For Mass. vodka company, tariffs pack a punch (2025)

HADLEY — Tariffs have made the latest shipping container stacked with V-One Vodka — now on a ship crossing the Atlantic — $6,000 to $8,000 more expensive than it was when it left the distillery in Kamień, Poland.

“That is a significant hit on my bottom line,” said V-One’s founder and owner, Paul Kozub. “I really can’t afford to go up in price.”

It’s a competitive market with cash-strapped bar and restaurant owners and inflation-singed consumers watching every penny.

“If I go up a dollar or two on an average bottle of V-One, that is going to affect a customer," Kozub said.

The 10% tariff on goods imported from the European Union is on top of the $26,000-a-container in federal excise tax that Kozub is expected to pay. This month, he celebrates the 20th anniversary of quitting his day job to devote himself to V-one full time.

The exact impact of the tariff will depend on how many bottles and of what sizes are in the shipment.

He estimates that a shipping container of V-One should be enough product to last a month or two. He’s already considering ordering another one. But the decision is made more complicated by the tariff situation.

Planning in his business needs to be six months or a year in the future. But the on-again, off-again nature of President Donald Trump’s tariffs make that impossible.

Six months ago, in November, Kozub was a Trump voter. Kozub said he perceived the Republican as more business-friendly.

“If the government stays out of my way, that’s a great thing,” he said. He thought the talk of tariffs was posturing, a negotiation ploy.

“I never thought I’d see that charge on my bill,” Kozub said.

And it’s unlikely that a tariff on vodka will lead to an American manufacturing resurgence. Kozub created V-One in part to celebrate his Polish heritage.

He’s part owner of a distillery a few hours southeast of Warsaw. “It’s hard to make Polish vodka in Hadley, Massachusetts,” Kozub said.

Olive oil

Similarly, Manny Rovithis started marketing Manny’s Olive Oil to provide a market for the fruit of the native olive trees in his hometown on the Greek island of Crete. The whole point is that Manny’s oil comes from a sun-drenched Mediterranean island with the right soil and water.

“My oil, we pick the trees, we press the fruit. We bottle,” he said.

His olive oil, also shipped by container, has been hit with a 10% tariff.

Rovithis and Kozub both said they pay when the container hits the dock at Port Elizabeth, N.J., despite official pronouncements that the tariff doesn’t apply to goods in transit.

And Rovithis said it hardly matters.

“It’s going to affect me, of course,” he said. “It’s the consumer that’s going to suffer.”

Kozub said he called the White House this week and spent hours on hold. A staffer said she’d pass his complaint about the tariffs on to the president.

He said he contacted Hadley’s congressman, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester.

Businesses large and small have been raising similar concerns, said McGovern.

A Democrat long at odds with Trump, McGovern answered questions Wednesday following meetings in his district.

Chartpak imports raw material from around the world and also has logistics partners shipping its art supplies in Europe and Asia, said executive vice president James Gallagher.

Chartpak makes paints, inks, specialty pens and papers at factories in Tennessee and in the Leeds and Florence sections of Northampton, Gallagher said.

“I wish we knew what was going on, it changes every day,” he said. “The tariffs are bad. The uncertainty is almost worse.”

Gallagher said he has noticed a change while speaking with business associates overseas. A few months ago, there was a shared sense that America was a friend and partner.

“Now it’s not the same tone,” he said.

McGovern is the senior Democrat on the House Rules Committee. He said he’s tried multiple times to force a House vote on the tariffs, a move that would compel Republicans to go on the record either yay or nay.

“I believe if we have an up-and-down vote, we can defeat the tariffs,” he said.

But GOP leaders don’t want their members to have to go on the record with a vote.