Toll Group Chairman emphasizes inspection of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-tier suppliers in the supply chain

Toll Group Executive Chairman Thomas Knudsen said at the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Summit in Ho Chi Minh City on September 3 that companies must audit tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 suppliers and pre-plan alternative transport routes rather than merely reacting once a crisis hits, Fortune reported on September 5. He cited a run of shocks including COVID-19, Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the 2025 US tariff policy and de minimis exemption removal, a US-Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Knudsen argued that resilience before 2020 was measured by crisis response, and that the repeated disruptions since then have made advance mapping of sub-tier suppliers and backup logistics a board-level imperative. The comments matter because hidden lower-tier vendors and single-route shipping dependencies are where cascading supply-chain failures originate, and firms that map only direct suppliers remain exposed. What to watch next is whether multinationals operating in Southeast Asia act on the advice by disclosing sub-tier supplier audits and dual-sourcing or alternate-route plans in their risk reporting.