Tariffs are making parenting more expensive, and one baby brand is working to keep prices down. Michael Wieder, co-founder and president of Lalo, joins Asking for a Trend to discuss how the company is navigating shifting import costs while maintaining affordability for parents.
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Tariffs are set to make the price tag of parenthood even more expensive. But will the newly negotiated lower tariff on imports from China be a big enough difference? We'll join by to discuss is Michael Wieder, Lalo, co-founder and president. Lalo is the maker of baby and toddler products. Michael, great to see you here on set.
Thanks for having me.
So maybe just to start, Michael, for the uninitiated, um, talk a little about the mission, the history of Lalo, and what sets you all apart in the market.
Yeah, I mean, we launched the brand just over six years ago because we thought parents deserve better. I mean, when we launched the brand, so much was predicated on building up fear and anxiety in parenthood. If you don't buy this, your kid's not going to sleep, or they're not going to eat. And we said, let's let's flip that on that head, on its head. Let's treat this through love and connection with our with our customer, our parent. And that's kind of how we built the brand as where it is today.
And so now, spin ahead. Now, like so many small businesses, you're dealing with this new dynamic of Trump tariffs. How are you dealing with that, Michael? How are you navigating that?
Yeah, I mean, the last few months have been tiring, if nothing else, especially with kids at home. And so, you know, we've had to do a lot of work. We've had to run lots of scenarios. We paused our imports for a while while, you know, the major tariff was still on. And we just opened up and put stuff on the water this week, so we can get goods here and avoid going out of stock. But it's been a lot of hard work. I mean, for us, it's really been about protecting parents and making sure that they can continue to get the products they trust at a fair price and and keep, you know, looking out for them.
And walk walk me through your supply chain. How much is coming from China?
Yeah, I mean, right now, about 90% of our products do come from China, but that's because there's decades and decades of experience of factories that are making regulated products at the highest quality, ensuring their safety. That knowledge doesn't exist anywhere else out in the world.
So we know what President Trump wants, right? He wants more stuff made here. Is that financially tenable for you, Michael?
Yeah, you know what? Honestly, we've looked into everything. So, are we going to commit to our Chinese partners? Are we going to look elsewhere? How are we going to do this? Are we going to bring it back here? And we've looked into American manufacturing. We've had great conversations with American manufacturers. And honestly, it's not the type of manufacturing that wants to be done here. There is some stuff, maybe in the long term, we could bring here, but it's going to take a it's going to take a while. It will take years to get it spun up correctly. Um, but the more regulated products, where's that knowledge and history? You lose a lot by moving it out. And we don't want to risk the safety and the quality that parents rely on.
So, as you think through these tariffs though, Michael, now you do have to navigate this, how do you think through that? I mean, is that, okay, we can eat this cost, we can pass it along to parents and customers, some mix of the two? What's the what's the game plan?
Yeah, well, we launched in Target just about six weeks ago, which was a massive milestone for our brand, and we actually dropped our prices in January ahead of the tariffs. We knew tariffs were coming. It was talked about in the campaign, and we said we don't want to be more of a burden. If the avocados are going to cost more, we don't want the high chair they're sitting in to cost more as well. So we cut prices on a large percentage of our products. And so we did that already. Now we're looking and saying, if we have to raise prices, can we at least keep it below where it was before? And so we're going through everything. We've had, you know, a dozen or so scenarios of where these tariffs could land and even where they could land in the future. This 30% is a short-term breath. You know, you can take a short-term breath, but it's not clarity, right? And to run a business, you need long-term clarity.
