LaValley Industries in Bemidji Sees Varied Impacts from Tariffs

New tariffs have been an ongoing topic of discussion in recent months and have affected multiple businesses across the country. LaValley Industries in Bemidji, which buys, builds, ships, and sells a wide range of machinery and industrial products not only across the U.S. but the entire globe, has seen a wide range of effects from the tariffs that have been put in place.

“We’ve always built and manufactured [items] made in Bemidji, made in Minnesota,” said Jason LaValley, the company’s CEO. “However, there are parts and components that we buy that we cannot get here. Can the tariffs impact us? They can; they haven’t really yet, but they could for LaValley Industries in the future if there are big tariffs in play.”

There are parts of the business for LaValley Industries that won’t be affected by the tariffs at all.

“Our products are patent protected,” said Jorge Prince, CFO of LaValley Industries. “So if you want our specific products … you have to come to us, there’s no one in the world that makes these. That makes them a little bit less sensitive to price changes.”

But that doesn’t mean customers who buy from LaValley Industries won’t worry about the potential impacts.

“My customers are conscious of it,” stated Sales and Product Representative Craig Larson. “They keep asking me, ‘When are you going to hit me with the tariff pricing?'”

However, that worry from customers may have driven up sales for some parts of the business.

“They’re not as apprehensive to buy at the prices that we have right now, because they want to ensure that they can actually get the better deal now,” Larson added.

The division of the company that will be most affected will be LVI Supply, which sells commodity-type products to its customers.

“Metal tables to even our little teeth that we put on the bottom of our equipment, a lot of this stuff is made in Canada and overseas,” explained Steve Manning, LVI Supply Sales and Equipment Manager.

“You can buy a strap from us or from 100 other people, and we have seen significant price increases coming our way as a result of some of these tariffs ranging up to 40%, and that has had an impact,” said Prince.

Because LaValley Industries deals their supplies to international clients, that only adds more complications.

“We also experience the negativity of tariffs coming the other direction,” emphasized Prince. “When we sell in Italy, there’s a 20% VAT, or value-added tax, that we have to pay. That makes our product less competitive in those foreign markets.”

LaValley Industries executives say those who are and potentially will be most impacted by the tariffs will be their customers.

“Will those tariffs stay at those numbers? Will they reduce?” asked Prince. “I don’t know for certain, but that uncertainty has a lot of people on their heels right now, specifically our customers.”

Jason LaValley believes the U.S. is currently in negotiations regarding the tariffs and is remaining optimistic.

“[There’s] a lot of anxiety, a lot of people nervous and scared about maybe what could happen,” he said. “I guess my customers and suppliers out there are being optimistic, too, so let’s just wait and see what happens.”

Jorge Prince also told Lakeland News that he believes if more manufacturing can be brought into the U.S., he views the tariffs as a positive for the country.