Lifestyle
How Pandora Is Surviving Trump’s Trade War
Pandora, the world’s largest jewelry company, is based in Denmark and has nearly 500 stores in the United States, more than in any of its other key markets. But in some ways, its real home is Thailand, where the company has been making its products for nearly four decades.
Like many global corporations, Pandora has used a continent-crossing supply chain to sell its goods worldwide at a low cost. But last month, that supply chain became a grave weakness when President Trump said he would impose 36 percent tariffs on goods entering the United States from Thailand, alongside steep tariffs on dozens of other countries.
After Mr. Trump unveiled his “reciprocal” tariffs, Pandora’s shares were among the worst performing in Europe. A week later, Mr. Trump postponed those tariffs until early July, offering a reprieve.
But the threat looms, and Alexander Lacik, the chief executive of Pandora, is not expecting the uncertainty that is paralyzing businesses to end. Unless tariffs return to previous levels, the next year will be turbulent, he said in an interview. For now, he added, there is little to do but wait to see how investors, customers and competitors react.
“With the information at hand today, I would be crazy to make big strategic decisions,” Mr. Lacik said.
Alongside business leaders all over the world, Mr. Lacik is grappling with how to respond to Mr. Trump’s unpredictable policies, which have generated almost maddening uncertainty. The Trump administration has started to show a willingness to lower tariffs, but his first agreements, with Britain and China, have posed more questions than answers, and tariffs are still higher than they were a couple of months ago.
Although some aspects of the trade war have been suspended, Pandora and other multinationals are in limbo, waiting for more agreements to be completed.
Pandora, best known for its silver charm bracelets, has been making jewelry in Thailand since 1989. Across three factories, thousands of people handcraft the products. The company is building a fourth plant in Vietnam, but Mr. Trump has threatened tariffs of 46 percent on Vietnamese goods.
Last year, the company sold 113 million pieces of jewelry, about three items every second, making it the largest jewelry brand by volume, with stores in more than 100 countries. A third of its sales, 9.7 billion Danish kroner, or $1.4 billion, were generated in the United States, and Mr. Lacik said he had no intention of moving away from the company’s most profitable market.
But prices will rise, he said, and who will bear the brunt of that is unclear.
“The big question is, am I going to pass on everything to the U.S. consumer, or am I going to peanut butter it out and raise the whole Pandora pricing globally?” Mr. Lacik said.
But Pandora keeps several months’ worth of stock, giving him time to see how other jewelers change their pricing and then decide.
A few things can be done immediately, such as streamlining parts of the supply chain. The day after the reciprocal tariffs were announced, Pandora said it would change its distribution so that products sold in Canada and Latin America would no longer move through the company’s distribution hub in Baltimore, a process that would take six to nine months to complete.
Moving production into the United States is not being considered, in part because of higher labor costs. Pandora employs nearly 15,000 craftspeople in Thailand and expects to hire 7,000 more in Vietnam.
In an earnings report last week, the company estimated the cost of the trade war. If higher tariffs on Thai imports, 36 percent, and Chinese imports, 145 percent, go back into effect, they will cost Pandora 500 million Danish kroner, or $74 million, this year, and then 900 million Danish kroner, $135 million, annually after that.
But the jeweler is not panicking. In fact, the economic curveballs are starting to feel normal, Mr. Lacik said. “We are battle ready,” he added.
When he joined the company as the chief executive in 2019, Pandora was struggling. Its share price had dropped more than 70 percent from its peak three years earlier. Mr. Lacik instituted a “complete overhaul,” he said, with new branding and store designs, an emphasis on its “affordable luxury” label, and a showcase of its complete jewelry line, not just charms.
That prepared the company for the trials that hit the global economy next. First, the Covid-19 pandemic, when 15,000 store employees were sent home and some factory workers slept on cots to keep production going. Then a surge in inflation risked customers pulling back.
Mr. Lacik’s strategy appeared to be working. In January, Pandora’s share price reached a record high. Since then, however, it has dropped more than 20 percent.
The company has managed to shield itself from some of the trade turmoil. After Mr. Trump raised tariffs on China during his first term, Pandora stopped sourcing all of its showroom furniture and display materials for its 3,000 stores from China.
“We had some readiness,” Mr. Lacik said, so they were not “caught completely with our pants down.”
Lifestyle
Kumail Nanjiani opens up on his regrets, critical failures and embracing fear : Wild Card with Rachel Martin
A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: Here’s my theory about Kumail Nanjiani: He is not a person who is afraid of his feelings. I think he’s the opposite of that kind of person.
Kumail has made his emotional life part of his comedy – whether it’s his deep and abiding love for his wife (as told in the hit movie, “The Big Sick”), his obsession with his cat or the anxiety that grips him in the middle of the night – Kumail’s brand of comedy is often about how we feel our way through living.
His new standup special is on Hulu and it’s called “Night Thoughts.”
Lifestyle
Kylie Jenner Shows Off Figure in Backless Feather Dress
Kylie Jenner
Ultimate Showgirl with Backless, Curve Hugging Gown
… At Kylie Cosmetics Holiday Party!
Published
Kylie Jenner showed up to her Kylie Cosmetics holiday party in full showgirl glam … slipping into a skin-tight, feather-trimmed, backless dress that put her hourglass figure on display.
The makeup mogul was clearly feeling herself as she posed in an IG video she shared Wednesday night, playing with the pink feathers that framed her neck and making sure to give fans a shot of her junk in the trunk as she turned around to show off the halter gown from the back. She let the drama of the dress take center stage … opting for a simple makeup look and doing her hair up in a sleek, slicked back bun with a single curl placed on her forehead.
Kylie gave more love to her fun ‘fit on her IG story, twirling around in a video set to audio that said … “Kylie Jenner! What? Oh my God, you look like a Christmas fairy.”
Last night’s showstopping ensemble was just one of the sexy looks Kylie has gifted us with as of late — just a few days ago, she showed off her famous curves in a cheerful red latex dress at the OBB Media holiday party in West Hollywood.
And before that, she was nearly spilled out of the bright orange cutout gown she wore to support her beau, Timothée Chalamet, at the Los Angeles premiere of his latest film, “Marty Supreme.” And how can we forget the figure-hugging, cleavage-baring leather jacket she showed off on the ‘gram earlier this month?
Kylie just keeps on giving this holiday season with the jaw-dropping looks — she’s certainly on our nice list!
Lifestyle
‘Harry Potter’ fans are flying to Broadway to see the original Draco Malfoy
Tom Felton, left, who played Harry Potter’s nemesis Draco Malfoy in eight films, is now playing him live on stage.
Matthew Murphy/Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Matthew Murphy/Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Almost eight years after Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened, it has become the highest grossing show on Broadway. Why? Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter’s nemesis at Hogwarts in the eight films, is now playing him onstage.
After every performance, crowds gather at the stage door to get autographs, selfies or just a close-up glimpse of Felton.
Anna Chan flew to New York from San Francisco to see him in the show. “I grew up watching the movies and reading the books as a kid,” she said, “so just seeing him reprising his role as Draco Malfoy is really exciting and just heartwarming to see. It’s kinda like a full circle moment for him.”
Felton feels the audience’s warmth. “I’m somewhat of a bookmark in their youth on the films,” he said. “To see them as excited as I am to be doing that again on the stage was… well, it’s overwhelming and it still is every night.”
Now 38, Felton spent much of his childhood, adolescence and young adulthood getting his hair bleached blond and sneering as the bully Draco Malfoy in the films. For 10 years, he worked with some of the finest actors of British stage and screen, including Dame Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman. Felton — and all the other young cast members — learned by example.
“You know, Alan Rickman making teas for the grips,” recalled Felton, “and Jason Isaacs telling anecdotes, Helena Bonham Carter sort of just being playful. I think that’s something that made the early Potter films very special — the adults around us did not take themselves too seriously. And so that allowed us to be playful.”
Tom Felton, right, with John Skelley as Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, now on Broadway.
Matthew Murphy/Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
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Matthew Murphy/Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Post-Potter, Felton has written a memoir and has appeared in films and on London’s West End. When he was given the opportunity to play an adult Draco Malfoy on Broadway for six months, he jumped.
“I do understand the character somewhat,” he said, “although Draco now is a dad.” In the play, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy’s sons become friends and get into a mess of trouble.
In the first act, he and the older Harry have a wizard’s duel and Felton said that, during rehearsal, he added a familiar line from the films that wasn’t in the script.
“When Harry and Draco first decide, ‘Come on, let’s have a scrap, let’s have a battle,’ I think it just came up voluntarily. I said, ‘Scared Potter?’ Felton recalled, laughing. “And then it was sort of looked over and then someone came back to me a few days later and said, ‘We’ve got it in, your line suggestion.’”
The audience gets to see Malfoy and Potter fly through the air and electrical arcs come out of their wands live onstage. “Every night you can hear or feel, rather, at least half the audience go back to their childhood or older memories,” Felton said. “The first time that they saw Draco and Harry duel. And because this one’s live and in front of your face, it’s just only more exciting, I think.”
Felton said he’s proud to be part of the Harry Potter World, on film and on Broadway. He’ll be appearing in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child through May 10.
Jennifer Vanasco edited this story for broadcast and digital. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio.
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