The 70-year-old Larry Sloven had spent half his life building supply
chains in southern China to produce goods for big-box U.S. retailers. But he
had never reshuffled one on short notice, with tariffs hanging over his head.
“It is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in all my 30 years in the
business,” said
Sloven, president of Capstone International HK Ltd, a division
of Florida-based Capstone Companies.
“You’ve got packaging, assembling, auditing, labor, overheads,
components, logistics, transportation,” he said. “I went from first gear to
fourth gear very quickly.”
Sloven, a native of Long Island, New York, cut his teeth in Asia in the
1970s sourcing lighting products from Japan. He then moved to Taiwan and then
mainland China, making and sourcing electrical products for AT&T and
Duracell, before becoming a buying agent for sporting goods retailer Dick’s.
He joined Capstone in 2012 to manage its network of Chinese
manufacturers from Hong Kong.
Rising labor costs and tighter regulations in China had already led him
to consider moving the business elsewhere in Asia. But the trade war forced his
hand.
Through dozens of interviews and phone, Whatsapp and email exchanges
over a year, Reuters documented Sloven’s quest to uproot his supply chain
operation, an effort entailing many close calls, bureaucratic headaches - and
some good luck.
Sloven is just one of thousands of entrepreneurs who have been forced
by the trade war to upend their business operations in China in the biggest
supply chain shift in a generation.
Companies like Capstone contribute over $200 billion in U.S. purchases
of China-made electronics and machinery annually.
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