If you’ve felt a growing sense of panic as you watch prices rise and fall and see ports sit empty and then struggle with overflow, you’re not alone.
President Trump’s recent tariffs — and all the changes, rollbacks and roll-back-forwards that have followed — have caused a degree of chaos and confusion among businesses in the U.S. that rely on overseas suppliers. Manufacturers and retailers have taken a significant hit — even if a product itself wasn’t made overseas, it often includes at least some materials sourced from overseas, which can result in higher prices and long delays.
Count on Uncertainty
You might be feeling the impact already. Tariffs increase the price of materials — seemingly in an instant, sometimes — pushing your costs way above your budget and cutting into your profit margin. Shipping delays due to customs inspections and port congestion can leave your product sitting right there at the dock, where you can’t get to it. And the unpredictability of it all makes it difficult to plan and maintain inventory levels.
As you struggle with costs and delays, your customers continue to demand your product. And if they can’t get it from you and have to turn to another business, they may never return. That’s why having the added safety of a secondary supplier is crucial to maintain any sense of stability in a volatile time.
The Strongest Link
It’s never been more important to have the strongest possible links in your supply chain. Just a single layer of protection leaves you dependent on just one source, vulnerable to any forces that might make it unavailable or unaffordable. That link needs to have several layers of protection — at least one of them U.S.-based — with a reliable alternate source so if your primary supplier suddenly struggles with its own supply chain, you can feel safe knowing your product will still arrive when you need it.
The time to ensure that additional layer of protection is yesterday — you need that extra-strong link in place before a problem arises (or before any current problems get out of hand). And if your current supplier can’t provide a backup source, you’re on your own for assessing potential backups and negotiating contracts in a hurry — which can lead to low-quality products and misleading terms. You have no time to waste in vetting those other options, or, even better, securing a primary supplier with that second layer of protection already built into its operation.
Link With Carow
As you search for a supplier unaffected by tariff costs and shipping delays, look to Carow as a safe, strong link for your supply chain. We remove those delays and costs from the equation by manufacturing many of our products in the U.S., including EuroDrop® dropper caps, dropper pipettes and adaptor caps. And we have a large inventory of our high-quality imported products in stock, including glass bottles and dropper bottles, available at pre-tariff prices.
But it isn’t just our onshore operations and extensive inventory that makes a difference in turbulent times. Carow comes prepared with our own secondary suppliers in place, incorporating that crucial backup to avert the risk that comes with relying on a single source. We have multiple other suppliers of bottles and caps ready to back up our own manufacturing capabilities, so if for any reason our production is interrupted, we can still deliver the products you need with the speed and quality you depend on from us.
Rely on Packaging Solutions Close to Home
As you evaluate backup suppliers — or reevaluate your primary supplier — Carow’s U.S.-made products, pre-tariff inventory and built-in secondary suppliers can offer a greater level of stability amid the chaos of sourcing overseas. To learn more about how Carow can be a reliable, economical, high-quality link for your operation’s chain, just contact our Solutions Specialists.
