Johanna Olofsson, CEO of Teko Tryck in Sölvesborg:
The specially designed dishcloths from her company have strongly contributed to making "the Swedish dishcloth" a concept on the American market and achieved such success that there are now also competing Chinese companies selling "Swedish dishcloths".
Today, 20 percent of exports go to the USA. Her strategy is to find other markets. Germany and the UK are the closest at hand.
We can only try to influence what we can do something about. We must try to be smart, find new channels, new contact surfaces, that's all you can do.
An American customer asked her the day after Trump's tariff announcement to wait a little with the delivery – maybe the EU can negotiate down the tariffs.
Everyone probably hopes for that, and many over there don't agree with him on this, she says.
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Erik Blomberg, CEO of Eleiko in Halmstad:
There will be a high level of uncertainty now.
Eleiko, which, among other things, manufactures equipment for gyms, has more than a fifth of its turnover in the USA. The EU being hit with 20 percent tariffs was not a total surprise.
It was more than expected, but still in line with how Trump has acted overall.
The company has mainly production within the EU, including in Halmstad, which means that the price of the goods delivered to the USA will increase.
We need to look at raising prices over there in the USA. Otherwise, it will affect our profitability too much.
At the same time, not everything is bleak – opportunities may arise, according to Erik Blomberg.
Something that can be a positive effect is that it will certainly start trading more within the EU, and the EU is still our largest market.
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Stefan Andersson, CEO of KB Components in Örkelljunga:
We have a large factory in Dallas. If it turns out over a long period that our customers see that they are affected by tariffs and want us to move operations to an American base, then we'll do it in consultation with customers.
KB Components has two factories in Mexico, three in Canada, one in the USA, and one in Skåne, with production of plastic components for several customer segments, including the automotive industry.
I personally believe that this is temporary. Soon, the protests will be so large from many Americans that Trump will be forced to withdraw this. Or he will be forced to give so many exemptions that it won't have any effect.
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Magnus N:son Engelbäck, regional manager for Företagarna Skåne:
What we've learned from the American administration is that you never know how long a statement holds, he says, and continues:
It feels very uncertain. You don't know if what he says today will hold tomorrow.
What companies primarily need is predictability, he notes, and the consequence of the uncertain situation is that many are hesitant to make large investment decisions.
