Meanwhile, Build-A-Bear Workshop is on the most financially successful streak in its history, with profits raking in at record highs. The company raised its full-year financial guidance, calling it “cautiously optimistic.” This is all happening despite preparing for the impacts from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imported products. On Tuesday afternoon, shares of Build-A-Bear were trading at about $72 apiece. This represented a breathtaking surge of more than 60% just since the beginning of FY 2025.
In today’s second quarter of fiscal year 2025 Build-A-Bear is doing extraordinarily well. These are record results for them, not just for the second quarter, but the first half of a fiscal year. The company’s revenues were $252.6 million in the first half of 2025, up 11.5% compared to the same period the previous year. Moreover, pre-tax income increased to $34.9 million in this time, an increase of 31.5% compared to the prior year.
While these accomplishments are particularly significant, the climate finance picture is complicated by increasing import taxing. The U.S. has a 30% tax, called a tariff, on many goods being imported from China right now. Equally damaging, it imposes a 20% tax on goods from Vietnam, another vital supplier of Build-A-Bear’s product array. Chief financial Officer Voin Todorovic pointed out the negative effects of these tariffs. He said they are an example of a “real cost that we’re up against.”
Build-A-Bear expects tariffs to result in losses of less than $11 million for all of fiscal 2025. The company has increased its guidance range. They’ve set the bar pretty high, now expecting pre-tax income to be in the $62 million to $70 million range for the year compared to just over $67 million in 2024.
Todorovic was clearly brimming with confidence in the company’s ability to face such challenges directly. He thinks they are in line to see better results during the 2nd half of the year. He continued, “We anticipate being able to do even better in the back half of the year.” This newly-found optimism seems to be shared by industry analysts who think that Build-A-Bear is uniquely poised to weather a tariff storm.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, emphasized Build-A-Bear’s strong market presence: “It’s a store within a mall that many consumers make a beeline for.” He claimed that the company has found better ways to hedge against tariffs. This is a testament to their creativity and resilience in the face of economic pressures.
