![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/FP-WOLL-AND-COMPANY-2.png\")
<\/p>\nA century-old Philadelphia packaging company is closely watching tariffs and trade negotiations with Canada as it deals with rising costs for materials it uses every day.<\/p>\n
F. P. Woll & Company, a family business in Northeast Philadelphia, makes packaging for other companies and their products, ranging from cameras to kitchen sinks. Fred Woll runs the company, which has about a dozen employees and a sprawling production operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father started here in the late 60s,\u201d Woll said.<\/p>\n
The latest tariffs and trade negotiations with Canada are creating another challenge for the business. One key material the company uses is CDX plywood from Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe build crates for people to ship stuff in. One of the products we use every day is CDX plywood and that comes from Canada,\u201d Woll said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Woll said domestic lumber has also become more expensive as demand has increased, while wait times have grown longer.<\/p>\n
The company’s concerns extend beyond the materials it needs for its own products. <\/p>\n
Woll said tariffs on materials used by its customers, including aluminum, can also affect his business if those customers cut production.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re not making a product to ship, I\u2019m not making them a product to ship their product in,\u201d Woll said.<\/p>\n
Canada is Pennsylvania’s biggest trading partner. Data shows the state sent about $14 billion in goods to Canada last year and imported about $13 billion.<\/p>\n
Woll said tariffs had already taken a financial toll on the company even before the latest U.S.-Canada trade dispute. He has applied for a refund related to previous tariffs but said the company has not received anything so far.<\/p>\n
\u201c$27,000 is part of the way to investing in a new piece of equipment, a new hire \u2014 this is money we did not budget to be taxed on,\u201d Woll said.<\/p>\n
Lumber isn’t the only material becoming more expensive at the company’s Philadelphia operation. <\/p>\n
Woll pointed to foam used in its packaging and said its costs had also climbed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll this is petrochemical distillates. That\u2019s up 29 percent,\u201d Woll said.<\/p>\n
Woll said the company has survived for more than a century in part because of the diversity of its business.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne might be up, one might be down, but the boat still stays afloat,\u201d Woll said.<\/p>\n
But with costs rising in several areas, tariffs are adding another concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the tariffs, the Canadian one is just the latest,\u201d Woll said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A century-old Philadelphia packaging company is closely watching tariffs and trade negotiations with Canada as it deals with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[61,69,71,70,50],"class_list":["post-272846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-economy","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}