Made in the shade: Chris Sugai stumbled into the business of tinting auto and architectural windows, building a company that has capitalized on earthquakes and sun. (Small Business).

As a student attending California State University Northridge in the mid-1980s, Chris Sugai found a novel way to get around the school's parking problem: He would leave his car in front of an auto window tinting shop near campus and walk to classes.

After a few days, he struck a deal with the owners of the shop. Sugai would help out a few hours a week in exchange for getting a guaranteed spot.

It was a turning point in Sugai's life, even if he didn't know it.

Within a year, he and another worker decided to go into the car window tinting business for themselves and opened up their own shop, Solar Art Custom Glass Tinting.

But now, nearly all of Solar Art's revenue comes from installing window films on residences and commercial buildings. "Too many competitors came into the car window tinting business and it became very difficult to work with the auto dealers," Sugai said.

Like automobiles, window films on structures keep heat out and block ultraviolet rays. They're made by a handful of manufacturers like 3M Corp. and Dutch conglomerate Bekaert and shops like Solar Art function as distributors and installers of the films.

Sugai had only just started to penetrate the home and commercial markets when the Northridge earthquake struck (his shop at the time was two miles from the epicenter).

"We expected to have a booming business fixing our customers' broken windows' he said. "But most of those windows stayed intact. For a while, we weren't sure if we could stay in business."

But then, something unexpected happened. As people began rebuilding and remodeling their homes, they decided to add window tints. "All of a sudden, about a year or two after the quake, we were growing like gangbusters," Sugai said.

Sugai also canvassed local businesses.

At the Capitol Records building, Jim Kuha, director of administration for EMI Recorded Music North America, which owns the building, said he first heard about Solar Art from his Porter Ranch neighbors and called the company for some work on windows in the lobby of the Hollywood building.

"When I first started this job, one of the first things I noticed was that the furniture and wood paneling on the walls had faded," Kuha said. "It cost us almost $4,000 to replace them. That's when I called in Solar Art to put some protective window film on."

The Capitol Records job was easy compared to the Bel-Air Presbyterian Church. "We had this huge organ that we had to work around," Sugai said. We brought in a special crane and had to be very, very careful not to hit any of the organ pipes."

These days, Sugai must deal with an economic slowdown and a general softening of the window film market.

"Many people still have this idea that window films are those cheap dark purple things on cars that bubble up and peel off in a few months," said Darrell Smith, executive director of the International Window Film Association in Martinsville, Va. "They don't realize how far the technology has progressed in the last 10 years. The films are now clear, they last for 10 or 20 years and pay back their investment in energy savings in two or three years."

Billion-dollar market

Smith estimates that window films is a $1 billion business, with 10,000 dealer/installers nationwide. Florida has become the largest market; shatterproof window films became almost standard equipment in the wake of Hurricane Andrew.

In L.A. County, there are 50 to 60 dealer/installers of window films; despite the recent slippage in business, Solar Art, with more than a dozen installers, is among the largest.

Sugai believes the industry needs to market the window films' shatter-resistant qualities.

To prove his point, he took a windowpane without protective film and another one with protective film and put them in Federal Express envelopes. He then took a hammer to each. When he opened the envelopes, the pane without the film was in hundreds of little shards. The one with the film had a shatter pattern etched into the glass, but it was still intact.

Sugai said such glass protection offers two benefits: resistance to shattering in earthquakes and resistance to graffiti etchings. Kuha called in Solar Art to install some of the anti-graffiti and shatter-resistant window film on a building his company owns on the corner of Vine and Yucca streets, near the Capitol Records building.

Smith said it's going to take some raising of awareness to expand the window film market. "This business is still in its infancy," Smith said. "Every year, the costs come down and the technology gets better."

RELATED ARTICLE: PROFILE

Solar Art custom Glass Tinting Year Founded: 1984

Core Business: Distributor and installer of window films for residential and commercial businesses; also provides window tinting for cars.

Revenues in 2001: $1.9 million

Revenues in 2002 (projected): $1.7 million

Employees in 2001: 20

Employees in 2002:19

Goal: Managing growth of business and expanding service area throughout Southern California.

Driving Force: People seeking comfort and protection from the sun and desiring to save energy in their homes and workplaces.