How Will Tariffs Impact Your Business & Consumers?

CGTN Europe spoke to Simon Kenney, CEO of materials company Goodfellow.

Transcript

00:00Simon Kenny is CEO of Goodfellow, a UK company that sells advanced metals and materials to many countries, including the United States.

00:08Simon, thank you very much for joining us today.

00:10How worrying a time is this for your business, and how much might tariffs drive up prices for your customers and all consumers?

00:20I think it's worrying for everybody, and I think, you know, anything that adds barriers to trade is not good for business.

00:28And you can see business reaction to that in the markets.

00:33With ourselves, we supply many materials from the UK globally, which includes North America.

00:42And although we have a site in North America, our stock is based here.

00:46So it's going to affect us significantly.

00:49And I think the reality is that global supply chains these days are so complex that it isn't as simple as one tariff on one country.

01:02And I think my wish would be that, as much as possible, other countries look to free trade agreements,

01:09and we can simplify at least some of the worlds and countries that we trade with.

01:16And of course, as you said, it's incredibly complex, especially with a business like yours.

01:21Can you switch your supply chains and your investment plans?

01:27It's a good question, and I understand what the US are trying to do here.

01:32You know, they're trying to get companies to invest in the US.

01:37But to do that, I mean, we actually have a site in the US, so we could move some of our stocks, some of our manufacturing there.

01:45However, to do that, there's a couple of things that I need to do.

01:48I need a strategic plan. That takes time. I need certainty in the market.

01:53And again, these things do not, A, do not happen overnight.

01:57And B, you're not going to make your strategic long term plans to move manufacturing whilst there's this uncertainty.

02:06And it certainly won't happen overnight.

02:09So in terms of will we look at our supply chain, will we look at where we can source more effectively to minimise the cost to our customers?

02:21Of course we will. But that adds administrative burden.

02:27It adds costs to our business as well. And unfortunately, that will be passed on.

02:34I think my one comfort is that this is a landscape that we're all operating in, including my competitors.

02:41And one of our biggest competitors is based in the US.

02:46And I know that they import a lot of their product from China.

02:50So they're facing tariffs in the same way that I am.

02:54So whilst it isn't quite a level playing field, this affects every business.

03:00And Simon, you told us about your site in the United States. I believe it's in Baltimore.

03:05So could countermeasures actually here in the UK and in the European Union affect your American subsidiary trying to sell things here?

03:15Yeah, of course. So in Baltimore, we do precision machining for materials.

03:22And predominantly, they're shipping to North America at the moment.

03:26We only purchased the business mid last year, and our plans were to expand into the EU.

03:34Now, that is likely to take a hit.

03:37And the costs then might make it prohibitive, certainly when we're competing with European competitors.

03:43Well, Simon, really good to talk to you. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today.

03:47Simon Kenny, CEO of Goodfellow.