Vincenzo Guzzo is a Canadian entrepreneur, television personality, and venture capitalist known as Mr. Sunshine or the Beast. Vincenzo sits as the head of his father’s business, Cinemas Guzzo and other businesses.
Vincenzo Guzzo’s net worth is $2 million. His earnings are from his engagements in businesses as the CEO of Cinemas Guzzo, Groupe Guzzo Construction Inc., and Guzzo Medical and Hospitality.
Vincenzo Guzzo became a national figure in 2018 after he joined the five-man investor’s panel of CBC business reality show Dragons’ Den for its 13th season and he has been on the show till date. He joined alongside another new dragon Lane Merrifield to replace Joe Mimran and Michael Wekerle. This article gives a breakdown of Vincenzo Guzzo’s net worth, wife, house, and activities in dragons’ den.
Early Life
Vincenzo Guzzo was born on 11 June 1969 in Montreal, to Italian parents Angelo Guzzo and Rosetta Rubino Guzzo. His father moved to Canada from Italy in 1967 and worked as a machinist for Pratt & Whitney. Having saved some money, Angelo Guzzo bought a movie theatre in 1974. This served as a motivator for his only son, Vincenzo Guzzo. Vincenzo attended Selwyn House School and a private boys’ school in Quebec. He spent most of his time in his father’s cinema and has confessed to doing most of his homework in his father’s office. Vincenzo primary school was a French school, which helped him become a bilingual. He attended University of Western Ontario and earned a degree in business administration before he got a law degree from the University of Quebec at Montreal. Both degrees have helped him to effectively grow the Guzzo family into a competitive group, with Cinemas Guzzo ranking as the third largest in Canada. Vincenzo started out in his father’s business by performing different roles while still a student, as a cleaner, ticket officer, usher and other smaller roles until he fully joined his father in 1991.
Vincenzo Guzzo business career
The moment Vincenzo joined the family business, he pushed for expansion, having known that this was the business cut out for him. While he serves as the CEO of Cinemas Guzzo, his father, Angelo remains the chairman of the board. In order to create an enabling environment for independent theatre owners and to compete effectively in movie business, Vincenzo fought to have access to first-run films. To achieve this, he took the large theatre chains to court in 1998, and won the case which annihilated the monopoly allowing independent theatres access to offer first-run movies. It was a significant step and boast to the family business.
Vincenzo decides to keep profits arising from expansion in-house. He launched Groupe Guzzo Construction Inc. to construct the various theatres across Canada. Through this he reduces the cost for planning and designing as he does most of that himself. He has been responsible for the designing of the interiors of the theatres in order to give it a modern, alluring look. Cinemas Guzzo now boasts of 141 screens and 9 IMAX theatres with more under construction. Cinemas Guzzo offers an average of 14 screens per theatre, which means it is the only cinemas with the largest number of screens per location after AMC. The Groupe Guzzo Construction Inc. works on other projects aside constructing theatres for Cinemas Guzzo, so it is another significant source of income for the entrepreneur.
Vincenzo’s Cinemas offers great theatre experience by providing concession stands to customers before taking their seats in the theatre. He introduced a chain of restaurants which offers menu from his parental heritage. Vincenzo’s chain of restaurants is called Porchetta and offer Italian pork sandwiches. This marks his contribution to the era of recreation centres featuring not only movie theatres but also café–Hollywood restaurant and virtual-reality games. In his words, “Our focus is on entertainment. We integrate VR, full motion arcade experiences. New locations will have 20,000 square feet arcade areas along with separate company-owned Giulietta Restaurants, so patrons can choose between the two or go to both.” Vincenzo opened Giulietta Restaurants, known as Neapolitan pizzerias in Montreal.
Recently, Vincenzo ventured into the world of fashion by introducing an online clothing line which has prospects of expanding into the usual brick and mortar stores. The items in the shop have his iconic yellow flower, which comes because of his nickname, Mr. sunshine. The items which include shoes, slippers, ties are of limited edition offerings.
Vincenzo and his wife Maria have given back to the society through their cancer research, mental health initiatives and scholarship fund aimed at poor talent athletes and students. As philanthropists, the Guzzo Family Foundation, which was established in 2007, supports cancer nanotechnology research conducted at the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University. Also, they assisted Shriners Hospital to acquire an imaging unit for treatment of children. Vincenzo has received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, he is a member of the Order of Malta. He was knighted by the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Vincenzo Guzzo and Dragons’ den
Vincenzo Guzzo joined dragons’ den in 2018 for its thirteenth season. Dragons’ Den is a CBC business television reality show which comprises a panel of six investors who listen to entrepreneur pitch their business or ideas to them and decide if their pitchers’ business or idea is worth their money. He joined the show alongside another new dragon Lane Merrifield as they both replaced Joe Mimran and Michael Wekerle, respectively. He has been on the show till date and had brought his business acumen to assist prospective entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Sharing his experience in dragons’ den, he lamented on the time it takes to deliberate on each pitch because one needs to be sure of where one is placing one’s money. Although he appears blunt in his approach to pitchers, he has these words to say about it, “Being business partner is like marriage; there has to be a sense of compatibility between both parties. If you want me to be your business partner, it has to be with something that can work with and in turn, it has to teach me something, too.”
Vincenzo Guzzo net worth
Vincenzo Guzzo’s net worth is $2 million. His earnings are from his engagements in businesses as the CEO of Cinemas Guzzo, Groupe Guzzo Construction Inc., and Guzzo Medical and Hospitality.
Vincenzo Guzzo wife and children
Vincenzo Guzzo is married to Maria Farella Guzzo. They got married in 2007 and the couple has five children together. Their children are Angelo, Vittorio Emanuele, Vito, Delano and Rosella. However, Vincenzo was married to Annie Claude De Paoli from 1996 to 2005 before they separated.
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