Latest news with #JeffBowman
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
President Trump's Tariffs Backfire on US Textile Exporters
The tariffs, intended to boost US manufacturing, are instead hurting small exporters like Cocona Labs by raising costs, deterring foreign buyers, and creating uncertainty across supply chains. CEO Jeff Bowman says the tariffs have stalled investments, reduced sales, and forced his team to consider moving operations abroad. (Source: Bloomberg)
New York Times
30-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Trump's Tariffs May Push This American Company to Move Jobs to China
In the debate over trade, stories about what's left of the domestic textile industry tend to involve mills threatened by competition from China. But a company in Colorado called Cocona Labs has prospered by sending its products across the Pacific. Cocona manufactures compounds used to make fabrics that are stitched into bedding, towels and clothing, especially for outdoor gear. The elements move moisture away from skin, making material warmer and faster drying. Cocona sends roughly two-thirds of the compounds it produces to China, where factories spin yarn, weave fabric and stitch linens and apparel. Many of the finished goods wind up back in the United States. But the global trade war started by the Trump administration has shaken the economics of this business. Faced with uncertainty over tariffs, and especially retaliatory levies imposed by China, Cocona might start making changes. Among the possible actions: moving part of the production of its core offering, its so-called master batch made up of compounds, from the United States to factories in China. 'We are actively in the process of doing that,' the company's chief executive, Jeff Bowman, said from his home in Bend, Ore. President Trump has sold his trade war as the way to force international businesses to abandon China and bring factory work to the United States. Yet the experience of this small business, one with 20 employees around the world, attests to how tariffs can have the opposite effect, compelling the company to consider shifting its work to the other side of the Pacific. 'Is that crazy, or what?' Mr. Bowman said. He is especially frustrated that the disruption of his business is playing out in the service of a goal that he dismisses as fanciful. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
South China Morning Post
12-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
American firm dodges China's tariff hikes, selling off millions in inventory
There was no time to rest. With American companies facing the threat of punishing tariffs from China, Jeff Bowman started selling fast. It was March 31, and the CEO of a company in the US state of Colorado had already watched as US President Donald Trump imposed additional duties on Chinese imports totalling 20 per cent – on their way to a whopping 145 per cent this week. That day, Bowman's company, Cocona, decided to sell off its entire China reserve of its core product – a sweat-drying additive that treats the yarn used in fabrics for some of the world's top clothing brands. Massive sacks of bead-like pellets – comprising a 'masterbatch' of additives – had been sitting in a Shanghai free-trade zone, untouched until then by Chinese customs, for eventual sale in China. For Bowman, it made more sense to sell it all at once - giving buyers a supply that will last nine to 12 months - before tariffs skyrocketed. 'We just emptied out the warehouse,' said Bowman, 72, a veteran of the US clothing materials industry who has been with Corona for 13 years. 'We could have sold three times that, because Chinese customers have no better idea than we do about what's going to happen. 'I don't have any confidence in the competence of the [US] administration,' he said.
