How Colgate-Palmolive Is Preparing for Potential Tariffs

Colgate-Palmolive has invested $2 million in its U.S. supply chain since 2020.

Colgate-Palmolive is among the many consumer goods companies keeping an eye on trade discussions as potential tariffs loom on the horizon. 

During its recent earnings call, the company said it hasn’t directly included any potential incremental tariffs in its 2025 financial forecast, but it hopes to absorb any impact through an agile, long-term supply chain strategy. 

“We spent the last few years building much more flexibility into our global supply chain,” said CFO Stanley Sutula of the $2 million the company has invested in its U.S. supply chain since 2020. It’s not necessarily about building more capacity, but instead making better use of existing capacity and alternative sourcing — and standardizing formulas across the markets, he added.

Also read: Gartner Advises Supply Chain Leaders To Turn Tariffs into Strategic Advantages

The strategy has included increasing the number of its U.S.-based manufacturing facilities by more than 40% over that time and improving flexibility by increasing the number of SKUs that can be produced at each plant (previously facing limitations around available machine manual toothbrush capacity outside of China).