Factbox: US executives weigh risks from proposed Trump tariffs

Zebra Technologies

13/11/2024 17:10

Nov 13 (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     "...It doesn't make sense to invest a lot in
  TSLA.O   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
  DLTR.O   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
  AXON.O   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
  KKR.N    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
  ZBRA.O   supply chain partners," said CFO Nathan Winters.
 Tapestry  "Tariff regime is changing over time. So, we're
  TPR.N    pretty well-versed in managing through this," said
           CFO Scott Roe.
 IFF       "Those tariffs could actually intuitively be
  IFF.N    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
  UAA.N    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
  SHOO.O   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
  ELF.N    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

 (Reporting by Niket Nishant, Shivansh Tiwary and Manya Saini in
Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
 ((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com;))