In the consumer products industry, moving your supply chain out of China is all the rage — and for good reason, given the supersized tariff that the Trump administration has imposed on Chinese imports.
Good thing for SharkNinja that the Needham company, which sells appliances and other household items, got a five-plus year head start on the trend.
Chief executive Mark Barrocas reported strong earnings on Thursday and a year-over-year revenue increase of 15 percent, prompting the company to raise its profit and sales outlooks, while retaining a pledge to launch 25 new products this year. He also reported progress in shifting the manufacturing of the company’s US-bound products to factories in several countries in Southeast Asia, and out of China.
Investors responded, sending the stock up nearly 13 percent in one day, to $91.63, though the price is still short of its levels in February when it traded above $100.
During President Trump’s first administration, all of SharkNinja’s US-bound products were made in China. Within two months, that will be down to 13 percent. And by the end of the year, Barrocas said, nearly all of its US items will be made elsewhere, though it will keep some China manufacturing for other markets.
The company began diversifying its supply chain in large part because of China tariffs under Trump 1.0.
“It was not fully understood by investors the competitive advantage we were building by [moving] outside of China,” Barrocas said in an interview Thursday. “It wasn’t like we just woke up on April 2 and said, ‘We have to move out of China.’ ... Now we have redundancy.”
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, announced that day, did cause SharkNinja’s executive team to scramble, though. Hundreds of employees brainstormed various ways to soften much of the blow. (Trump eventually suspended most of the tariffs, while raising them for China.)
Measures included negotiating with suppliers, engineering products differently, and in some cases, price hikes. (The Ninja Luxe Cafe premium espresso product, for example, went from $499 to $549.)
“The organization really rallied to be in a position that allowed us to deliver the numbers we did today,” Barrocas said.
Meanwhile, Barrocas is starting to contemplate some domestic manufacturing as well, by working with third-party suppliers. That will take time, and will only be possible for certain items. But he’s going to try.
“There are a subset of our products that could be made in the US [but] it’s not a short-term process,” Barrocas said. “Over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, I could potentially see something made in the US.”
This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.