Percy Pig's US adventure may be short-lived as M&S respond to Trump tariffs
Percy Pig's US invasion could be called to a halt amid fears that Donald Trump's tariffs could affect sales of Marks & Spencer's popular confectionery brand which has just launched in Target stores across the Atlantic.
Archie Norman, the chair of M&S, has described Percy as the retailer's 'gift to America' but he told the Retail Technology Show in London that 'we might have to change our minds' as Trump imposes additional taxes on imported goods.
The pink confectionery which sells more than 18m bags a year in the UK and is apparently enjoyed by celebrities including Adele and Olivia Rodrigo, went on sale in the US on 30 March both in Target stores across the US and on its website in what was described as Percy's 'biggest journey to date'.
The US president on Wednesday announced sweeping tariffs on imports, including a 10% tariff on those coming from the UK.
Norman added that M&S was also rethinking plans for its Christmas TV campaign as new rules on advertising high fat, sugar and salt foods (HFSS) come in to force in the UK.
The government announced last year that junk food adverts would be banned before 9pm on TV from October 2025, as part of efforts to tackle obesity in children.
'It probably means we can't run our Christmas ad,' Norman told a packed room at the conference in London 'You won't be able to run an ad that includes Christmas pudding, your mince pies or sausages.'
The former Conservative MP said retailers faced a wave of new regulations this year including new rules on packaging and labour rights. 'M&S will manage with everything as we are a growing business with no debt,' Norman said, adding that 'for the little guy these things become really damaging' and it was 'going to tough or some people'.
He said it was 'pretty clear that we can't run a traditional food ad during the day and we probably can't run a YouTube ad during the day'.
Norman said M&S was probably going to run some kind of ad but the process would be 'more complicated'. Its clothing and homewares ranges are unaffected by the new regulations and it is common for M&S and others to tweak ads to show off different products over the Christmas period.
'There could be the equivalent of a traditional ad which can only run before the watershed or one that doesn't feature mince pies [that could run at any time].'
Norman also hit out at special prices for loyalty card holders, saying M&S's Sparks scheme would instead focus on personalising its communications, and claimed that online food retail was 'a desert of profit'.
He clarified that this was an exaggeration – saying M&S still believed in the long term profitability of its joint venture with online grocery specialist Ocado. However, he pointed to the vast private equity losses in fast-track grocery delivery firms such as Gorillas, adding 'there has been more wealth destroyed in people trying to develop food online businesses than any other industry I can think of'.
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