New Tariffs Disrupt Awards Industry
We have been getting information from our suppliers about how the tariffs are affecting them and what that will mean to us. I feel I should reach out to our clientele and explain what I know of this disastrous situation.
I found a wonderful article in the Inflow Inventory blog. A link is HERE and the photos above come from them.
Metal is now seeing tariffs of up to 45% so every $12 sheet of aluminum is now $17.40 - that’s assuming we can get it. There are a limited number of American manufacturers and they are being inundated with orders, so we are told their prices are going up and products may become scarce.
One of our favorite suppliers for crystal awards and drinkware is based in Canada - the US is their biggest market, and being of very nice quality they are not inexpensive to start with. Will they survive the price increased they are being forced to make? There’s no way to tell.
One bright spot for us is that, as quality in the overall awards industry has steadily declined in recent years, we have expanded our locally sourced products. We also invested heavily in metal sheet stock when high-quality brass was largely downgraded to brass-plated steel. It is a dwindling resource, of course.
We have a number of Vermont sourced wood and slate options available, and much of the walnut and alder used in award plaques is currently made in the USA. The more economical pressboard or vinyl plaques come from China and their prices will rise accordingly. Sadly these are the plaques we take a smaller margin on so we can offer special pricing for schools.
The "personalization industry", as it’s now called, is very, very dependent on China. Most of our commercially available products are designed here, but are made there. It’s really only the higher quality, more expensive products that are still made domestically. Our pewter manufacturers are both on the east coast and we’ve largely stopped offering silverplate, which is imported, as its quality is typically so poor that it's often not engravable.
Please know we will work hard and continue doing our best to offer the quality and service you expect while keeping the sticker-shock as under control as possible. We know the impacts of the tariffs is being felt across all sectors and want you to know that our thoughts are with you!
We understand a lot may change with the resources you have available to work with, but we hope our long standing customer relationships can weather this storm and that you'll feel comfortable being open with us about the challenges you're facing so we can work together to find solutions that will allow you to keep your recognition programs alive during this critical time.
