In US, China tariff war, retail price hikes a no brainer: Lands’ End CEO
Jerome Griffith, the CEO of iconic apparel retailer Lands’ End, said having a very large manufacturing presence in China could be bad for consumers if new tariffs are imposed.
“The easiest thing to do is to pass that on to the consumer,” he told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday.
President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods if President Xi fails to meet him at the G20 in Japan at the end of this month.
China on Tuesday vowed to “fight to the end” if the U.S. wants to escalate tensions. The U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, have been engaged in a tit-for-tat trade war for a year.
However Lands’ End who produces a majority of products overseas, is looking at alternatives, other than consumers’ wallets to offset potential implications.
“For us, we're pretty well diversified, so we're looking at other options,” he said. “You know you can pass along the costs to the consumer, you can eat it yourself, [and] you can go back to the manufacturing base where you can look for other places to save money in your own business.”
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Griffith also said that moving production out of China, to go somewhere else is a “very long process.”
“It might take a year might take even longer to get the same quality.”