You likely know Pandora and its popular silver charm bracelets thanks to the 500 stores it has scattered across the US, but you may be less clear on its home country—which would be Denmark. Ditto where its jewelry is made, which would be three factories in Thailand. As the New York Times reports, that "continent-crossing supply chain has allowed it to sell its goods worldwide at a low cost," and successfully so: On average Pandora sells three pieces of jewelry worldwide per second, which qualifies it as the largest jewelry brand by volume. The Times takes a look at how it's responding to President Trump's proposed tariffs—a 36% tariff on Thai goods entering the US that's due to kick in come July.
CEO Alexander Lacik sees mostly unknowns at the moment, telling the paper, "With the information at hand today, I would be crazy to make big strategic decisions." But a few things are certain: The company is in the process of rerouting shipments for Canada and Latin America away from a Baltimore distribution hub. And Pandora has zero plans to ever bring manufacturing to the US. Lacik cites higher labor costs as a major deterrent, noting 15,000 employees make the company's jewelry by hand in Thailand; he plans to hire another 7,000 in Vietnam once an in-the-works plant is constructed there.
But cost is, in some way, the smaller issue, he explains to CNBC: "I can't find that amount of talent that actually has this craft experience in the US. So it's actually not so much a matter of cost to begin with, it's about having skilled people who can actually craft the jewelry." For now, the company is sitting on several months' worth of inventory, which gives Lacik time to make the big decision: "Am I going to pass on everything to the US consumer, or am I going to peanut butter it out and raise the whole Pandora pricing globally?"
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Lacik warns that it's not just Pandora weighting such decisions, telling CNBC, "Most jewelers that are in the price segment where we operate, they all import from somewhere in Asia. So you could have an argument if these tariffs remain, then it's going to be more expensive for everybody that plays." But he's also looking beyond the US. Lacik tells the Wall Street Journal he has his sights set on the potential that other markets hold: "I have no presence in India. I have a very tiny presence in Japan. I have some presence in Korea and these are big jewelry markets." (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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