Executives at BRP Inc. say they expect tariffs will cost the Ski-Doo maker $425 million over two years, despite a series of cost-cutting measures aimed at offsetting the trade war toll.
The powersports manufacturer raised its revenue forecast for this fiscal year to between $9.2 billion and $9.5 billion, the second boost this year amid solid retail sales.
However, tariff woes prompted BRP to cut its full-year profit outlook — also for the second time — by another $55 million to between $160 million and $195 million. Net earnings in the previous fiscal year reached $340.4 million.
Chief financial officer Sébastien Martel said Thursday that the blow from tariffs, including the 50 per cent duties on $28 billion worth of items imposed by the U.S. last month, will hit even harder next year than this one.
“We’re talking about a net exposure this year of $200 million and next year of $225 million,” he told analysts on a conference call.
An abrupt tariff revision from the U.S. on April 6 marked a drastic change in fortune for the company and its new chief executive, Denis Le Vot, who in March had expressed confidence amid rising profits and projected net income of nearly half a billion dollars for its full year.
Ushered in via presidential proclamation, the tweaked tariffs imposed a 25 per cent duty on the full value of products made “substantially” of steel, aluminum or copper heading stateside. Previously, the Section 232 tariffs imposed a 50 per cent levy on only the value of the metal used in the product.
Those products include BRP snowmobiles and most of its off-road vehicles, which are largely made in Canada and Mexico but find their biggest market in the United States.
Normalized diluted earnings are expected to fall between 50 and 60 per cent next quarter versus the same period a year earlier, “mainly due to the incremental tariff impact,” Martel said.
The three months ended July 31 marks the first full quarter where BRP has been exposed to the cranked-up metal levies.
Meanwhile, the Valcourt, Que.-based company’s three-wheeled motorcycles are among the $28 billion worth of items targeted by newer Section 338 tariffs, which U.S. President Donald Trump authorized on Aug. 22.
Martel said the popular Can-Am Spyder will be hardest hit, particularly in the next fiscal year, since most deliveries for the current one are completed.
Nonetheless, the $200-million dent due to tariffs this fiscal year marks a big improvement from the “net tariff headwind” of up to $350 million expected earlier, said National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen.
The improvement comes mainly from a favourable delivery mix that relies more heavily on all-terrain vehicles and BRP’s latest utility side-by-side vehicles, both of which enjoy lower effective levies, he said.
Meanwhile, BRP has implemented a mitigation plan that looks to cut costs through measures that range from scaling back corporate travel to delaying “exploratory projects” and investing less in the business.
In its latest quarter, the company launched a branded retail financing program in the United States to make purchases more appealing and expand its relationship with customers.
BRP also announced that Martel will step down as chief financial officer and be replaced by Minh Thanh Tran, effective Oct. 1.
At the company since 2004 — the year after it was spun off from Bombardier Inc. — Martel became vice-president of finance in 2007 and steered the company through its lauded initial public offering in 2013.
He will serve as an executive adviser to the CEO until his retirement in April next year.
Tran joined BRP in 2017 and has worked across the company including in corporate strategy, product strategy and mergers and acquisitions, the company said.
On Thursday, BRP reported a loss of $136.8 million in its latest quarter versus a $57.1-million profit the year before.
However, revenue in the Sea-Doo maker’s second quarter jumped nearly 19 per cent to $2.24 billion.
The company reported a normalized diluted earnings loss of 18 cents per share, well below earnings of 92 cents per share a year earlier but far above analysts’ expectations of a loss of 66 cents per share, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.
BRP said it expects normalized earnings of between $4 and $4.50 per diluted share for its full year, up from earlier guidance for between $3 and $3.50 per diluted share.
---
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.
