With United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs dangling above the heads of Canadians, Kingston’s Swish branch says it is reaping the benefits.
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“We’re having some of the best weeks we’ve had in years,” said Graham Forsythe, Kingston’s branch manager of Swish. “Customers have been calling us and saying, ‘If you’re Canadian we’re buying.’”
Forsythe estimated the local company has seen an increase of approximately 20 per cent from customers wanting to buy Canadian brands, such as Swish.
The Canadian, family-run company has been around since 1956 and manufactures a wide range of cleaning supplies such as paper products, cleaning chemicals, personal protective equipment (PPE) and even laundry detergent, among other items.
Since Trump began threatening Canada with tariffs on goods exported to the U.S, companies like Swish are putting the red and white flag front and centre of their products, encouraging Canadians to buy from within, Forsythe said.
“We’ve always promoted the Canadian manufacturing in logistics, but we’ve never seen it like this,” Forsythe said. “I’ve got customers that are showing up saying we want to convert everything over as fast as possible and stop buying American.
“Because we are a Canadian manufacturer, Charlotte products, we supply ourselves, so we manufacture everything in Peterborough, so you’re taking out the middle man. There’s no American dollar to deal with and of course the tariffs aren’t on there.”
The company was created by Walter Ambler, and is now run by his grandkids, who are second- and third-generation owners. Tim Ambler is the CEO of Swish Maintenance Ltd. and said the influx of sales shows the tremendous amount of Canadian pride.
“Regardless of whether people are buying for their homes or businesses, they’re flipping over labels and asking themselves who they’re dealing with and who their dollars are supporting,” Ambler said in a telephone interview.
The company has locations and partners across Canada and for Ambler, that’s what makes them stand out.
“I think when customers start looking for an alternative to their foreign suppliers, and they come across us, they see a company that not only meets their needs, but one that supports their community and their country.”
Although the company is Canadian, Ambler said he is still concerned when it comes to the implementation of U.S. tariffs.
“Ultimately, we are nothing without our customers, so a major hit to the Canadian economy will impact our customers and their need for our products,” he said. “And of course, there are things we sell today that are sourced from the U.S., so we’re helping our customers navigate any price increases from vendors or countervailing tariffs the Canadian government might implement.”
Ambler said Swish’s manufacturing subsidiary/sister company Charlotte Products Ltd. does export to the U.S. While it will affect the company’s exports, he said, it is dampened by the Canadian dollar exchange rate.
According to Beverly Lapham, an economics professor at Queen’s University, Trump’s tariffs on exported goods to the U.S. won’t have a large impact on Kingston because it’s not a major export-oriented city. She said Kingston thrives more on retail and tourism, which is import-oriented.
“I don’t expect very strong effects on the tariffs that the Trump administration is imposing,” Lapham said. “There could be a benefit as Canadians are frustrated, angry with the policies that the Trump administration (is implementing), and maybe they are concerned about exports that Canadian firms will be hurt by this, so they are shifting their purchases to Canadian goods.”
She said the more troubling side of things are the retaliatory tariffs that Canada may impose on good imported from the U.S.
“That’s a tax that is potentially going to raise the price of any U.S. goods that are sold in Canada,” Lapham said.
Lapham also said she doesn’t just mean U.S. goods. For example, she said, a company could import a product that is used to manufacture a Canadian-made product. It might say made in Canada, but it is created using items imported from the U.S.
She described the financial burden on tariffed imports as a “kind of Canadian tax” — Canadian retailers may pass on that price increase by raising their own prices.
“They are going to have to decide, ‘Are we going to raise our prices by 25 per cent so our consumers have to pay for those U.S. goods?’ Or are they going to take some of the impact on themselves and not raise their prices,” Lapham said.
As a result, the impacts of Canadian-imposed tariffs could be damaging to the economy and hurt households financially.
“People who are barely getting by when prices go up by a little bit, that’s very difficult for them,” Lapham said. “Poor households will suffer more under both types of tariffs than will well-off households.”
As for businesses, Lapham suggested that they may have started preparing and stocking up on inventory imported from U.S. to maintain their profit margins. Or on the other end, they may have started looking at sourcing from other countries.
“Changing what you’re selling and setting up a whole new set of networks to work with wholesalers and distributers, that’s not easy and not inexpensive.”
In addition to the impact on businesses and consumers, Lapham stated that jobs in the import/export business could also take a hit.
“Say you export items that your industry is producing to the U.S., and then the U.S. puts on the 25 per cent tariff, there should be a fall in demand in the U.S. for whatever you are exporting because it’s 25 per cent more expensive,” she said. “If firms have to take a big hit in the fall and demand, they may have to lay off workers or have workers go part time. So, tariffs in the U.S. can hurt jobs in the export sectors, who are reliant on selling to the U.S.”
As for Ambler, he doesn’t plan to make any changes to the Swish business, noting, “We’re holding pricing on all of our Canadian-made chemistry, and we’ve got some great incentives to encourage people to make the switch.”
For a company that has been around for 69 years, Ambler said they have a great Canadian story to tell and find this as an opportunity to pick up market share from their foreign-owned competition.
“As much as the chaos of the U.S. is unsettling, I think the glass is half full,” he said. “My hope is that we’ll look back at this period in time as a positive and pivotal moment for the Canadian economy.”