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I'm a family-owned American manufacturer. Being made in the US hasn't been easy but it's paying off.

19 June 2025 at 11:16
William Gagnon in factory
William Gagnon is the COO of Excel Dryer, based in Massachusetts.

Excel Dryer, Inc.

  • Excel Dryer, a hand dryer manufacturer, makes its products in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
  • COO William Gagnon says being made in the US is a company priority, but that it has not been easy.
  • He said the company has gained business amid the tariffs as its costs have remained stable.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with William Gagnon, executive vice president and COO of Excel Dryer, a hand-dryer manufacturer based inΒ East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Their main product is theΒ XLERATOR Hand Dryer. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

We are a family-owned and operated company. I own it with my father, Dennis, who always wanted to own his own manufacturing company and make quality products that were American-made, dependable, and that people like to use. That was his criteria.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree. We've worked together over the years to make sure that it stayed that way.

It's certainly been difficult, with the easy route being to simply source overseas and get things cheap from China and keep costs down and make more margin. But that wasn't who we were.

We always tried to find a better way to do things β€” to be more efficient, reduce material and labor costs, and have quality employees making a living wage β€” and still be able to produce an American-made product that was high quality at an affordable price.

We are Made-in-USA certified, which requires a minimum of 84% of materials sourced domestically, but we have far surpassed that. We're really in the upper 90% of being sourced in the US, and almost 50% of our materials are sourced in Massachusetts from very local vendors.

For a while, we couldn't find a motor manufacturer domestically that could compete with motors from China in performance, price, size, and other things. But we have since found a domestic partner and shifted all of our motor manufacturing to be with a partner out of Tennessee.

It has not been easy, and it took a consistent, dedicated effort to always be looking and always be trying to find new vendors as close as possible.

Being made in America differentiates us from other hand dryers and certainly makes a difference to our customers and the buyers.

The recent tariffs have also been good for business. We've been able to control our supply lines and our materials and their costs because they're all domestic. With everyone living in uncertain times and not knowing really where the materials they were buying from people were coming from, we've known, and that has put us in a very competitive position.

One of our top distributors put out an e-blast saying that several of our top competitors were raising their prices, but our name was not on that list. We asked them to put out that same e-blast to say that XL Dryer is American-made and will not be having a price increase because we're tariff resilient and domestically sourced. We have absolutely gotten new customers as a result of this.

We are also a global company. We just put almost 600 hand dryers into the new Istanbul airport. But to get our American-made product into Turkey, there are substantial added costs, such as tariffs and value-added tax. It's a barrier to entry there and makes our product more expensive and less competitive. If those costs can come down through trade negotiations, it's going to open up more international markets for us.

Uncertainty is never good, especially for business, so that the sooner things can be negotiated and put into place, the better it's going to be for all involved.

We're a small manufacturer of a niche product, and everyone's story is different. But for us, in the way we've been doing business and doing it harder than most and making it a part of who we are β€” and being proud to be American-made in Massachusetts, which is where America was born β€” it is an exciting time for us.

Being American-made is just who we are. It is in our DNA. But I feel it's as if we almost were looking into the future a little bit to be ready for this moment, and it's maybe a positive for all the hard work over the years that we had to put in to keep it this way. It's nice for it to be paying off.

Do you have a story to share about American manufacturing or tariffs? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

Read the original article on Business Insider

Tariffs won't bring manufacturing jobs back to America, Wells Fargo analysts say

23 May 2025 at 02:31
U.S. President Trump delivers remarks on tariffs, at the White House
Wells Fargo says in a report that President Donald Trump's tariffs won't bring manufacturing back.

Carlos Barria/REUTERS

  • Wells Fargo said in a report that President Donald Trump's tariffs won't bring manufacturing back.
  • High labor costs and a lack of workers would make building more factories an "uphill battle."
  • US manufacturing needs $2.9 trillion in investment to reach 1979 employment levels.

President Donald Trump's push to revive American manufacturing through tariffs may face some hurdles.

Despite some high-profile commitments, including Nvidia's plans for a US-based supercomputer plant and Apple's pledge to invest $500 billion domestically, a new report from Wells Fargo economists predicts that bringing back offshored manufacturing jobs will be an "uphill battle."

"An aim of tariffs is to spur a durable rebound in US manufacturing employment," Wells Fargo analysts wrote in the report. "However, a meaningful increase in factory jobs does not appear likely in the foreseeable future, in our view."

The report attributes the potentially low factory job growth to high labor costs, a lack of suitable workers to fill vacant positions, and a subdued population growth from lower fertility rates and slower immigration.

"Higher prices and policy uncertainty may weigh on firms' ability and willingness to expand payrolls," the analysts added.

The tariffs are part of Trump's broader economic agenda to revive American manufacturing as a pathway toward middle-class prosperity. The tariffs are meant to hike the costs of imports to incentivize companies to make goods domestically.

"Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country," Trump said while announcing tariffs on April 2. "And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers."

Some tariffs imposed on April 2 have been temporarily paused or greatly reduced, including tariffs on China. The 10% across-the-board tariff remains, as do some specific tariffs on Mexico and Canada, plus 30% in duties on China. Duties at their current level are still the highest they have been since the 1940s.

"In order for manufacturing employment to return to its historic peak, we estimate at a minimum $2.9 trillion in net new capital investment is required," Wells Fargo analysts wrote. "Assuming businesses are willing and able to invest such ample sums, questions over staffing remain."

The Wall Street bank says that US manufacturing employment currently stands at 12.8 million, down from its 1979 peak of 19.5 million. To get back to that mark, the US would need to add roughly 6.7 million jobs. Wells Fargo added that the figure is nearly the same as the entire pool of unemployed Americans, which in April was 7.2 million, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"Population aging, negative perceptions, and skill mismatches also underpin workforce concerns," Wells Fargo analysts wrote. "New jobs will require different skills than those previously lost."

In 2024, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC said it delayed the opening of its Arizona chip factory due to a shortage of skilled workers. A report released in April 2024 by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute also found that nearly half of the 3.8 million new manufacturing jobs anticipated by 2033 could remain unfilled due to skill gaps and other population factors.

"Tariffs must be high enough to make the cost of domestic production competitive in the US market, and they also must be kept in place long enough for producers to bring on additional workers and expand capacity," the report concluded. "If the economic or political costs are deemed too high, the current administration could quickly dial-back prevailing duties further."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

Read the original article on Business Insider

14 reasons why Trump’s tariffs won’t bring manufacturing back

16 April 2025 at 19:56

On April 2, 2025, our president announced major new taxes on imports from foreign countries (β€œtariffs”), ranging from 10 percent to 49 percent. The stated goal is to bring manufacturing back to the United States and to β€œmake America wealthy again.”

These tariffs will not work. In fact, they may even do the opposite, fail to bring manufacturing back, and make America poorer in the process.

This article gives the 14 reasons why this is the case, how the United States could bring manufacturing back if it were serious about doing so, and what will ultimately happen with this wrongheaded policy.

Read full article

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