For our Top CEOs in Franchising feature in the November/December issue, we identified notable leaders who are guiding their brands through periods of growth, change and, of course, challenges.
Tint World CEO Charles Bonfiglio has grown the automotive styling company to 142 locations in the United States and international markets. His next venture is an automotive-themed coffee shop called Cars Cafe.
Charles Bonfiglio knows a willingness to constantly learn is what makes for a good leader. “No matter what I think I know today, there’s something I’m going to learn tomorrow,” the Tint World CEO said. “My biggest thing is I gotta train and inspire. If I can do that and keep them on the right path … I can make almost anyone be successful.”
When Bonfiglio bought the automotive styling and window tinting brand in 2006, the company had just six stores open in Florida. Thirteen years later, it counts 142 locations in the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
When it came time to open the Dubai, UAE, location, Bonfiglio spent nearly a month setting up the store and training staff. “Our products and services are just as popular out there as they are in the United States,” he said.
Tint World ended 2023 with 134 units, a 22.9 percent increase year over year. The franchise did $89 million in systemwide sales, up 19.8 percent.
Around 2019 is when Bonfiglio felt confident the brand hit a “mature level.” With 70 locations and a boosted corporate team, the franchise was positioned to expand; it doubled its store count in about five years. He explored broker networks and digital marketing to bring in new leads, alongside building a franchise website. He added team members specifically for franchise development and sales to move the process along.
“I learned from other franchisors and other employees of franchisors. How do you do this? How do you do that? What’s good and what’s not?” Bonfiglio said. “It’s not like you can go to school for franchising; you need to learn from others.”
Despite a pandemic in 2020, the year was a good one for Tint World. “Boom, we got hit with the pandemic and I was lucky and fortunate enough that Tint World became an essential business, so we didn’t get hit” as badly as other franchisors did. In 2020, the company sold 21 franchises, the most ever at the time. “We kept on scaling through these tougher times because of the model.”
Bonfiglio spent a lot of his time fine-tuning the brand’s franchise disclosure document, with the aim to publish a thorough Item 19. “They want to know how much the stores are generally making and what’s the potential profits, so I tried to really scale that,” he said.
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The brand’s FDD includes gross sales, profits and cost of goods sold for centers open throughout 2023—and all of which is broken down by store. Average EBITDA, or cash flow, for the 77 franchised stores open for at least two years in 2023 was $277,032, or about a quarter of sales.
Building a family
Bonfiglio’s had a passion for cars since he was a teenager. When he was 21, he worked weekends at a friend’s car accessories shops to learn the ins and outs of the business, without expecting it would turn into a career.
He spent about three decades of his career as a Meineke franchisee, when he learned firsthand what is important to operators. “I learned from everyone,” he said. “As I grew, I learned from corporate at Meineke, I learned what they did. I learned what they didn’t like, what they did like.” He left the system in 2014.
Understanding both sides of the franchisor-franchisee relationship shaped his leadership style. “I try not to be combative, because everybody’s different,” he said.
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Building in elements of trust and creating a family-like atmosphere is another aspect of his leadership style. When he bought Tint World, his corporate staff included him and one other person. Once the company was growing and he needed to expand the team, he learned the importance of hiring employees who care about more than the paycheck.
“When you’re building a franchise system, they rely on the corporate staff more than any other business, and they have to know that they trust you, they believe in you,” Bonfiglio said. “You have to have the people that want to be part of something for a long time. I think that really makes a big impact.”
With the help of his staff, he’s always innovating. A recent venture of his is the Cars Café, which, as the name implies, is an automotive-themed coffee shop. Bonfiglio’s love for coffee—and his lifelong passion for cars, of course—inspired the new concept. (He drinks a triple shot cappuccino every morning.)
The first café opened in 2022 in Tennessee because a multi-unit franchisee was considering opening a coffee franchise. One of the franchisee’s Tint World units had empty real estate next door.
“We do a lot of ‘cars and coffee’ events, why don’t we build a coffee shop for coffee lovers and car enthusiasts?” he said of his thought process. Bonfiglio is looking to franchise the concept starting in 2026.
As for Tint World’s continued success, Bonfiglio “levels up” his team every 50 new units. With an expected 150 units open by the end of the year, he already has his sights on store No. 200.
“Right now, I’m feeling the biggest pressure that I’ve ever felt for the last year,” he said. “That pressure is just starting to relieve because I’ve got the right people in place, and I’m seeing how everything’s maturing, materializing in a really positive way.”