courts, it’s not a problem: you can go to one of our stores and you can get a cash loan up to $30,000.”

He said the customers who use the facility are primarily the traditional hire-purchase customers. The group has also ventured into the optical sector with the introduction of Courts Optical.

“Courts Optical is a new brand for us. Our optical brand opened over the last four-five years and we have managed to reach market shares in the teens, and we are working hard in the countries we operate.”

He said a “highly efficient and modernised” eye lab has been set up in Guatemala to support stores in the Caribbean and Central America. “It will be highly modernised and will be one of the best technological labs in the region. We expect it will help us to increase our efficiency and serve our customers.”

Also addressing the networking session was Clive Fletcher, managing director of Unicomer (Trinidad) Ltd, who said there are 48 stores scattered through the country with over 955 employees.He said investment in the TT economy totalled over $500 million in infrastructural development over the past three years.

Fletcher said the group has also implemented several firsts in TT, including the soon-to-be implemented Emma app for smartphone. “Emma is an app that is now in prototype stage. We’re actually testing it in Freeport store and the app will essentially revolutionise the way that people can interact with our credit facilities – you can sit at home and apply.”

The Unicomer group is headquartered in El Salvador and operates in the US, Central and South America and the Caribbean. It has some 14,495 employees in 1,159 branches globally and has 2.3 million active credit accounts.