Retailers warn tariffs will push up prices

Household brands including Pandora, Puma and Hugo Boss all said this week that they are evaluating their pricing strategies in the U.S. and beyond in the event that President Donald Trump’s most punitive levies come into effect.

Some others, meanwhile, said that they are altering their supply chains and potentially revising their sales forecasts amid U.S. trade policy uncertainty.

Trump last month announced sweeping so-called reciprocal import duties on all U.S. trading partners. The charges were later paused for 90 days and reduced to 10% for most countries except China, pending trade negotiations.

Companies globally have nevertheless been weighing what the various charges could mean for their businesses, with major names such as Mattel, UPS and Ford all pulling their annual guidance.

Here’s what some major European retailers have been saying:

Danish jewelry brand Pandora, which is known for its popular charm bracelets and silver jewelry, warned of significant price increases across the affordable jewelry industry if Trump’s proposed reciprocal tariffs come into effect.

The company derives around one-third of its sales from the U.S. but is heavily dependent on manufacturing in Asia, most notably Thailand, Vietnam, India and China, prompting it to warn in April of a potential hit to revenues.

“Most jewelers that are in the price segment where we operate, they all import from somewhere in Asia. So you could have an argument if these tariffs remain, then it’s going to be more expensive for everybody that plays,” CEO Alexander Lacik told CNBC.

“Therefore we should expect that the consumer pricing will see some change to it,” he added.

Asked what level of price rises consumers could expect if tariffs remain in place, Lacik said Pandora had modeled a number of scenarios but that the final figure was likely to be industry-led.

German sportswear brand Puma also pointed to potential industry-wide price hikes as a result of tariffs, noting that it was currently considering “cost optimization” in the U.S.

“We will potentially change our pricing. We are prepared for such a scenario to mitigate the impact of tariffs,” Chief Financial Officer Markus Neubrand said Thursday.

The retailer, which similarly relies on manufacturing in Asia, said it expected other brands with greater U.S. sales to lead the charge on price adjustments. But it nevertheless noted that it had trimmed U.S. imports from China after warning in March that it expected to face a hit from import levies.

“We don’t want to be the leader in terms of the pricing change in U.S. markets,” Neubrand said. “There are other players in our industry where the U.S. is far more relevant. As the third biggest brand globally we shouldn’t be the pricing leaders.”

It comes after rival sportswear giant Adidas said last week that the levies would lead to price hikes for all of its U.S. products.

Fashion retailer Hugo Boss followed other high-end brands in saying that it was considering price adjustments as part of wider measures to onset the impact of added costs.

Other plans include redirecting products coming from China to the U.S. and replacing them with products from other markets, optimizing the company’s global sourcing footprint.

The suit maker noted that uncertainty around tariffs, recession risks and immigration policy were dampening both domestic and tourist spend in the U.S., its largest single market.

CEO Daniel Grieder said U.S. shopper appetite had “certainly diminished” but added that it was still too soon to judge the real impact, despite soft sales in the first quarter.

“We continue to monitor the situation,” Grieder said. “Given the ongoing uncertainty around tariffs, it’s still too early to draw final conclusions.”

In confirming its full-year guidance, it nevertheless said that it was positioning to handle “any external developments” in what it dubbed a “fast-changing geopolitical and macro-economic environment.”

The company said that it had so far not seen any “notable impact on our business” as a result of tariffs and that consumer demand had been “rather stable,” but that its was positioning to handle “any external developments.”