Twinsburg business bears the cost of global trade tensions

TWINSBURG, Ohio — At Fully Promoted, a Twinsburg-based business that creates marketing materials for companies across the region, the designs are local—but the materials are global.

“We do all the marketing and collateral for businesses that want to promote their own businesses,” said owner Fernando Bertero.

Bertero said while his team handles the customization in-house, the raw goods—especially promotional items like mugs, tumblers and stainless steel materials—are imported, often from China.

With U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods now at 145%, he said vendors are already signaling a price surge.

“All our vendors in China are warning us there will be an impact,” Bertero said.

Bertero said he’s explored American-made alternatives, but for many items, U.S. manufacturing is either limited or uncompetitive.

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“We’ve asked specific companies to look at this in the past and they put together their Excel spreadsheet and they say, ‘Fernando, it’s not a good idea to even consider this because of the competitiveness with China on this type of product,’” Bertero said.

Despite efforts to support U.S.-based suppliers, customer demand for brand-name items, many of which are also made in China, continues to drive sourcing decisions.

Karla Jo Helms of JOTO PR Disruptors said transparency with clients is critical.

“The companies that win are the companies that communicate the most,” Helms said.

Even without the full effect of price hikes, Bertero said some clients are already hesitating.

“We’re feeling a little bit of reluctance from some customers,” he said. “Larger customers immediately react to policy or changes in the environment. So we’ve had two or three customers cancel some fairly large orders with us.”

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For now, the shop is doing its best to keep operations running smoothly, threading together competitive pricing, dependable service and clear communication in a rapidly changing market.

“Regardless of which side of the aisle you’re on… we can only pray and hope that whatever’s going on in Washington ultimately is going to benefit everybody,” Bertero said.