The head of trucking and logistics firm Mullen Group Ltd. says he believes current trade tensions with the U.S. are temporary, and that his company remains focused on its long-term objectives despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war.
“I think that all of this tariff talk and all these trade issues are all transitory. I think that this will all get resolved,” Murray Mullen, the Alberta-based company’s senior executive officer, told BNN Bloomberg in a Wednesday interview.
“But I just can’t tell you when it will, so the short term is going to be difficult but at the end of the day my job and the job of the senior team here is to make sure we’re planning for the future.”
Mullen Group on Wednesday reported that profit in its most recent quarter fell 20 per cent compared to a year ago, though revenue edged higher.
The company said that tariff worries created an uncertain economic environment both for consumers and shippers during its first fiscal quarter, but that the trade debate “did not materially impact overall freight demand in the first quarter.”
Mullen explained that shippers may have been pre-buying or rushing to move freight before U.S. tariffs were implemented, which could have skewed the demand picture, though demand from the consumer side also wasn’t significantly impacted.
“What we look at is end consumer demand, and we didn’t see the consumers pull back a whole bunch in the first quarter,” he said.
The impact of tariff uncertainty is being felt most in terms of business spending, which has slowed noticeably, Mullen said. But in the face of that uncertainty, he said Mullen Group is still seeking growth opportunities through mergers and acquisitions.
“We’re getting prepared to do acquisitions, because we think that not everybody is going to do well in this market, it’s going to be pretty choppy for a little bit… we take a much longer-term view,” Mullen said.
“There’s nothing I can do about the short term. It is what it is, it’s an issue beyond our control, but longer-term, our job is to make sure we’re positioned and keep our eyes on what the future looks like.”
When it comes to the company’s full-year forecast for 2025, Mullen said he has no plans to change it despite the many geopolitical and economic developments that have occurred since it was released late last year.
“I’m not changing it in spite of all of the noise and despite all of the chaos. It could be short term but eventually it’ll get back, we’ll pick it up, so we’re not changing our outlook at all,” he said.
“You can’t get emotional over these things. If you do, you’ll make the wrong decisions, so we’ve got a steady hand on the wheel and our eyes focused on the long-term, that’s what we’re doing here.”
Upcoming election
Looking ahead to next week’s federal election, Mullen said there are a number of policy proposals across the major parties that theoretically would help Canadian businesses like his.
“They’ve got lots of talk about resource development, about getting rid of trade barriers that would facilitate the movement of capital formation in the country – those would all be positive for good jobs,” he said.
“There’s lots of talk, but lots of politicians talk, you’ve got to turn it into action… our view is that we sit on some of the best resources in the world, but you’ve got to move them to market, you can’t just sit on them.”
With files from The Canadian Press
