Food, home care, electronics firms slash earnings forecasts, warn of price hikes due to tariffs

Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and LG on Thursday slashed their forecasts and warned of price hikes on everyday products ranging from toothpaste to toilet paper because of President Trump’s tariffs.Procter & Gamble — the conglomerate behind major brands including Tide, Charmin, Bounty, Luvs and Crest — forecast flat sales growth, from a prior projection of a 2% to 4% increase.

“We will have to pull every lever we have in our arsenal to mitigate the impact of tariffs within our cost structure and P&L,” said P&G CFO Andre Schulten on a call with reporters.Pricing and cost cuts are the main levers, Schulten said, as changing raw material sourcing from China would be complex and difficult in the short term, mainly due to a lack of options.The price hikes would occur in the next fiscal year, which begins in July, unless there is a trade deal, he added.

That’s the same time Trump is expected to lift a 90-day pause on harsh tariff rates on many nations.P&G imports raw ingredients, packaging materials and some finished products into the US from China, while the vast majority — roughly 90% — of what it sells is produced domestically, a company spokesperson said.Trump has slapped imports from China with a 145% tax.Schulten pointed to “a more nervous consumer” pulling back on spending in the last two months of the quarter as fears mount that the tariffs will reignite inflation.“It’s not illogical to see the consumer adopt the ‘wait and see’ attitude, and we saw traffic down at retailers,” Schulten said.

“We saw consumers basically looking for value, migrating into online, bigger box retail, into club [retailers].”Shares of P&G were down nearly 5% in early afternoon trading as the key industry bellwether also posted a bigger-than-expected fall in third-quarter revenue.The company reported earnings per share of $1.54, missing expectations of $1.53, and revenue of $19.78 billion, below projections of $20.11 billion, accordi...