Canadian case goods manufacturer on tariffs: ‘We cannot absorb all of it’
Fresh off the news of the U.S.’ decision to implement 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the president of Durham Furniture, a high-end Canadian case good manufacturer, gave his take.
DURHAM, Ontario – Fresh off the news of the U.S. decision to implement 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the president of Durham Furniture, a high-end Canadian case good manufacturer, gave his take.
“I can tell you that I cannot absorb it all,” said Luke Simpson, president. “But I don’t know yet what that looks like. I can promise we will do all we can to minimize the impact on retailers.”
Durham has made high-end case goods in Ontario for 125 years. All of its furniture is made in Canada.
“We need to know what our government’s response is going to be,” he said. “They might end up doing reciprocal tariffs, so my input costs could go up, too. I need to know that first before I can say specifics.”
Simpson didn’t want to go into much further detail, but he did say that his business has already been affected.
“It’s created uncertainty and protectionism,” he said. “It’s hard to say specifically how much impact we’ve felt, but we have seen orders depressed. Consumers, I think, are afraid over what might happen, and they’re pulling back from spending even more than they were. I think that’s going to get worse.”
Simpson also commented on fellow Canadian furniture manufacturer South Shore’s citing of tariffs as the reason it laid off 115 employees last month.
“South Shore is more promotional-end and I think buyers have started looking to Asia for that level of pricing,” Simpson commented. “We won’t be as affected because we’re high-end and custom order. But like I said, it already has affected our business too.”
Another Canadian furniture manufacturer, Décor-Rest, told Furniture Today that the company would “absorb all duty imposed on Canada for the first six months,” as well as work with its customers to minimize impact to their businesses.
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