Ski-Doo maker BRP delays financial forecast amid trade uncertainty

Economic uncertainty prompted BRP Inc. to push back its financial forecast for the coming year, with U.S trade limbo exacerbating weak consumer demand.

Economic uncertainty stirred up by whipsaw U.S. tariff threats prompted BRP Inc. to push back its financial forecast for the coming year, with the trade limbo exacerbating weak consumer demand that drove the Ski-Doo maker to an earnings loss last quarter.

“There’s still the uncertainty around what’s going to happen on April 2nd, and I think that is influencing consumer behaviour,” said chief financial officer Sébastien Martel, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose 25 per cent tariffs on trade partners next week.

The U.S. has already hit Canada and Mexico with 25 per cent levies on goods that are not compliant with the North American free trade pact. The reprieve Trump granted on March 6 for items that do comply — a climbdown from blanket tariffs rolled out two days earlier — is also set to expire in one week.

Canada has hit back with its own duties on about $60 billion worth of American goods, and threatened tariffs on billions more if the U.S. does not back down.

“It’s difficult to call. It’s been choppy, and obviously with the uncertainty created by all of this, the consumers are holding back,” Martel told analysts on a conference call Wednesday.

“That uncertainty is a bigger overhang than the potential opportunity of buying a product with no tariffs today. It says a lot about the how the consumer is feeling.”

BRP swung to a loss of $44.5 million in the fourth quarter, down from a $302.8-million profit a year earlier.

As consumers and dealers bought less, North American retail sales at BRP dropped 21 per cent year-over-year in the quarter ended Jan. 31, largely due to lower demand for snowmobiles and market share loss in off-road vehicles. Its three-wheeled motorcycles saw retail sales fall about 30 per cent.