Pandora CEO shuns US production, warns tariffs may boost prices
Danish jewelry company Pandora A/S rules out moving production to the US and will instead use price increases to mitigate the impact from potential tariffs, according to its chief executive officer.
Alexander Lacik, whose company makes more pieces of jewelry than any other in the world, said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Wednesday that high labor costs and a lack of skilled craft workers prevent him from starting US-based manufacturing.
Pandora currently makes 95% of its jewelry in Thailand, which US President Donald Trump has threatened to hit with 36% import tariffs. Pandora also next year plans to open a plant in Vietnam, a country the US has threatened with levies of 46%.
Moving to the US 'simply wouldn't work for us because of us being an affordable proposition,' Lacik said in the interview. 'This tariff is an unwelcome aspect.'
Pandora is branding itself as an affordable luxury brand, but was forced to raise prices twice over the past year to offset the impact from higher silver prices. If Trump implements the global tariffs when the 90-day pause ends, the Danish jeweler may raise prices further, Lacik said.
'There is not enough efficiency that I could generate in our production or value chain to cover tariffs of, let's say, 40%,' he said in a phone interview. 'It will be passed on to consumers in one way, shape or form.'
Following Trump's tariff announcement in early April, Pandora initially said the total impact from the levies would amount to about 1.2 billion kroner ($182 million) annually, with a 2025 cost of about 700 million kroner. However, given the current tariff pause, Pandora has excluded any tariff impact from its 2025 guidance and on Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings report reaffirmed its full-year organic revenue forecast, while trimming its profit margin outlook to reflect currency headwinds.
'If tariffs are 40%, then I have no visibility on what my context looks like, so therefore no point in guiding,' Lacik said. 'The moment I know, then we will have to go back and either confirm the current guidance or adjust it a little bit. Who knows?'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Trump unveils website for $5 million US residency visa
"Thousands have been calling and asking how they can sign up to ride a beautiful road in gaining access to the Greatest Country and Market anywhere in the World," Trump wrote in a social media post. Trump unveiled the first such visa aboard Air Force One in April, holding a golden prototype that bore his face and promising the special permit would probably be available "in less than two weeks." The visas are not available yet, but the website announced Wednesday allows interested parties to submit their name, desired visa and email address under a header that says "The Trump Card is Coming." Trump previously said the new visa, a high-price version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit. The announcement comes as deportation raids are being ramped up across the country, prompting protests, and as Trump's administration faces ongoing lawsuits and accusations of rights violations over its anti-immigration blitz. Trump has said the new card would be a route to highly prized US citizenship. He said in February that his administration hoped to sell "maybe a million" of the cards and did not rule out that Russian oligarchs may be eligible.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
US-backed Gaza aid group accuse Hamas of attack on staff bus, at least five killed
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Wednesday accused militant group Hamas of attacking a bus carrying its staffers to an aid distribution center, saying at least five people were killed and multiple others injured. The group said in a statement that around 10 pm local time (1900 GMT) "a bus carrying more than two dozen members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation team... were brutally attacked by Hamas." "We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage," the statement read. 07:15 In an email to AFP the group said all the passengers on the bus were Palestinian and all were aid workers. They were en route to GHF's distribution center in the area west of Khan Younis. "We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms," the group said in its statement. "These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others." An officially private effort with opaque funding and backed by Israel, GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine. But GHF's first week of operations, in which it said it had distributed more than seven million meals' worth of food, has been marred by criticism. The Israeli military faces allegations of shooting into crowds of civilians rushing to pick up aid packages near GHF sites. Israeli authorities and the GHF -- which uses contracted US security -- denied any such incident took place. The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Asian shares stumble after Trump's latest trade threat
The mood was also shaded by geopolitical concerns after the US president said personnel were being moved from the Middle East as nuclear talks with Iran faltered and fears of a regional conflict grew. The equity losses snapped a recent rally fuelled by talks between Beijing and Washington in London that saw them hammer out a framework agreement to move towards a pact to reduce levies. Investors have been on edge since Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff blitz on April 2 that sent shockwaves through stock and bond markets and stoked global recession fears. Days later he announced a pause in those measures until July 9 to allow for countries to cut deals with the White House, sparking relief rallies that have pushed some markets towards all-time highs. However, he once again shook confidence by saying Wednesday that he intended to send letters telling governments what levies Washington would be imposing. "We're going to be sending letters out in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries, telling them what the deal is," he told reporters. "At a certain point, we're just going to send letters out. And I think you understand that, saying this is the deal, you can take it or leave it." While some analysts indicated that previous threats had been rowed back, the comments added to the ongoing uncertainty about Trump's policies, reviving fears about sky-high levies and the impact on the economy. They also came not long after he had flagged the London agreement, and posted on social media that "President XI and I are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade", referring to his counterpart Xi Jinping. "The uncertainty doesn't help," Nick Twidale at AT Global Markets Australia said. "And his overall comments overnight have led to more uncertainty for the market rather than the clarity we were hoping for." Most Asian markets fell on Thursday, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta in the red after a broadly healthy run-up this week. There were gains in Sydney, Singapore and Seoul. The weak performance followed losses on Wall Street, where trade worries overshadowed another below-forecast inflation reading that provided fresh speculation the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates. Oil prices slipped but held most of Wednesday's surge of between four and five percent that came after Trump said US personnel were being moved from the potentially "dangerous" Middle East as Iran nuclear talks stutter. The move came as Tehran threatened to target US military bases in the region if a regional conflict broke out. The US president said the staff were "being moved out because it could be a dangerous place". "We've given notice to move out and we'll see what happens." With regard to Iran, he then added: "They can't have a nuclear weapon, very simple. We're not going to allow that." Trump had until recently expressed optimism about the talks, but said in an interview published Wednesday that he was "less confident". Key figures at around 0230 GMT Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.7 percent at 38,149.49 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.7 percent at 24,206.17 Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,397.51 Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1514 from $1.1489 on Wednesday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3576 from $1.3545 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 144.01 yen from 144.62 yen Euro/pound: UP at 84.81 pence from 84.79 pence Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.5 percent at $69.44 per barrel © 2025 AFP
