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From Home Furnishing Business
Williams-Sonoma CEO Talks China Ahead of Trump Tariff Action
January 21,
2025 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
According to an interview on Yahoo Finance from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Williams-Sonoma is not waiting for President Trump to enact tariffs to take action or what might happen in the future.
In an interview with Williams-Sonoma CEO Laura Alber, she answers the question of what is being done to prepare for what is the likely possibility of tariffs being imposed on, specifically, China.
After the last Trump administration, when tariffs were imposed on China, Williams-Sonoma had started to move their China exposure toward 50% and now, they are currently closer to 25%.
A large portion of the manufacturing of their furniture has moved to Mississippi, North Carolina and their Rejuvenation brand, to Oregon. There are benefits of this, not only in quality, but also in speed of made-to-order and deliverability.
While the overall outlook and effect that the imposed tariffs will have on the furniture industry remains to be seen, Adler makes her point that their partners want to be competitive, and they hope to absorb some of the cost of the tariff to keep their prices down should there need to be a price increase.