As contract furniture manufacturer JFP Limited continues to keep its eyes fixed on landing substantial US deals, CEO Metry Seaga has said that a threat by president-elect Donald Trump to impose tariffs on imported goods from certain countries could possibly open the windows of opportunity for the business to launch out in that market.

Leading up to his election victory last month, Trump on the campaign trail had pledged to impose steep new tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, if governments in those countries fail to take measures to curb the flow of undocumented immigrants and narcotics coming into the US. The president-elect has indicated that this move could be part of his first executive orders when he officially takes office on January 20, 2025.

The tariffs, if imposed, runs the risk of significantly impacting trade relations with some of the US’ largest trading partners potentially leaving huge voids in supply distributions, of which other territories could seriously capitalise.

In light of this, JFP, which to date has not been able to enjoy any real breakthrough in the US market, despite bidding for a number of projects by American-based companies, remains hopeful that the implementation of these proposals will bring it closer to realising this objective. This, as it is given a chance to take on contracts to supply products to this market as an alternate source.

“We have continued to look at the possibility of moving into the US market and now that President Trump has said that he will be placing tariffs on international products from countries such as China and Mexico, this may be a positive for us to supply some of the shortfalls and so we are now actively looking at how we can explore it,” he told the
Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“If we can get into the US market that will be humongous and it will also be a paradigm shift for us in this business and so we continue to work towards that in a very meaningful way,” he further said to the Business Observer.

The fibre-glass, metal and wood furniture maker, which has continued to reel from fallouts in its business at the end third quarter period in September, registered a net loss of $75.4 million due to cost overruns from stretched contracts. Revenues, which also plunged 71 per cent, moved from $112.6 million for the similar period last year to $32.7 million between July and September 2024.

“Despite this performance, we’re a resilient company and we’re going to keep fighting. We expect to bring down our losses in the fourth quarter and what we’re also now fighting for is to ensure that we start the year with a suite of jobs that will be finished in 2025 so that we can recover all the losses we’ve had in 2024. We do, however, have a number of jobs in the pipeline to start out the new year with, so we are pushing forward with much optimism,” Seaga said, indicating that the expectation is for most of the unfinished projects to be completed before year-end with only a few carried over into 2025.

“These delays weren’t from us, but from customers not being ready with their sites along with some international logistics issues concerning the supply of materials,” he noted.

As a large commercial contract manufacturer, JFP currently provides a wide range of furnishings and equipment for a number of clients in government, hospitality and outsourcing sectors. Pushing to grow its business in the tourism industry as more rooms are added, the CEO said progress continues to be made in this area.

“We have made some inroads in the tourism market as we landed a job for one of the international chains here which is Decameron, and we completed that this year. That has been a start for us and we’re now hoping to get their second location early in the new year and that’s something we are working on assiduously,” Seaga said.

“Locally we have been expanding our ability to supply products by bringing raw materials from new places as we find ways to compete with imports. As we also try to cut expenses, salaries and wages continue to remain high but even in the low periods we have felt it important to keep our workers on so as to ensure that when the work does come in, we’ll have enough personnel to do it. We’re fighting hard and we’re going to get through this little period and I’m confident of it, but getting in the US market will be the icing on the cake and everything for us,” he also said.