Business

How Trump’s Tariffs on China Are Affecting Toy Companies

Published

12 months ago

March 3, 2025

How Trump’s Tariffs on China Are Affecting Toy Companies

At the biggest toy industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere this weekend, toy makers, as usual, displayed seemingly endless rows of stuffed animals, action figures and puzzles, hoping to entice retailers to pick their products.

But this year, the chatter at Toy Fair New York was dominated not by the next Barbie, but a larger game, one of global tactics, that could make most toys more expensive for U.S. consumers.

Almost 80 percent of toys sold in the United States are made in China. Last week, just as toy vendors from across the United States and dozens of other countries started to flock to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the annual toy fair, President Trump announced a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods that would come on top of the 10 percent he already imposed a month ago.

Companies big and small — from family-owned brands to household names — are trying to figure out how to manage the new costs related to tariffs. Stationed at a booth lined with plush stuffed animals, Linda Colson, the vice president of sales at Mary Meyer Corporation, said her company, based in Vermont, was in a state of paralysis over pricing. “We don’t know what to do,” she said. “I think a lot of people in this building are just waiting to see what everybody else is doing.”

Jay Foreman, the chief executive of Basic Fun, a toy manufacturer and distributor in Florida, sells to retailers including Walmart and Target. After Mr. Trump ordered the 10 percent tariff on China in February, Mr. Foreman started thinking of ways to avoid passing those costs onto his customers. So last Wednesday, he met with his company’s board of directors to devise a plan that would split the burden: the company, its factories in China and its retail customers would each absorb 3.5 percent of the added cost.

But just hours later, Mr. Foreman tuned into CNBC and heard Mr. Trump declare that new tariffs on China could jump to a total of 20 percent this week. The company’s plans “went right out the window,” said Mr. Foreman, whose company employs about 110 people in the United States and a total of 165 people globally.

“Now, those can’t be absorbed, and that additional tariff has to be passed onto the consumer,” he added. “It tipped the domino.”

The Tonka Mighty Dump Truck, which Basic Fun makes under a license from Hasbro, currently retails for $29.99. That price will probably increase between $5 and $10 for consumers, Mr. Foreman said.

Some of the bigger companies at the convention expressed confidence that their Chinese suppliers would absorb a portion of the added costs, as factories would not want to lose business.

Safari, which sells animal figurines, produces about 90 percent of its products in China, said Danny Falero, the company’s director of marketing, and manufacturers have said they are willing to make some concessions. He emphasized that his company did not intend to raise prices unless Mr. Trump’s policies went into effect.

“It’s slightly theater, so let’s see what actually lands, and then we’ll make adjustments based on that,” Mr. Falero said.

Looming tariffs were weighing heavily on Luis Prior, who owns Meavia Toys, a small company in Corbin, Ky. His three-year-old business designs sensory toys for children with special needs and are sold to teachers, hospitals and museums.

Mr. Prior said that regardless of whether tariffs on China stayed at 10 percent or doubled on Tuesday, he would have to raise his prices. But the uncertainty has made it impossible to make any specific pricing decisions, he said. When he returns home from the convention this week, Mr. Prior plans to go through his products, item by item, and reassess.

“Exhaustion,” Mr. Prior said. “That’s the only way I can describe it.”

Three billion toys are sold in the United States each year, generating $42 billion in sales and supporting nearly 700,000 jobs, according to the Toy Association, a trade group representing the U.S. toy industry.

The association has been lobbying for an exemption from Mr. Trump’s broad tariffs, pointing in part to the fact that small businesses make up roughly 96 percent of the industry, said Greg Ahearn, the group’s chief executive. During Mr. Trump’s first term in the White House, he had imposed 10 to 25 percent tariffs on many Chinese products — but he backed down from tariffs on toys, among other consumer goods.

While most toys are made in China, some manufacturing has moved to Mexico in recent years, but Mr. Trump also said that the 25 percent tariff he had imposed on Mexico and Canada would go into effect on Tuesday.

The Toy Association has been visiting senators’ offices and pushing to get its message to people inside the Trump administration, Mr. Ahearn said, as well as communicating with its members daily to share the latest updates on tariffs.

Mr. Trump’s announcement of an additional tariff on China coincided with Mr. Ahearn’s preparations for the Toy Fair. “It wasn’t good, and now it’s unbearable for us as an industry,” Mr. Ahearn said, adding that a 20 percent tariff will inevitably be passed onto consumers.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, the White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, doubled down on Mr. Trump’s tariff plans, saying their effect on consumer prices would be “second order small” when taking in account the administration’s simultaneous plans to deregulate industry, reduce the size of the federal government and expand energy production.

“I don’t see the president wavering on any of this,” he said.

Five years ago, Sharon Azula and her husband started a company called the Tooth Brigade selling tooth-fairy pillows. Last summer, they lowered the retail price for a pillow — a small stuffed animal with a tooth pouch — to $14, down from $16, which helped boost demand.

Tariffs, especially if they amount to 20 percent, are likely to force Ms. Azula to raise prices again, since everything they sell is manufactured in China. When they started the brand, she and her husband wanted to manufacture their products in the United States, but it was too expensive, she said.

Now, motioning to a pillow at her Toy Fair booth, Ms. Azula said she was worried that higher prices could sink the business.

“When I’m here, I try not to think about it,” she said, tearing up. “But when you try to think about what the future is going to be — I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

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Business

Rivian finds a way to shine even as the EV market struggles in the dark

Published

9 hours ago

February 13, 2026

Press Room

Rivian finds a way to shine even as the EV market struggles in the dark

Rivian shocked the market with strong earnings results, proving itself an outlier in the electric vehicle market, which has been struggling with the end of government subsidies and cooling consumer excitement.

The shares of the Irvine-based high-end EV manufacturer skyrocketed 27% on Friday after it announced stronger-than-expected results, indicating that, after years of struggling with losses, it may have at last found a path to profitability.

On Thursday, Rivian reported gross profits for 2025 of $144 million, compared with a net loss in 2024 of $1.2 billion.

In its earnings release, Rivian credited the swing to gross profit to “strong software and services performance, higher average selling prices, and reductions in cost per vehicle.”

Last October, it laid off roughly 600 employees, more than 4% of its workforce.

Rivian delivered 42,247 vehicles in 2025 and produced 42,284 vehicles. The company still reported a $432-million net loss for the year for automotive profits, an improvement from 2024.

“It’s a turnaround for the ages,” said Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. “The past few years have been very frustrating for investors.”

Rivian was founded in Florida in 2009 and made its initial public offering in 2021. It competes with Tesla and other automakers selling all-electric vehicles for a premium price.

Following the expiration in September of the $7,500 federal tax credit for new electric vehicles, companies have been under pressure to offer lower sticker prices. Last year, Tesla launched new variations of the Model 3 and Model Y that start at roughly $5,000 less than the more expensive versions of the same models.

Investors said the discounts weren’t enough and the vehicles, still priced above $35,000, remained out of reach for many consumers. There are only a handful of EVs on the market available for under $35,000.

Rivian is banking its future on the success of its own lower-priced R2 model, which is expected to start around $45,000 with deliveries slated to begin this spring.

The least expensive Rivian model available now, the R1T pickup truck, starts at $72,990.

The company has received positive early feedback on its R2 SUV, according to the earnings release.

“It’s incredibly exciting to see the early strong reviews of the R2 pre-production builds, and we can’t wait to get them to our customers next quarter,” Rivian founder and chief executive, RJ Scaringe, said in a statement.

Ives said the popularity of the R2 will be pivotal for Rivian, which laid off nearly 1,000 workers in 2025.

“It’s going to be the epicenter of their success or challenges,” Ives said.

Rivian shares have risen more than 33% over the last year but are down 8% since the start of 2026.

“They’re back on their flight path with still some turbulence in the air,” Ives said. “

Business

Video: The Hidden Number Driving U.S. Job Growth

Published

19 hours ago

February 13, 2026

Press Room

Video: The Hidden Number Driving U.S. Job Growth

new video loaded: The Hidden Number Driving U.S. Job Growth

After a year of just 181,000 new jobs, January’s 131,000 increase in the U.S. workforce was surprisingly positive. Ben Casselman, The New York Times’ chief economic correspondent, explains the numbers.

By Ben Casselman, Christina Thornell, Christina Shaman, June Kim and Nikolay Nikolov

February 13, 2026

Business

Why Mattel now has a problem with Barbie

Published

21 hours ago

February 13, 2026

Press Room

Why Mattel now has a problem with Barbie

Barbie manufacturer Mattel took a hit this week after its superstar doll failed to deliver.

The El Segundo company behind many of the world’s most iconic toys was walloped in the stock market — its shares plunged 25% Wednesday — after it announced that holiday-season sales were weak and that it expects another slow year.

It was overoptimistic about how many Barbies and other products consumers would want and had to slash prices to move them, even as it grappled with higher costs from tariffs, analysts said.

“2025 was marked by uncertainty,” Ynon Kreiz, chief executive of the company, said after earnings were unveiled Tuesday.

While Mattel’s Hot Wheels were hot, and its party card game Uno attracted new fans, Barbie has been struggling. Mattel’s Fisher-Price line, which makes educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, also lagged.

The doll and its many variants have been losing momentum since her latest 15 minutes in the spotlight following the 2023 hit movie “Barbie.” This year, Mattel says it will increase its focus on making more digital games and toys tied to movie franchises.

Last year, its net sales were about $5.3 billion, down 1% from the year before, according to the company’s unaudited financial statements. Its projection for this year also disappointed investors. The company lost close to $1 billion in market value as investors dumped its shares.

The movie that was the fun half of the “Barbenheimer” summer took in close to $1.5 billion at the box office and rejuvenated buzz around the 60-something Barbie, sparking more than $150 million in sales from dolls and other related products. At the time, it seemed to validate the toymaker’s strategy of turning its legacy brands into modern media properties, with live-action films. It has not been able to repeat that success yet, and that failure has weighed on its earnings.

Despite efforts to create buzz around the Barbie brand — including a diabetes Barbie and an autism Barbie — gross billings for Barbie products slid 11% last year, following a similar decline in 2024.

Mattel on Tuesday said it plans to double down on its strategy to become, as its CEO called it, an “IP-driven play and family entertainment business.” That means it wants to make more money from video games and movies.

Though toys are foundational to Mattel, the company said it is trying to broaden its reach by focusing more on content licensing and digital games, which tend to be more profitable.

Mattel has long worked with Disney to make princess dolls and has partnered with Netflix to make toys inspired by characters from the 2025 movie “KPop Demon Hunters.” The K-pop-inspired products will ship in the spring, and Mattel expects them to boost doll sales.

This week, it announced a deal to develop and market toys tied to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, which is scheduled to have a new movie next year. It can also expect a jump in interest around its toys connected to the Masters of the Universe franchise and Matchbox brand, both slated to have movies this year.

“Success in our toy business will drive success in entertainment, and success in entertainment will drive greater success in toys,” Kreiz said. “We are looking to fully capitalize on this virtuous cycle.”

The company literally doubled down on one of its biggest bets on digital games.

Mattel announced plans to spend around $160 million to acquire the other half of mobile games studio Mattel 163, a joint venture between Mattel and the Chinese internet and video game company NetEase.

The studio has released four games based on Mattel’s intellectual property since it was established in 2018.

Mattel plans to make more “games based on Mattel IP that drive sustained engagement for fans,” Kreiz said in a statement.

The acquisition will temporarily impact Mattel’s bottom line but is intended to “accelerate growth in top and bottom lines in 2027 and beyond,” Kreiz said on the call.

For some, Mattel’s big plans to diversify away from toys haven’t been successful enough to spark confidence that the company can pull it off this year.

Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz said Mattel’s digital strategy has not panned out in the decade since company leadership started touting it.

“Every year we’re expecting the next year to be a growth year,” Katz said. “It looks now like we’re going to have another year where it’s stuck.”