- TJX CEO Ernie Herrman says he’s excited about the opportunity for businesses like his from tariffs.
- “We’ve been to the movie before,” he said of rising costs. “It’s a different headline.”
- Herrman also pointed to several ways the off-price retailer is able to soften the impact of tariffs.
Tariffs are shaking up retail, but not all companies are looking at the changes in the same way.
For TJX, CEO Ernie Herrman says he’s excited about the opportunity the new trade costs present for businesses like his.
“We’ve been to the movie before,” he said of managing rising costs from inflation. “It’s a different headline; it’s just the same approach.”
Speaking on a fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday, Herrman said TJX — which owns brands like T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s, Sierra, and Home Goods — directly imports only an extremely small percentage of its inventory from China.
As an off-price retailer, the company typically stocks up on merchandise that other retailers have already imported (and paid the relevant duties on) and could not sell themselves.
In other words, most new tariffs aren’t coming directly from TJX’s pockets. Meantime, higher prices could push US consumers to get even more cautions about paying full price for things — and as long as TJX can sell products for less than their traditional retail counterparts do, Hermann says the company will come out ahead.
“I’m excited about the sales and margin opportunity in this environment, because this is pretty much textbook situation coming up,” he said.
In addition, Herrman noted that a large chunk of TJX’s sales come from housewares and furnishings, which tend to be more exposed to Chinese tariffs.
To soften the impact of those — and to differentiate TJX’s assortment from its competitors— Hermann said the company sources more of its home goods from Europe.
“It creates an umbrella of fashion and brand and quality that other home retailers don’t do,” he said. “Customers love that piece of our mix.”
