Factbox-US executives weigh risks from proposed Trump tariffs
(Reuters) – Top executives at many U.S. companies are preparing for the impact from President-elect Donald Trump fulfilling his campaign promise of raising tariffs, a move that could disrupt supply chains and worsen inflationary pressures.
Here is the commentary from some C-suite executives, mostly in the run up to the elections:
Company Commentary
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) “…It doesn’t make sense to invest a lot in
Mexico if (heavy tariffs are imposed on vehicles
produced in the country),” said CEO Elon Musk.
Dollar “…We have long-standing contingency plans to
Tree diversify our supply chain in a timely and
cost-effective manner. We also have the
flexibility to adjust product specs and price
points to address any changes in the market,” said
Chief Operating Officer Mike Creedon, who has now
become the interim CEO.
Axon “We’ve certainly lived in an environment of
tariffs before. And so our philosophy is generally
to be pretty flexible,” said CFO Brittany Bagley.
KKR “We spend most of our time here focusing on things
that we can control. That’s (tariffs) not one of
them,” said CFO Robert Lewin.
Zebra “The team is actively working on mitigation plans
Technolo for some of the new tariffs that are coming into
gies place. And we continue to actively work with our
supply chain partners,” said CFO Nathan Winters.
Tapestry (NYSE:TPR) “Tariff regime is changing over time. So, we’re
pretty well-versed in managing through this,” said
CFO Scott Roe.
IFF “Those tariffs could actually intuitively be
advantageous to our overall business broadly,”
said Chief Financial and Business Transformation
Officer Glenn Richter.
Under “It will be interesting to see how things develop
Armour with whether we still have a split Congress or
not,” said CFO David Bergman.
Steven “We have been planning for a potential scenario in
Madden which we would have to move goods out of China
more quickly. We’ve worked hard over a multi-year
period to develop our factory base and our
sourcing capability in alternative countries like
Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, et cetera,”
said CEO Edward Rosenfeld.
“You should expect to see the percentage of goods
that we source from China to begin to come down
more rapidly going forward.”
Elf “We certainly have run a number of scenarios for
beauty potential tariffs. It’s still too early to tell
what level those may come in, but we have a
playbook and we have a number of levers at our
disposal,” said CFO Mandy Fields.
Source: Earnings calls