(31 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Argenteuil, France – 31 July 2025
1. President of French skin care company Yon-Ka, Alexis Wolkowinski, walking through door at headquarters
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Alexis Wolkowinski, Yon-Ka President:
"So that’s where all of our products come out of the factory, with different packaging lines, two for tubes, two for glass flasks."
3. Wolkowinski putting on protective clothing
4. Various of Wolkowinski with employees packing tubes and bottles into boxes
5. Various of Wolkowinski walking inside headquarters
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexis Wolkowinski, Yon-Ka President:
"The U.S. market is our first client – it’s a subsidiary. We created the subsidiary in 1987 so almost 40 years (ago), so we are strong in the U.S. but because we are strong, it’s impacted us more than anything else. So yes, it’s very, very difficult for us to have to support this tax."
7. Various of Wolkowinski in office
8. Mid of proucts on shelf
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexis Wolkowinski, Yon-Ka President:
"We were expected to hire some new people, we completely froze this. We also had some (a) few people that left the company in the U.S. that we decided not to replace, so that was the first decision. Of course, it’s not official yet, but we’re looking to have a slight price increase on our products, around 3 to 4% so it’s not something crazy. We’ll have to take a lot of these costs on our backs (our shoulders). We’ll have to support most of this tax that we were not expecting at the beginning."
10. Various of Wolkowinski with staff
11. Mid of machine packaging products
12. Mid of worker putting packaged products in box
13. Close of boxes
14. SOUNDBITE (French) Alexis Wolkowinski, Yon-Ka President:
"The announcement of this 15% tax along with the devaluation of the dollar against the euro is a tough blow to our business. Especially since the U.S., where we’ve been for over 40 years, represents 25% of our turnover. So for our business it really is a hard blow. We’ve already taken some measures in terms of some investments. We’ve reduced our presence at professional fairs, our media placements. We’ve also put on hold some of the hires we were planning on making and we’ve not replaced some of the people who’ve left since the start of the year."
15. Various of production line
16. SOUNDBITE (French) Alexis Wolkowinski, Yon-Ka President:
"There’s going to be a very limited price hike in line with what we tend to do every year or every other year. We didn’t touch our prices last year and there’ll be one this year and it’s far from compensating for our loss and these new costs that impact our margins."
17. Various products on display
18. Various exteriors of Yon-Ka headquarters
STORYLINE:
The president of a French skincare company warned on Thursday new tariffs set to be imposed on European products by the U.S. were going to be a "tough blow" for the business.
The United States and the European Union agreed on Sunday to a trade framework setting a 15% tariff on most goods, staving off — at least for now — far higher import duties on both sides that might have sent shock waves through economies around the globe.
Alexis Wolkowinski, President of Yon-Ka which has been operating in the U.S. for nearly 40 years, said the new duty was "very difficult" for the company and a few measures had already been taken to deal with the tariff.
"The announcement of this 15% tax along with the devaluation of the dollar against the euro is a tough blow to our business," he said in an interview at the company’s headquarters outside Paris.
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