Custom Sounds & Tint, the 20-store chain based in Austin, TX said it posted a slight increase in sales for 2025, its first annual gain since the close of the COVID pandemic. And it expects a strong first quarter.
One of the largest independent car audio specialists, Custom Sounds said it had predicted 10 percent sales declines in 2023 and 2024. True to form, it experienced decreases of 8.5 and 9 percent in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Now sales appear to be on an upward trend, gaining one percent in 2025 and spiking this quarter. “We are very happy with that,” said CEO Mike Cofield.
“We’re looking at both industry trends and macro economic trends and we’re going to have a good Q1. We were up 20 percent in January until the weather shot us down and we still ended up 5.5 percent up, though we lost several days to weather. We were up 10 percent in February.” Compared to 2019, February was up 23 percent, “and we only have one additional store, and it’s a small store,” Cofield said.
At present, the conflict in Iran is not impacting sales, he noted. “We re seeing this price increase in oil…it remains to be seen how long or how deep it will be. I don’t think anyone can say with any specificity what will happen. If this goes on for three months I’d be surprised. To date we haven’t seen any impact of any kind.”
March is up over last year for the chain, and it’s measuring against a very strong March last year.
Cofield provided a number of reasons for improved sales. One is more consumer promotions from vendors. “For a long time we weren’t seeing many vendor specials. We didn’t see any until the end of 2025.” The promos allowed the chain to offer in-store customer deals.
On the larger economy, Cofield said inflation decreased last year while GDP increased in Q4.
Additionally, projected tax returns will be considerably higher this tax season, amounting to about $540 in tax breaks per household. Plus many will enjoy tax breaks on tips and overtime, he said.
“We think we’ll have a pretty smoking April and a great May. We think the second quarter will be robust.”
This year, Custom Sounds is focusing on increasing sales training (which is different from product training, although it also increased product training). It is also cross training its window tinters to be able to install remote start and alarms so they can increase their income in the winter months.
“We change a couple of major things every year, usually geared to either decreasing expenses or increasing sales,” Cofield said. The new sales training focuses on “resparking the sale” or overcoming sales objections. “How to get back into the sale when the customer says, ‘Let me think about it,’ which is customer code for ‘That’s more than I want to spend.’ The problem isn’t that difficult but it’s getting sales people to do it.”
Advertising remains consistent during both lean and good times, so no major changes are planned. “We don’t want to cut back when things are slower and, when they are better, we don’t spend a bunch of money. We stay the course,” Cofield said.
Mike F. Cofield Legend.
BS