Netflix opens
shipping depot
in Honolulu

The nation's largest DVD-rental
company opens its 30th hub

The country's largest mail-order DVD-rental company has opened its 30th shipping hub nationwide in Honolulu.

Netflix Inc., which is in a price war with Blockbuster Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., began serving Hawaii and Guam from its new Honolulu facility Nov. 29.

The opening of the Hawaii site -- the company's first in the state -- will hasten the time it takes for subscribers to receive DVDs via mail.

"This allows us to have one-day delivery in the Honolulu area and most of the islands and a two-day delivery to Guam," Netflix spokeswoman Shernaz Daver said.

Daver would not identify the exact location of the facility or how many people it was employing. Nationwide, the company has about 1,000 employees.

Netflix, which went public more than two years ago, had 2.3 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter. The company offers access to 25,000 movie and television titles for a monthly price. The most popular package allows customers to order unlimited DVDs for $17.99 a month from the Netflix Web site, with a maximum of three DVDs out at any one time. Subscribers can keep their DVDs as long as they want without paying late fees.

Netflix, which last month boosted its subscriber and revenue forecasts for the fourth quarter, cut its monthly price on Nov. 1 from $21.99 a month in the wake of competition from Blockbuster and Wal-Mart and amid speculation that Amazon.com Inc. would enter the online video-rental market.

"When we started out, we really were the only ones in the business, and it was pretty apparent given that Wal-Mart and Blockbuster came into it, that it's a pretty large market," Daver said.

Daver said the company sees Blockbuster as its most aggressive rival. She said Netflix has been adding subscribers since lowering its prices and that it expects to have 2.65 million subscribers by the end of the fourth quarter, with revenue up to $143 million for the quarter. The company is based in Los Gatos, Calif.

Netflix's shares, once a favorite with investors seeking hot stocks, went public at $15 a share in May 2002 and traded as low as $2.61 in October of that year before its DVD service became popular. Netflix's shares peaked at $38.83 this past January, but as competitors entered the market, the stock began diving and now trades around $11 a share.