Pictured above: Easy Signs’ Adam Parnell and Andy Fryer
Despite previous concerns, Easy Signs now expects the planned tariffs US president-elect Donald Trump will make on his first day back in office to actually benefit the company’s international business.
Overnight, Trump announced plans he intends to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10 per cent tariff on goods from China.
Easy Signs director Andy Fryer told Sprinter that the expected tariffs could work in the company’s favour against its competitors.
“While this affects our raw materials and hardware items imported from China, of which we will need to slightly raise pricing to maintain margins, it actually strengthens us against our competitors who import finished products from China,” Fryer said.
“All of our printing and finishing is done in the US, so this extra 10 per cent tariff will make our local manufacturing more competitive.”
Easy Signs first opened its US operations with a $US2.8 million investment for a 6700 square metre facility in March 2022.
Easy Signs was recently featured on the front page of the New York Times commenting on the tariffs up to 400 per cent placed on aluminium components from China.
“We had been running into huge challenges with tariffs being applied on imported aluminium products such as pull-up banner stands, media wall frames and gazebos adding up to 370 per cent of the value of the aluminium. This forced us to redirect containers that had arrived to the US from China, all the way to Australia,” Fryer said previously.
In September, Fryer also mentioned that after doubling sales from 2022 to 2023, Easy Signs has experienced a further 50 per cent increase in sales as it grows to over 50 staff members from its operations in Pennsylvania.
Fryer confirmed that in June 2023, sales were double those of 2022 and in June 2024, these numbers grew again by a further 50 per cent.
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