AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 13, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EZCORP, Inc. (NASDAQ:EZPW), today announced that it has appointed Mitch Fadel as President, U.S. Pawn. In this new position, he will lead the company's pawn businesses in the United States, and will report directly to Joe Rotunda, EZCORP’s President, North America Pawn.
Stuart Grimshaw, EZCORP’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We recently announced our new strategy to exit financial services and focus on our pawn business. We are excited to have a leader of Mitch’s status join EZCORP and help drive this new strategy in the United States. He knows our customers well, having spent more than 20 years working with cash and credit constrained consumers with the market leader in the rental purchase industry. He is a strategic thinker with a proven track record of driving growth, orchestrating successful business initiatives, and achieving strong financial results. We look forward to working with Mitch as we renew our focus on the customer and become the market leader in customer satisfaction while growing our pawn business in the United States.”
Mr. Fadel is joining EZCORP from Rent-A-Center, Inc. in Plano Texas, where he was President, Chief Operating Officer, and directed the company’s 20,000 employees and its operations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. He joined Rent-A-Center, Inc. when it had 50 stores, and was integral in its growth to more than 4,000 stores and kiosks today.
About EZCORP
EZCORP is a leading provider of pawn loans in the United States and Mexico and consumer loans in Mexico. At our pawn stores, we also sell merchandise, primarily collateral forfeited from pawn lending operations and used merchandise purchased from customers.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the company’s strategy and initiatives. These statements are based on the company’s current expectations as to the outcome and timing of future events. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, that address activities or results that the company plans, expects, believes, projects, estimates or anticipates will, should or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Actual results for future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements due to a number of uncertainties and other factors, including operating risks, liquidity risks, legislative or regulatory developments, market factors, current or future litigation and whether the company can complete the review and analysis of accounting issues in its Grupo Finmart loan portfolio and regain compliance with SEC and Nasdaq listing requirements. For a discussion of these and other factors affecting the company’s business and prospects, see the company’s annual, quarterly and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time.