This cookware maker is bracing for steel tariffs behind a wall of pots and pans

“We had a good quantity,” said Henn, referring to raw materials, “so it gave us more time to know that we will be able to make and sell a lot of things without the price cost.”

Henn said it was not a pricing strategy, but rather an advantage of the workflow of his business.

However, they knew that the room for maneuver was not going to last forever. Finally, it became time for Heritage Steel to order more materials. This first price bill was about $ 75,000, and Henn expects the next one to be more than twice as much.

Who pays?

For Heritage Steel, there was never any doubt that it should increase prices due to pricing expenses. The question was how much should they go?

“We are happy and proud to be a supplier of very high quality cooking utensils, but which is more affordable than some of the others on the market,” said Henn. “We want to continue to offer the best possible price, given our constraints.”

Friday, the company increased prices by around 15% on all its products. Heritage Steel explained the increase in an advertisement on its website, calling for “fairly modest” adjustment given the price of entry materials from the company rewarding at least 50%.

“Obviously, we cannot have the full impact of these cost increases,” said Henn, “but we don’t want our customers either.”

It expects these changes to have a negative impact on the company’s beneficiary margins, but at present, the extent is not clear. Henn believes that the company has more flexibility than many of its competitors, because Heritage Steel only imports raw materials, not for the full product, and manufacturers in the United States, which is why it expects it to expect the global market disturbance to be good for the company.

“They may have to make something closer to a price increase of 50%,” he said about his competitors, “because their total cost of goods increases by 50%.”

For Heritage Steel, on the other hand, only the price of the parts is up 50%, not the full product. Henn said it was a question of finding the ideal point: a good amount to invoice customers to compensate for new costs while being a market leader on the market.