Arizona’s iconic price of 99 cents could end due to Trump aluminum tariffs

Arizona recently spilled tea and is not sweet. In a recent interview with The New York Times, the founder and president of the company, Don Vultaggio, revealed his iconic 99 cents price The point could be in danger.

During the interview, Vultaggio blamed the possible 50% tariff prices proposed by President Donald Trump to imported aluminum.

For three decades, Arizona has achieved the impossible and Vultaggio warned that if the imported aluminum rate comes into force, it could force Arizona to increase prices for the first time in more than 30 years.

“I hate even the idea of that,” Vultaggio told Times. “It would be a great shame after more than 30 years.”

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Cali Chiki wears glasses a large blue sweater of pale asos, drinks a Arizona ice tea drink in a metal can, on February 28, 2021 in Paris, France. (Edward Berthelot / Getty images / getty images)

According to reports, Arizona, one of the best -selling fleshy tea brands in the United States, sells more than 2 billion cans annually, and generates more than $ 4 billion in sales. All this is despite being debt free and highly profitable. The company has assumed growing costs without passing them, until now.

The price of 99 cents, printed directly on each high can, has been a pillar of the “non -public and low -price” strategy of Arizona since it was launched in the early 1990s.

But the approximately 100 million aluminum pounds used in the creation of the Tallboy firm have become a problem since 20% of that is imported from Canada.

Arizona’s tallboys are mostly made of recycled materials in the US, but a part of that is imported from Canada and slapped with a 50% rate on the border.

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Don Vultaggio, president of Arizona Bevenge Company, attends the great inauguration of Arizona Ices Tea “Arizonaland” on September 19, 2024 in Edison, New Jersey. (Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Arizona Iced Tea / Getty Images)

“Our price has increased dramatically due to this tariff talk,” Vultaggio said, he added that he expected the few domestic aluminum manufacturers to increase their prices in response to tariffs, he told The Times.

The president has argued that the highest tariffs will strengthen the economy of the United States and help recover manufacturing at home, reduce commercial deficits and generate billions in income for the government.

Arizona Tea bottles for sale in the Publix grocery store. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group through Getty Images)

However, Vultaggio hopes that the administrator realizes that protecting US manufacturers should not give them a free pass for consumers to overload.

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“I hope that the administration understands and occupies the fact that if you are going to protect US manufacturers, you can’t allow them to gogue the market due to that protection. If you have Donald Trump’s ear, that’s what I would say directly, he said,” he said, “he said,”

“What happens, it happens,” he said. “We can find our path through him.”