New Alvarez & Marsal Report on Tariff Impact Highlights the Imperative for Companies to Use Current Turmoil as License to Radically Improve Operations

June 18, 2025 at 11:00 AM EDT

--News Direct--

Apparent calm masks deeper volatility – inaction now is high risk
Delay will show up in future quarterly reporting
Quantify total tariff exposure and identify equivalent cost cutting opportunities
This moment of crisis should not be wasted

The Consumer and Retail Group of Global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M CRG) today released a special report, Tariffs & Turmoil – Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste, which urges retailers to take bold, immediate action as global trade policies shift and economic pressures mount.

The report challenges companies to break free from “wait-and-see” or “wing it” paralysis and seize the current disruption as a strategic reset.

“We are in a false moment of calm, but July 9th is right around the corner. While the latest quarterly results may not yet show the impact, companies that fail to act now will see tariffs hit hard in the quarters ahead,” said Joanna Rangarajan, Managing Director in Alvarez & Marsal’s Consumer and Retail Group and co-author of the study. “They should be looking to identify every opportunity to improve and fortify operations, as those who successfully came out of Covid did.”

Co-author Michael Prendergast, Managing Director in Alvarez & Marsal’s Consumer and Retail Group, noted: “What we are seeing is a shell-shocked level of inactivity. Companies need to use this tariff crisis as an opportunity to do the hard work of getting their SG&A numbers down by 15 to 20 percent. Looking at pricing, reaching out to vendor bases and shifting country of origin are no longer enough. This is the perfect moment for management teams to refocus on optimizing their inventory, speeding up calendaring, and ultimately assessing their total cost of tariffs so that they can work toward an equivalent level of budgetary savings.”

The report lays out nine areas in which retail companies should be focusing to navigate tariff twists and turns successfully, including:

Relentlessly reduce costs across the entire organization
Fuel innovation and growth initiatives that differentiate
Double down on product winners that drive value
Price intelligently to spark demand without sacrificing margin
Adopt a fast fashion calendar mindset to increase agility
Make decisions at lightning speed – favor action over perfection
Reshape sourcing strategy for flexibility and long-term advantage
Optimize supply chains for efficiency and responsiveness
Establish a cross-functional command center with clear accountability

To download a pdf of Tariffs & Turmoil – Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste, please visit:

https://alvarezandmarsal-crg.com/insight/tariffs-turmoil-never-let-a-good-crisis-go-to-waste/

The Alvarez and Marsal Consumer and Retail Group (CRG) is a management consulting firm that tackles the most complex challenges and advances its clients, people, and communities towards their maximum potential. CRG combines the best of A&M’s broader firm's bias toward action and practicality with deep consumer and retail industry experience. CRG partners with businesses across a wide range of categories including Food & Beverage, Beauty & Personal Care, Grocery, Mass Merchandise, and Apparel & Footwear to drive significant performance improvement.