LPA and ILDA Events Highlight the Impact of Tariffs

With news of changes to import regulations and tariffs looming in the near future, BRANDTECH has been busy behind the scenes, allocating internal resources to staying on top of important details and timelines, and keeping in touch with our distribution partners at industry events. Most recently, we had a chance to catch up with the Independent Laboratory Distributors Association (ILDA) and Laboratory Products Association (LPA) groups at their annual gatherings.

This year's ILDA conference showed a large turnout of both distributors and manufacturers in our industry, with the majority reporting decent Q1 results. With tariffs looming in the near future, the impact will clearly depend on where products are coming from. After a steep learning curve through the COVID pandemic, most organizations have better ability to quickly adapt to upcoming changes with swift implementation of pricing changes, as well as minimizing the impact to customers as much as possible. During the meeting, our team members were able to tour another member's manufacturing facility in Asheville NC, and enjoyed a productive meeting with our distribution partners to get a sense of how their business is going - on all accounts, everyone can agree that the year is off to a reasonable start.

At a more intimate meeting with the LPA, BRANDTECH participated in Capitol Hill Day - an opportunity to hear from government staff members on taxes and appropriations regarding research funding and other important topics. In a panel discussion, we learned that no one has seen a big impact so far, however many organizations are stocking up as best they can prior to tariffs going into effect, and labs seem to be adjusting by ordering consumables and known needs ahead of time. Overall, the industry is doing their best to manage the impact that these increases will have on product costs. Here at BRANDTECH, we plan to absorb some of the tariffs on the back end to ensure that the associated price increases to our customers are as nominal as possible.