Tariffs may be counter-productive, says Brompton bosspublished at 14:08 British Summer Time 31 March
Dearbail Jordan
Business reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesWill Butler-Adams, chief executive of Brompton Bicycle, which makes folding bikes, says US tariffs are creating uncertainty.
While, at the moment, Brompton’s products are not facing additional taxes, he says people interpreting the tariffs are trying to establish how much steel in products might have come from outside the US, which might therefore lead to tariffs.
“The reality is we don’t [know] actually and the people who are on the borders importing goods into the US don’t actually entirely understand how some of these tariffs might be put in,” Butler-Adams says.
About 10% of Brompton’s sales come from the US, where it has grown from a staff of four to 40 people and has shops in New York and Washington.
But Butler-Adams says tariffs might prove to be “counter-productive”.
“Ironically, if he puts taxes on, it is going to make our product less competitive,” he adds.
“We won’t continue to invest in the same way that we are now. We may even shrink, in the extreme we might pull out.”
