Dick’s Sporting Goods plans to use strategies it deployed in 2018 and 2019 to handle any new tariffs, CFO Navdeep Gupta told analysts in a Q3 earnings call.
“We still don’t know about the timing and … the categories that would be impacted. So still a lot to be learned more. But like you said, we have navigated the situation back in 2018, 2019 effectively as well,” Gupta told analysts.
President-elect Donald Trump has threatened a series of tariffs during his upcoming presidency. Last week, Trump said he plans to use an executive order to levy a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, according to a post he made on Truth Social. He also threatened to levy 100% tariffs on members of BRICS if the group attempts to shift away from the U.S. dollar.
Dick’s is well-positioned because it has already diversified its supply chain away from China and has little exposure to Mexico and Canada, Gupta said.
Gupta also said the company has “a very strong partnership with our national brand vendors. So as more is learned, we'll continue to navigate that in close partnership with our national brand vendors as well.”
Back in May 2019, former Dick’s CFO Lee Belitsky said existing tariffs did not have a major impact on the retailer. The company was able to negotiate prices with suppliers to limit the impact of tariffs on goods from China, Belitsky said.
Leaning on vendor negotiations was an important part of the retailer's playbook to limit its exposure to further tariffs.
“It depends on what the vendors are going to do and how you’re going to negotiate with the vendors and how much they would try to get us to eat, how much they would take,” then-CEO and current executive chairman Ed Stack said at the time.
Today, other retailers are also considering how tariffs may impact their businesses, with some expecting price increases and several prepping mitigation plans such as reducing exports from China.
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