Victorinox has already received four million dollars in US tariff refunds

There’s good news all around for the Schwyz economy: Max Felchlin AG is no longer on short-time work, and Victorinox has already received a large portion of its tariff refunds.The export industry in Schwyz is recovering from the tariff drama and the wars in the Middle East – but only in the short term.
 

Last November, the Schwyz chocolate factory Max Felchlin AG had to put production workers on short-time work due to low capacity utilisation. In addition to Trump's tariffs, the triggers also included the fluctuating cocoa price, the situation in the Middle East, and the US - Iran war: these factors created, and continue to create, uncertainty in the export business.

Relief will only come when things calm down
"Short-time work was discontinued during the second quarter," said Felchlin's media director, Dominik Stocker, in response to an enquiry. But he didn't want to speak of great relief yet; that will likely only come "when the markets in the US and the Middle East calm down again for the long term," he continued.

Victorinox was also heavily affected by Trump's initial 39% tariff plans. "I felt like I was in the wrong movie," said CEO Carl Elsener after Trump's announcements. Relief came for the Ibach-based knife manufacturer after the Supreme Court, the highest US court, declared Trump's punitive tariffs unlawful in February.

Victorinox has received money – but continues to pay high tariffs
The Victorinox team in the US immediately filed a claim for the refund of the punitive tariffs and expected a repayment of CHF 3.8 million, as the company confirmed to the "Bote" newspaper in April. Victorinox will indeed receive this money: "All refund requests from our US team, totalling US$ 4.5 million, have been approved, and more than US$ 4 million has already been paid out," said spokeswoman Claudia Mader in response to an enquiry.

However, similar to Felchlin, Victorinox isn't exactly euphoric yet. The US is their largest market, and "currently, US tariffs on our pocket knives, as well as kitchen and professional knives, amount to around 30%," explained Claudia Mader , adding: "These consist of the regular tariff of around 5% plus the additional 25% tariff, in effect since April, on products with a steel content of more than 15%."

The Schwyz-based chocolate manufacturer Felchlin was recently able to end a period of short-time work for some employees.
Victorinox has had a large portion of the US tariffs refunded.        Photos: Damian Bürgi
 

Orders from the Middle East and stable cocoa prices are helping
The US tariff issue thereby remains a major challenge for Victorinox. But this is also true for Felchlin, as the chocolate manufacturer wants nothing more than a level playing field in the US market . As is well known, US President Trump's seemingly arbitrary (foreign) policy has created, and continues to create, considerable uncertainty and anything but a level playing field.

Regarding tariffs, it’s actually Felchlin's distribution partners who handle the imports and pay the duties. "According to the current information from our local partners, these refunds have been applied for, but have not yet been received," explains Dominik Stocker.

Nevertheless, initial positive developments are being observed. "It’s encouraging that we are now receiving initial orders again from certain markets in the Middle East, which have been particularly hard hit by geopolitical developments in recent months." And the fact that the situation regarding the "very high cocoa raw material prices of the last two years" is increasingly normalising should also have a positive impact, notes Dominik Stocker.