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Zuru Toys co-founder Nick Mowbray has hit out at US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, saying “tariff wars miss the point” and “penalising trade doesn’t bring jobs back – it just raises prices and slows innovation”. 

The Kiwi toy and consumer product manufacturer makes baby care, beauty, confectionery, home care, pet food and wellness products, largely in Asian territories. 

Many of the locations that Zuru has investments in or relies on are now being faced with steep tariffs, particularly China. 

Trump originally unveiled a 34% additional tariff on Chinese goods. 

But after China announced its own 34% counter-tariff, Trump vowed to pile on another 50% duty – bringing the additional rate on Chinese products to 104%, the White House confirmed. 

In a LinkedIn post, Mowbray said it was “sad to see what is happening”. 

“Since 1945, globalisation has powered the biggest boom in prosperity the world’s ever seen. 

“When countries focus on what they’re best at and trade freely, everyone wins – better products, lower prices, more innovation. The world works better when it works together.“ 

He said while the US officially exports over US$3 trillion worth of goods a year, that didn’t include trillions more in products and services sold overseas by American giants like Apple, Microsoft, Mattel, Nike, Google and others who manufacture or sell services abroad. 

“Their global sales are a massive, often-overlooked part of America’s economic footprint. China’s exports are higher on paper ([US]$3.5 trillion), but they’re shipping a lot of those goods for US companies. So when we talk about a trade imbalance, it’s often a measurement problem, not a real deficit in value creation.” 

Countries all around the globe are facing threats from Donald Trump's tariffs, with China now facing even greater impacts than originally announced. 

The US has become Zuru’s main export market, supplying the likes of Walmart, Target, Costco and Amazon. 

Zuru is also currently building a pet food factory in Thailand, which faces tariffs of 36% on exports into the US. 

Zuru prides itself on low-cost, state-of-the-art efficient production and under-cutting the opposition. 

Its particular interest in automated production lines and the ownership of its factories in Guangzhou does give it an advantage in that there is less need to negotiate with manufacturers, unlike some of its competitors. 

Zuru chief financial officer Michael Wilding told the Herald that while Zuru has a presence in more than 120 markets, a large proportion of its revenue is from outside of the US. 

“Despite the scale of the tariffs announced by the US Government ... our team are focused on what is within our controllable universe and we strongly believe world-class innovation will always beat tariffs,” Wilding said. 

“Although our automation and manufacturing systems are based in China, over 75% of the toy category, for example, is produced there, so nothing is going to change in a hurry.” 

Wilding said that adversity and volatility lead to opportunity and the team were still excited about what it can deliver in the short and long term. 

Zuru has over 5000 employees in around 30 global locations, with over 3000 based in the company’s Shenzhen office in China. 

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.