Equispheres CEO Kevin Nicholds is nervously wondering what the future will hold after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Sunday applying 25 per cent tariffs to most Canadian goods, including his company’s high-tech powder, starting Tuesday.
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For the past decade, Equispheres has been painstakingly building a customer base that includes some of the world’s biggest automotive and aerospace companies.
The Kanata-based firm manufactures a unique metal powder used in additive manufacturing – essentially, industrial-strength 3D printing for commercial aircraft and automobiles rather than plastic figurines. Made from aluminum alloys, the powder is perfectly uniform and spherical, the company says, making it the ideal ingredient for lightweight but sturdy metal objects.
Backed by $70 million in venture capital, Equispheres has been in rapid expansion mode after signing some big contracts with blue-chip customers in the United States. It recently invested in the range of $10 million in new, cutting-edge reactors that quadrupled its production capacity.
But now, Equispheres CEO Kevin Nicholds is nervously wondering what the future will hold after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to apply 25 per cent tariffs to most Canadian goods, including his company’s high-tech powder.
“The timing is terrible in that we want to support our U.S. customers,” Nicholds said in an interview with OBJ on Monday afternoon.
Equispheres, which employs about 70 people, exports all of its products, with 90 per cent of its revenues coming from the U.S.
Nicholds said any volatility in the market is never a good thing for a business like his. And even though Trump gave Canada a one-month reprieve from tariffs on Monday, Nicholds says just the threat of such measures has a chilling effect on customers.
“Whether there is a 25 per cent tariff or not, this is another tearing up of an agreement that Trump put together himself just five years ago,” he said, referring to the free trade agreement among Canada, the United States and Mexico that was ratified in 2020. “Companies like us are investing ideally in an envelope of some certainty around those markets.
“We’ve spent 10 years getting ourselves in a position to where we are today. A lot goes into getting to this stage. This adds a lot of unwelcome uncertainty.”
Nicholds says Equispheres started feeling the impact of Trump’s tariff threats as far back as November, when a “significant” potential investor from the U.S. decided to hold off on writing a cheque.
“When the talk of the tariffs came out, there was enough uncertainty that they just put it on pause,” he said. “People don’t like to invest in an uncertain climate.”
But Ottawa companies that rely on U.S. sales aren’t the only ones feeling the pain of the looming trade war.
$25K order cancelled
Jennifer Miller, co-owner of Stittsville-based boutique furniture retailer Showroom Furniture + Lighting, said an Ottawa customer cancelled a $25,000 order for two chairs and sofas on Sunday after the federal government announced it would slap retaliatory 25 per cent tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods from the U.S., including furniture, if Trump followed through on his threats.
“The hits are going to continue to come,” she said. “People are nervous. This is not good.”
Miller said she and business partner Jill Bonk have invested tens of thousands of dollars in inventory since the store opened last April and signed a five-year lease on a new space on Stittsville’s main street.
Now, she’s worried because the niche retailer’s business relies heavily on products from North Carolina, which Miller calls “the Silicon Valley for furniture.”
While Bonk spent much of Monday scouring competitors’ websites to find out what domestic suppliers they’re using, Miller said sourcing Canadian-made substitutes for many of Showroom’s products isn’t easy.
“We’re scrambling right now,” she said. “I’m seeing so many posts on social media of people saying, ‘Just support Canadian businesses. Switch to French’s ketchup instead of Heinz.’ Well, in the luxury furniture market, there really aren’t a whole lot of Canadian manufacturers.”
Even those that do make items like luxury sofas typically don’t offer the same range of colours and styles as high-end U.S. manufacturers like Rowe, Miller added.
“We’re more bespoke, and we need a product line that is completely customizable,” she explained. “So many of the Canadian sofa manufacturers, you can get it in one or two or three colours, but that’s it. It’s not that we don’t want to buy Canadian. Obviously we do, but it’s whether or not we can get that comparable product.”
While the tariff tiff between Canada and the U.S. has somewhat soured Miller’s hopes that 2025 would be a banner year for her business, she’s managed to keep her sense of humour intact.
“I’ve been joking around a lot that if the furniture business doesn't work out, I’ll turn it into a wine bar and we’ll just be sitting on sofas instead of at tables and chairs,” she said with a chuckle.
“But we won’t be selling any American wine.”
