Last year, tariff-fueled price increases for sweets made in China and other Asian countries, plus weaker demand for those products, drove Bazooka Candy Brands to rethink its supplier strategy. The candy maker had previously relied on a simple playbook: buy in higher volumes to get lower prices from contract manufacturers in Asia, a region that accounts for 80% of its U.S. sales. But suddenly, that model wasn't working anymore.
Instead of squeezing suppliers harder, Bazooka's VP of Strategic Supply, Erika Nava, took a surprisingly human approach. "It's not your fault, it's not my fault — we're both victims of this," she told suppliers. The two sides agreed to share the pain. For some vendors, splitting the tariff cost was acceptable. For others, whose margins were too thin to absorb the hit, Bazooka took on a larger share. In exchange, some suppliers opened up their cost structure, giving Bazooka valuable leverage in future negotiations — an unintended but welcome consequence.
Since then, Bazooka has shifted its supplier relationships from a price-versus-volume model to a partnership. That includes plans to refund suppliers for tariffs that the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled were illegal. Nava is clear that simply walking away after the crisis would be a betrayal of the trust they built together.
The experience taught Nava four key lessons: know your suppliers deeply, build relationships before you need them, be transparent about costs, and treat difficult situations as a chance to collaborate rather than compete. In a world of unpredictable trade policies, that kind of partnership may be the most resilient supply chain strategy of all.
