Peppa Pig has become the latest victim to be caught up in the “storm” triggered by Donald Trump’s trade wars.
Character Group, the British distributor of toys and merchandise relating to the porcine cartoon star said the imposition of tariffs on imports to the USA have “great obscured” its ability to forecast sales.
As a result, in an update to shareholders today the Oldham based company said it was withdrawing its market guidance for the financial year ending 31 August.
Shares in the company, which also owns the rights to Pokemon, Stretch Armstrong, Fireman Sam and Scooby Doo, slumped by 7%, or 18p to 240p at the start of trading on the stock market.
Sales to the US market accounted for around 20% of its total turnover last year.
The company said: “The board's visibility for forecasting sales to USA... and its ability to assess the financial implications for the group have been considerably obscured by these events.
“Consequently, the effect of the imposition of the trade tariffs will be felt in the second half by the group and, as a result, the company is withdrawing the market guidance for the year ending 31 August 2025.
“Despite this, the Board remains confident that the Group will be profitable for the current financial year as a whole.”
However it said results for the first half of the year to February, due to be pulished next month, “will be in line with the first-half performance in the prior year.”
The company said it has “a strong balance sheet with healthy cash balances and the Board is confident that it can ride out this storm. As we gain a clearer picture of the global economic landscape emerging, we will update shareholders further.”
Earlier this week President Trump reined back on tariffs for most countries after huge falls in the bond market.
He announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries, those who he said had not retaliated against earlier tariffs, and introduced a blanket tariff of 10%, until July.
But he doubled down on China, whose tariffs he raised to 125% on Wednesday, leading to a total imposition of 145%, following China’s retaliatory tariffs.
