OKC business franchise prepares for impact from tariffs

Garage Living Franchise Systems, which has a location in Oklahoma City, told News 9 on Friday that it is preparing for the impact of tariffs on its business. 

Aaron Cash, the president of the company, said, “As soon as there were announcements by the president and the administration that there could be tariffs coming, we started open lines of communication with all of our franchise partners to understand exactly what the impacts may be.” 

As time progressed and the changes became clearer, Cash said he has been able to take steps to minimize the impact for his clients -- who rely on the company to renovate their garages. 

"A couple of the things that we did in addition to speaking about this and being proactive in our communications approach was shifting some of our inventory that was already produced to facilities that were closer to our franchisees, especially in the U.S. so that they could draw upon that inventory." 

Despite those efforts, there still may be some adjustments in terms of pricing, Cash included. 

"Even when they are impacted, that percentage may be on a wholesale cost versus a retail price, and so there's a difference there that will result in a far lower percentage increase,” he shared. 

Regardless, he added, "Companies of all shapes and sizes, no matter where they produce, where they sell, are going to have to do things differently because there's only so much that the consumer will be willing to absorb and business owners need to be cognizant of that." 

Cash said the impacts have been fairly small, if any at all, but the more they understand the long-term picture, the higher the likelihood that there will be some changes to the company’s pricing models going forward.