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AURORA, Colo. — 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.
Gone was the playbook of trading higher volume for lower prices from contract manufacturers in a region that accounts for 80% of Bazooka’s U.S. sales, according to Erika Nava, VP of strategic supply and product development. Instead, the candy company and its suppliers agreed to help each other make the best of what Nava called a "perfect storm."
"We approached it as, it's not your fault, it's not my fault," Nava said at an April 28 Institute for Supply Management World 2026 presentation. "We're both victims of this," she added, referring to tariff-induced price hikes.
Under those circumstances, Bazooka's strategy was to negotiate with its vendors in a way that shared the pain.
