Key Starbucks supplier tastes bitter harvest of US tariffs on Switzerland

Coffee machine maker Thermoplan, which is among the Swiss firms facing 39% US tariffs, mulls moving production to Germany and US, writes Dave Graham in Weggis, Switzerland

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Swiss coffee machine maker Thermoplan was a small family firm until it rode the wave of late 1990s globalisation to become a key supplier for Starbucks and created more than 500 jobs in a lakeside village by the Alps.

The future of those jobs has been thrown into jeopardy since US President Donald Trump on Aug 7 imposed 39% tariffs on Switzerland due to its trade surplus with the US.

Thermoplan CEO Adrian Steiner calculates the 39% levy and separate US tariffs on industrial metals are costing the company in Weggis, on the picturesque shores of Lake Lucerne, around 200,000 Swiss francs ($250,000) every week.

"We're bleeding," he said. "It's obviously a losing business for us. We don't have the kind of margins to compensate for that."

Thermoplan is already taking steps to enable production in Germany so it can export under lower European Union tariffs, and is considering moving jobs to the US to shore up business there.

Starbucks said it has had a long history of successfully navigating global changes, and is working closely with suppliers to help minimise any impacts on its business. After Trump first set out his global tariff plans on April 2, Thermoplan said it and Starbucks agreed to split the added costs.