MEET THE FONTI’S

In 1969, Vince Fonti Sr. and his partner, Pete Gambino, left positions at American TV and went into business on their own and opened ApplianceMart in Madison, WI.

The company, now owns 14 stores throughout the state of Wisconsin, is currently owned in full by the 2nd generation Fonti family, and the employees of Boston FAM. The Fonti brothers decided to make the company not only family owned, but also employeed owned by giving 40% of the company’s shares to the employees. At the start of 2019 the company officially became the first furniture, appliance and mattress retailer in the state of Wisconsin and the first Ashley HomeStore licensee in the world, to become a family and employee owned company.

“In this day and age, you have to work harder than ever to innovate for your client, and Ashley helps us do just that. In our organization, we believe that the reason we’re in business is to make amazing rooms together with our clients. We’re fanatical about it, and so is Ashley. That’s why we wake up every day and go to work. And, when you have 500 people in our organization working together with more than 27,000 people at Ashley all moving the same direction, thinking about how we can get better at making amazing rooms for our clients, you make progress very quickly. The experience improves exponentially for our guests. That’s why we’re growing. And, we like to think, it’s why our clients come back to us again and again.” – Bill Fonti

“We know that outside of a house and a car, furniture is one of the biggest purchases families in Wisconsin will make in their lifetime. We aim to make it as painless as we can by getting better deals from our manufacturers, offering affordable financing options for any budget and operating as efficiently as we can to drive our prices down.” – Bill Fonti

OUR STORY