"There’s a lot on the line for the local manufacturing sector."
Providence Business News' Manufacturing reporter Jacquelyn Voghel recently wrote about the challenges of small, domestic manufacturers facing high, nationally-imposed duties.
The piece included the perspective of a Rhode Island company currently leveraging the Nterprisers platform, Neocorp, along with quotes from Featured Partner Polaris MEP and Nterprisers.
Neocorp manufactures rope and bungee cord products out of Pawtucket, RI. Neocorp's Rose Wood told the reporter that 'keeping increased tariffs from hurting the bottom line has required different strategies.
'The company has been closely tracking its profit margins on products and was able to hold its prices on some product lines while needing to raise them on others, “where it was unavoidable,” Wood said. “We have also worked with new vendors coming from more tariff-friendly rates to fill the needs ...”'
Polaris MEP Center Director Matt Watson shared survey results showing that 86% of RI manufacturers reported that tariff changes and uncertainty had raised the cost of making products.
Voghel quoted Ntrprisers Marketing Director Erin Read on the larger supply chain context:
“For most people, it is impossible to build an entire component from scratch with everything they could find here sourced in Rhode Island,” Read said. “We just don’t have that. They’re going to need to get metals from someone. They’re going to need to get components from someone.
“The uncertainty of it is what kills everyone,” she added.
Click here to read the full article on the Providence Business News website, published December 5, 2025.