CGTN Europe spoke to Simon Kenney, CEO of materials company Goodfellow.
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00:00Simon Kenny is CEO of Goodfellow, a UK company that sells advanced metals and materials to many countries, including the United States.
00:08Simon, thank you very much for joining us today.
00:10How worrying a time is this for your business, and how much might tariffs drive up prices for your customers and all consumers?
00:20I think it's worrying for everybody, and I think, you know, anything that adds barriers to trade is not good for business.
00:28And you can see business reaction to that in the markets.
00:33With ourselves, we supply many materials from the UK globally, which includes North America.
00:42And although we have a site in North America, our stock is based here.
00:46So it's going to affect us significantly.
00:49And I think the reality is that global supply chains these days are so complex that it isn't as simple as one tariff on one country.
01:02And I think my wish would be that, as much as possible, other countries look to free trade agreements,
01:09and we can simplify at least some of the worlds and countries that we trade with.
01:16And of course, as you said, it's incredibly complex, especially with a business like yours.
01:21Can you switch your supply chains and your investment plans?
01:27It's a good question, and I understand what the US are trying to do here.
01:32You know, they're trying to get companies to invest in the US.
01:37But to do that, I mean, we actually have a site in the US, so we could move some of our stocks, some of our manufacturing there.
01:45However, to do that, there's a couple of things that I need to do.
01:48I need a strategic plan. That takes time. I need certainty in the market.
01:53And again, these things do not, A, do not happen overnight.
01:57And B, you're not going to make your strategic long term plans to move manufacturing whilst there's this uncertainty.
02:06And it certainly won't happen overnight.
02:09So in terms of will we look at our supply chain, will we look at where we can source more effectively to minimise the cost to our customers?
02:21Of course we will. But that adds administrative burden.
02:27It adds costs to our business as well. And unfortunately, that will be passed on.
02:34I think my one comfort is that this is a landscape that we're all operating in, including my competitors.
02:41And one of our biggest competitors is based in the US.
02:46And I know that they import a lot of their product from China.
02:50So they're facing tariffs in the same way that I am.
02:54So whilst it isn't quite a level playing field, this affects every business.
03:00And Simon, you told us about your site in the United States. I believe it's in Baltimore.
03:05So could countermeasures actually here in the UK and in the European Union affect your American subsidiary trying to sell things here?
03:15Yeah, of course. So in Baltimore, we do precision machining for materials.
03:22And predominantly, they're shipping to North America at the moment.
03:26We only purchased the business mid last year, and our plans were to expand into the EU.
03:34Now, that is likely to take a hit.
03:37And the costs then might make it prohibitive, certainly when we're competing with European competitors.
03:43Well, Simon, really good to talk to you. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today.
03:47Simon Kenny, CEO of Goodfellow.