Denis Gagnon had long wanted to establish a manufacturing firm supplied only by American-made parts, a vision shaped by his experience in the international corporate world and his assessment of business risks offshore.
He was an outlier in an era of globalisation when businesspeople, including his US peers, waxed lyrical about outsourcing from Asia to minimise production costs.
The Gagnons, including his son William, run a medium-sized company called Excel Dryer in the US state of Massachusetts.
“The tariff increase only solidified our decision to move forward,” said William Gagnon, who is now executive vice-president of the company.
After eight tough years searching for a motor supplier outside China, the maker of electric hand dryers achieved its goal of sourcing 100 per cent of its parts domestically by 2023, William Gagnon told the Post.
