As we slowly emerge from the pandemic and the disruption of the past twelve months, it is important to reflect on the positive strides that NuVinAir has made during this last year. With consumers’ growing demand that interiors of vehicles come to them hygienic and virus-free, NuVinAir’s Total Health Protection program is now in demand more than ever before. As a result, NuVinAir has caught the attention of savvy business owners across the country. Below is a recap of the newest franchise owners during the last year to join the NuVinAir family:
Bobby and Susan Hanley
Meet Bobby and Susan Hanley, longtime automotive consulting agency owners and NuVinAir’s franchisee owners for Alabama and North Florida.
The Hanleys own the protected rights to sell NuVinAir Global’s line of science-backed products for vehicles across the region, and have cultivated deals with dealerships, car rental companies, car washes, detail shops, and other automotive businesses.
The Hanleys say that the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to give their customers safe and healthy vehicles pushed them into deciding to become franchisee owners.
“We first heard about NuVinAir about a year ago at a convention, and we thought it was an intriguing concept, but we just weren’t ready to expand our business,” said Susan. “But when COVID-19 hit and the overall automotive business was shrinking, we remembered NuVinAir. Plus, the virus directly affected our family, so cleanliness and health were top of mind for us,” she said.
The Hanleys became official franchisee in June 2020.
Mike Newman
Meet Mike Newman, a longtime digital marketing executive and NuVinAir’s newest franchisee for San Antonio, Texas.
As a NuVinAir franchisee, Newman will help deepen the company’s footprint in Texas, which already has a franchisee handling the Houston market.
“I have been doing the digital thing for a long time, most recently as the CMO of BubbleUp, an amazing digital agency with an amazing roster of customers ranging from Luke Bryan and Kenny Chesney to several national and global brands,” Newman said. “Through that experience, I have helped customers develop and execute digital strategies that grow their business and help them super-serve their fans and customers.”
“I am excited and feel confident I can apply those same marketing strategies to NuVinAir San Antonio so that we can quickly scale the business and ultimately super-serve our customers, something I am deeply passionate about.”
Newman is no stranger to hard work. He credits much of his success to his parents who taught him an incredible work ethic. “My mother always used to tell me almost a mantra of, ‘Listen more than you talk. Keep your head down and just go do good work, good things will happen’” said Newman. “One of the many things my father used to tell me was, ‘If you are going to fall, fall forward. You have to get out there and try. Don’t ever take a step backward – just keep going forward and you will find success.”
Newman says he spotted that same work ethic in NuVinAIr Corporate’s CEO Kyle Bailey. Both men enjoy the many facets of entrepreneurship and understand what it takes to make a company successful.
“Both Kyle and I are builders,” Newman said. “I was looking at several different franchises, but once I met Kyle and the incredible team around him, including the other Franchisees, I was sold. The fact that Kyle and my work ethic align and we have many of the same personal values, was an added bonus. We are just cut out of the same cloth.”
Newman became an official franchisee in September 2020 and recently expanded his territory to include Austin, Texas.
Ilario Sanzo
Meet Ilario Sanzo, a longtime distributor of NuVinAir in Long Island and NuVinAir’s franchisee for New York City, LaGuardia Airport and Long Island.
Sanzo has a slightly different professional career path than other NuVinAir franchise owners as he does not come with an automotive business history. For the last twenty-five years, Sanzo worked in finance planning and analysis for consumer product companies.
“I’ve worked with a variety of consumer companies, especially detergent companies that carry such items as All detergent, Snuggle clothes softener and Dial soap. But, I am finding that the same thread of importance – that of giving consumers the best product in the industry – is true with NuVinAir as well. I want to make sure I support dealerships and rental agencies with the best odor eliminators for car dealers and odor eliminators for car rental agencies that is going to give consumers well-being and peace of mind,” said Sanzo. “I feel strongly that I am doing exactly that with NuVinAir’s Total Health program and highly effective product line.”
Sanzo says NuVinAir makes it easy for him to provide excellent customer service through its products. “When I went to Dallas to learn more about NuVinAir, they gave me a demonstration of the product and it blew me away. And, with the EPA-approved disinfectant cleaner, ReKlenz-X that safely kills 99.9 percent of germs, bacteria and viruses, it’s a win-win situation for me and for everyone in the automotive industry,” said Sanzo.
Sanzo plans to focus on supporting car rental companies, especially Enterprise Rent-A-Car, as there are several Enterprise locations in his territory.
“With New York finally easing some of its COVID-19 restrictions, people are beginning to travel again. I am finding conversations with dealerships and rental car companies a lot easier now, especially when I say we have an EPA-approved product. People are now listening,” he said.
Sanzo became an official franchisee owner in October 2020.
Bob Lundin
Meet Bob Lundin, a longtime entrepreneur in the automotive and mobility industry is NuVinAir’s newest Franchisee for the central region of the United States. His territory includes North and South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.
“I have been an entrepreneur in a variety of businesses, primarily in the mobility vertical for well over 20 years,” Lundin said. “I started my automotive mobility company in the Midwest, and through strategic planning and innovative marketing, I grew that business to seven locations.
“When I learned of NuVinAir and what a game-changer it is with its odor elimination products for vehicles, I grew confident that I could apply many of the same strategic marketing efforts to NuVinAir Central Region to quickly grow the business as I have done with other companies in the past.”
“The first vertical I want to focus on is the rental industry. The beauty of NuVinAir is that the turnaround time of treating a vehicle is incredibly short,” Lundin said. “In just 15 minutes, using our ReStore treatment, we can have a vehicle restored to its original freshness and cleanliness. That minimal timeframe is incredibly important to the rental car industry where time is indeed money.”
Lundin’s main headquarters is located just a few miles south of Sioux Falls, S.D., a part of the country that is rich in natural beauty and where thousands of visitors flock each year to take in the Black Hills and Badlands. The thousands of RVs that come to his area of the country made him realize how valuable NuVinAir could be to that industry as well.
“The second vertical I want to turn my attention to is the RV industry,” he said. “Since COVID-19, RV sales have skyrocketed. People don’t want to fly and they are hesitant to stay in hotels. People want to get out but they want to do it in a controlled environment. RVs are the perfect solution. And, with RVs come such issues as spilled food and pet odor, so NuVinAir makes the perfect odor elimination product to offer that sector.”
Lundin became an official franchisee owner in February 2021.
Michael Ruwitch
Meet Michael Ruwitch, a longtime St. Louis business executive and NuVinAir’s franchisee for Missouri and Tennessee.
Ruwitch is no stranger to the business world. He grew up in an entrepreneurial family who continuously owned several businesses. In the late 1980s, Ruwitch’s father purchased Dow Screw Products, a company manufacturing precision-machined parts. Tragically, a few months after the acquisition, Ruwitch’s father passed away. Ruwitch willingly stepped up and ran the business for nearly three decades, growing it from a $2 million business to a booming business worth over $15 million.
During those years, Ruwitch realized he needed to take the business to another level by partnering with world-class companies such as Emerson and Parker Hannifin. He also grew the company internationally by owning and operating factories overseas. In 2019, Ruwitch says, several things came together to make it the perfect time to sell Dow and since then, he has been looking for the next business to develop and grow for the next chapter of his career.
“Coming out of Dow, I wanted to work with private equity firms. I did the research and talked with several types of businesses in various industries. The one thing I knew for certain was that I did not want a franchise,” laughed Ruwitch.
“But, somehow in my research of businesses, I stumbled across NuVinAir and I heard about their emerging relationships with rental car companies and how they provide odor elimination products for car rental agencies. I thought to myself, ‘I am looking at a company that has a product that is changing the way an entire industry is doing business. They have a product line that absolutely no one else has out there.’ So, I reached out and started a conversation with the CEO, Kyle Bailey,” he said.
Ruwitch is not one who misses his homework. For seven months he did a deep dive into what the NuVinAir product does, the company’s viability, and what people like about the product suite.
“I talked to customers and distributors and to other franchise owners and they all said the same thing: ‘There is nothing like NuVinAir.’ I also did extensive testing with friends and local dealerships. I ran the numbers and realized the opportunities are endless because there are so many markets this auto odor eliminator product line can be used in to make a difference,” said Ruwitch.
Ruwitch became an official franchise owner in April 2021.
Doug Eaton
Meet Doug Eaton, longtime President and CEO of a family-owned business manufacturing wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and NuVinAir’s franchisee for Arizona and Nevada.
Eaton owns the protected rights to sell NuVinAir Global’s line of science-backed products for vehicles across his two-state region and plans to cultivate partnerships with dealerships, car rental companies, car washes, detail shops, and other automotive businesses.
In 2016, the Eaton family sold their shares in Vantage Mobility International (VMI) to a private equity company. Since that time, Eaton has been carefully researching and planning the next chapter of his life.
“Having one extremely challenging job for 26 years at a fast pace took its toll on me so I took some time to recharge and refresh. But, even though I took time to enjoy my family, read, and work on my golf game, I knew I was not done with the world of business. I love business and engaging with other people too much to quit. So, I took my time and I looked at 17 business opportunities. None of them seemed to fit me perfectly – until I came across the 18th company called NuVinAir,” said Eaton.
While at VMI, Eaton worked closely with a dealer in South Dakota named Bob Lundin. The two developed a mutual trust and respect and established a friendship that has lasted over the past two decades. Lundin was on a parallel path with Eaton in making some career changes and he shared with Eaton his excitement about a franchisee opportunity with NuVinAir.
“Bob and I love to offer solutions to existing problems and we had been doing that together for several decades. When he shared with me the complex problem of sanitizing vehicles and the need for odor elimination products for vehicles and the simple solution of NuVinAir, I leaned in. Bob invited me to come out to the Midwest where I saw the product and witnessed some amazing demonstrations. I saw a potential revolution taking place before my very eyes. There is just so much potential across several industries. I said to myself, ‘I can’t NOT do this.’ I signed and closed the first week in April and have not looked back since,” said Eaton.
Eaton calls himself a traditional problem solver so when he approaches business he likes to fully understand the problem. He says that NuVinAir is turning the problem of sanitation and odor on its end and is totally disrupting the industry.
Eaton became a franchise owner in May 2021.
Matt Robinson
Meet Matt Robinson, a longtime entrepreneur and leader in consumer-focused brands. He and his business partners, Ross, Alex and Jeff Weisman, are always on the lookout for the next compelling opportunity. After hearing about NuVinAir from another successful franchisee, the team took a closer look.
“NuVinAir seemed like a perfect platform to integrate our passion for people and process with a market-leading odor elimination product line,” Robinson said. “There’s no need for convincing or persuading when the product just works. Plus, the timing was perfect as NuVinAir had recently established national relationships with the world’s leading car rental brands. That validation inspired the confidence to acquire 19 territories in Florida.”
Initially, Robinson and team are focused on the seven major airports in the state, including Orlando, which is the largest tourist airport in the country. Eventually, they will expand their team to support the entire transportation ecosystem. Their primary goal is to help clients drive measurable improvements in sales and service with Total Health Protection solutions only NuVinAir provides.
When asked what drives him in business, Robinson was quick to respond.
“I love nothing more than the opportunity to help fellow leaders make good decisions so their teams can achieve their full potential,” he said. “I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can make an immediate impact and add long-term value. We believe service over self is a winning strategy.”
Robinson became an official franchise owner in July 2021.