Tariffs, taxes take a toll

By DAVID BROOKS

Monitor staff

New Hampshire’s only manufacturer of wood stoves says it is being buffeted by costs and confusion from two different directions — tariffs and taxes — that will hurt sales and may lead to layoffs.

“We’re in a state of enormous uncertainty, which if you’re in my shoes, you want to avoid at all costs – but you can’t avoid it,” said Tom Morrisey, owner of the Woodstock Soapstone Co. in West Lebanon. “It’s almost like we’re dealing with a government that wants to put us out of business.”

First, he’s dealing with tariffs. The Trump Administration says the many import taxes it has placed, removed and changed on various goods from

SEE WOOD STOVES A5

Shop Supervisor Cleo Shockey cleans up a stove’s fender before installing a laser-cut steel ornament over its slab of soapstone as Robert Gladue assembles another stove at left at Woodstock Soapstone Company in West Lebanon on Thursday. The manufacturer employs about 20 people.

JAMES M. PATTERSON photos / For the Monitor

Lewis Thibodeau stacks steel wood stove parts to the side as he bends them to the proper angle at Woodstock Soapstone Company. The company uses North American steel, but much of it is imported from Canada.

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various other countries are designed to help domestic manufacturers like Woodstock Soapstone, which has designed and built gas- and wood-burning stoves from steel and cast iron for four decades. But Morrissey said they have only sent costs for raw materials soaring in unpredictable ways.

“Our only supplier of cast iron is in Spain. We have several shipments on the North Atlantic as we speak, and when they land here we have no idea what’s going to happen,” he said. “We buy steel from big distributors but not all the steel is domestic. Almost all is North American but we’re still uncertain what effect they will have. Our soapstone supplier in Canada.”

The increase in the cost of their imported raw materials from tariffs is an order of magnitude greater than anything in their business plan, Morrissey said.

“Usually, price increases from suppliers come annually, reflecting increases in raw materials and energy. They are in the range of 1% to 3%. Now we have materials coming in that are going to have an additional 10% to 25%, which is totally unprecedented,” he said. “We will have no choice but to increase our prices fairly dramatically over the fall. We’ve held off as long as we can.”

The people who sell stoves are dealing with this rising cost due to tariffs, as well.

“We’re trying very hard on some things not to raise prices, but there’s some of them that it’s our dealer cost is such that the retail has to go up,” said Cody Whitwood, general manager of Stove Barn on Loudon Road in Concord. “I’m gonna make the same couple of bucks I did on the product, and it only changes the price for the end user… The manufacturer doesn’t make any more or less. It’s only making the American people pay more.”

The other issue for Woodstock Soapstone is end to clean-energy tax credits. As part of the Trump administ ration’s broad attack on renewable energy, tax incentives to buy such products will end Dec. 31 rather than in 2030 as planned. While the credits are often used for wind and solar power, they can also be applied to cover up to 30% of the cost of wood stoves.

“I expect that will have a positive influence on sales in the fourth quarter” as people race to buy stoves before the credit expires at the end of the year, he said, but will harm sales in 2026.

“I don’t think we’re going to really know the extent of the disruption for another six months. Then it will start to become abundantly clear,” he said. “None of these things happen quickly. By the time it’s completely evident what’s going to happen it is pretty well baked in.”

Morrissey said he expects “we will downsize in the late fall. There’s no other alternative” due to rising costs and a hit to sales.

Woodstock Soapstone sells high-end stoves for use in homes, currently costing from $2,000 to $4,400. The use of soapstone as part of the exterior is not there just for appearance; the material is known for retaining and releasing heat in desirable ways.

Annual sales range from $2 million to $5 million and have been at the high end of that range in recent years, Morrissey said. Woodstock Soapstone may be best known for its hybrid wood stove model, which uses two internal technologies to meet EPA restrictions on emissions with minimal effect on the amount of heat produced from a given amount of wood.

The company has about 25 people working in manufacturing: “Cutting, bending, welding steel, drilling, tapping, grinding, doing assembly — everything,” Morrissey said.

David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor. com

Tom Morrissey, photographed in West Lebanon on Thursday, joined Woodstock Soapstone Company 47 years ago at the wood stove manufacturer’s inception, and is now its president. Morrissey expects his materials costs to increase 1% to 3% annually, “but now it’s going to be 25% on top of that,” he said. “So, am I a little nervous? Yeah.”

JAMES M. PATTERSON photos / For the Monitor

Cyle Jones welds a part for a steel wood stove that will hold the fire back to distribute fresh oxygen over the fire at Woodstock Soapstone Company in West Lebanon on Thursday. The manufacturer originally designed its stoves to be lowercost alternatives to its more ornate cast-iron models, but supply chain issues during the pandemic, and the effects of new tariffs are forcing prices to rise.