
Trump tariff ‘whiplash’ draws pandemic parallels as Canadian businesses scramble
Todd Rutter calls himself the “most non-tech person you’ve ever met” but he’s turning to technology and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to help weather the dizzying tariff policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Edmonton-based co-owner of A Cappella Catering Co. said inflated food costs as pandemic restrictions started lifting years ago nearly killed his 35-year-old company, and he has to do everything he can to prevent the roller-coaster of changing U.S. tariff threats from doing it this time.
The company has created a spreadsheet to track the cost of the 100 most common ingredients they use in case there’s a need to implement a “tariff surcharge” on customers to keep the business afloat, he said.
The pandemic nearly cost them their businesses, Rutter said.