Tariffs have some mom-and-pop manufacturers considering move to United States

A Canadian Muskoka chair maker hit hard by U.S. tariffs is considering moving the bulk of its manufacturing to the United States.

DFC Woodworks Inc. has been making outdoor wooden patio furniture including Muskoka chairs — also called Adirondack chairs — since 1955.

The Kemptville, Ont., company exports about 70 per cent of its furniture to the United States, but those goods are now subject to a steep 50 per cent U.S. duty.

The family-run business is now saddled with a hefty tariff bill and a looming decision about whether to keep absorbing the costs, raise prices and risk U.S. sales falling to zero, or move the majority of its manufacturing south of the border, DFC Woodworks president François Bruneau said in an interview.

“It’s damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” he said. “If we raise prices, it will make us non-competitive and sales will go down. If we don’t, the tariffs will sink us.”

The Muskoka chair maker’s dilemma illustrates the challenges facing many Canadian small- and medium-sized enterprises, said Fen Hampson, international affairs professor at Carleton University.

“There are lots of small mom-and-pop operations, very small businesses, and they are highly dependent on the U.S. market,” Hampson said. “If a large portion of their production is exported to the U.S., a big tariff could put them out of business.”

Smaller manufacturers may lack the financial resources, diversified markets and specialized trade expertise that allow larger corporations to weather a trade war, he said.

DFC Woodworks, which operates under brand names The Best Adirondack Chair Co. and The Best Muskoka Chair Co., currently makes all its outdoor patio furniture — including swings, bar sets, dining tables and rocking chairs — in Ontario using B.C. western red cedar and eastern select pine.

It’s now reluctantly contemplating downsizing its Canadian operation and moving manufacturing for its U.S. customers to the southeastern United States.

“It’s a difficult decision,” Bruneau said. “We did some preliminary explorations in North Carolina.”

He adds: “It’s not something we take lightly. It’s just the economics are difficult and getting worse.”

Tariffs on the company’s furniture exports to the U.S. will cost DFC Woodworks about $75,000 on existing orders over the next eight weeks — costs that Bruneau said he cannot pass on to customers.

DFC Woodworks vice-president Dina Elatawi, who is married to Bruneau, said the buy Canadian movement has boosted the company’s domestic sales over the last two years.

“It’s helped us stay abreast,” she said. “We’re so happy that Canadians are supporting us and rallying behind us.”

However, the federal government could do more to support small businesses, Elatawi said.

“The financial compensations that they’re doing for businesses to help us through this hard time, none of them really relate to us because we’re either too small or we don’t have the money to match dollar for dollar,” she said. “We’re really in a pickle.”

DFC Woodworks has diversified in recent years, growing sales to Europe with plans to export to Japan, Elatawi said.

“We are trying to diversify,” she said. “But the United States is our biggest market.”

Moving manufacturing for U.S. sales to North Carolina would require sourcing wood from Oregon and Washington, Bruneau said.

While furniture sold to Canadian customers would continue to be manufactured in Ontario using Canadian wood, the change would mean downsizing the Kemptville operation.

“It would definitely have a devastating effect for the Canadian side here, since the majority of our manufacturing is for U.S. sales,” Elatawi said. “We might have to do some layoffs and have a smaller shop.”

She added: “We’ve never in our lives ever, ever contemplated that this could happen. I feel so sad.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2026.

Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press