Canadian Pantyhose Maker Furloughs 40% of Employees on Commerce-Warfare Woes

The specter of US tariffs has brought on a Montreal-based ladies’s clothes maker to position greater than a 3rd of its employees on depart.

SRTX is placing 40 % of its 350 staff and contractors on non permanent layoff, Chief govt officer Katherine Homuth stated in an announcement. The corporate has 85 % of its gross sales within the US and has invested “tens of thousands and thousands” in Canadian factories, she stated.

The corporate’s merchandise already face a 16 % responsibility to ship to the US below North American commerce guidelines as a result of a few of its uncooked supplies are sourced outdoors the continent, she stated in a social media publish. Including 25 % US tariffs, as President Donald Trump has threatened to do, would convey that to 41 %.

The Trump administration would deal the corporate an extra blow if it follows via with eradicating an exemption that had allowed low-value packages to be shipped duty-free to US shoppers.

“We’re in a worst-case state of affairs,” Homuth stated, including that the corporate has suffered delays in closing a fundraising spherical.

“This places immense strain on our enterprise mannequin, particularly as an organization that has invested closely in built-in manufacturing in Canada.”

SRTX, based in 2017 with the backing of Y Combinator, is thought for making resilient pantyhose known as Sheertex. It has raised over $200 million in capital from traders together with Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz AB, Investissement Quebec and the Canadian authorities’s export growth company, based on an organization presentation.

Homuth lamented the “fragile state of home manufacturing in Canada” in her assertion.

“Canadian manufacturers that depend on abroad manufacturing can pivot rapidly, shifting suppliers or logistics suppliers to work across the tariff construction with relative ease. However for corporations like ours, who’re constructing from the bottom up right here at dwelling, the stakes are a lot greater,” she stated.

The makers of the “Canada is Not for Sale” hat popularised by Ontario Premier Doug Ford discovered this as properly, as they struggled to search out corporations that may manufacture the hats within the nation, the Canadian Press reported in January.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce known as for the federal government to reconvene the Home of Commons to reply to commerce tensions. Parliament has been suspended since early January, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced his resignation, triggering a race to interchange him.

“We have to ship a robust message to President Trump and the world that we’ll rise to this event, as a unified Canada. Tariffs tomorrow as an alternative of tariffs right now nonetheless depart companies, employees and households within the lurch,” Candace Laing, CEO of the chamber, stated in an announcement.

By Melissa Shin

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