ke-20250630
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025
OR
☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the transition period from to
Commission File Number 001-36454
KIMBALL ELECTRONICS, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
(State or other jurisdiction of (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
incorporation or organization)
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each Class Trading Symbol Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, no par value KE The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☒ Emerging growth company ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐
prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates, as of December 31, 2024 (the last business day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter), was $452.5 million based on 98.8% of common stock held by non-affiliates.
The number of shares outstanding of the Registrant’s common stock as of August 7, 2025 was 24,218,517 shares.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Share Owners to be held on November 14, 2025, are incorporated by reference into Part III.
KIMBALL ELECTRONICS, INC.
FORM 10-K INDEX
Page No.
PART I
Item 1. Business 3
Item 1A. Risk Factors 10
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 19
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 19
Item 2. Properties 21
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 21
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 21
Information about Our Executive Officers 22
PART II
Item 6. [Reserved] 23
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 32
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 33
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 68
Item 9B. Other Information 68
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 68
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 69
Item 11. Executive Compensation 69
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 70
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 71
SIGNATURES 74
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PART I
Item 1 - Business
General
As used herein, the terms “Company,” “Kimball Electronics,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to Kimball Electronics, Inc., the Registrant, and its subsidiaries. Reference to a year relates to a fiscal year, ended June 30 of the year indicated, rather than a calendar year unless the context indicates otherwise. Additionally, references to the first, second, third, and fourth quarters refer to those respective quarters of the fiscal year indicated.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements. These are statements made by management, using their best business judgment based upon facts known at the time of the statements or reasonable estimates, about future results, plans, or future performance and business of the Company. Such statements involve risk and uncertainty, and their ultimate validity is affected by a number of factors, both specific and general. They should not be construed as a guarantee that such results or events will, in fact, occur or be realized as actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. The statements may be identified by the use of words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “estimates,” “forecasts,” “seeks,” “likely,” “future,” “may,” “might,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “will,” “potentially,” “can,” “goal,” “predict,” and similar expressions. It is not possible to foresee or identify all factors that could cause actual results to differ from expected or historical results. We make no commitment to update these factors or to revise any forward-looking statements for events or circumstances occurring after the statement is issued, except as required by law.
The risk factors discussed in Item 1A - Risk Factors of this report could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. There may be other risks and uncertainties that we are unable to predict at this time or that we currently do not expect to have a material adverse effect on our business. Any such risks could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements.
At any time when we make forward-looking statements, we desire to take advantage of the “safe harbor” which is afforded such statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 where factors could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements.
Overview
Kimball Electronics was founded in 1961 and incorporated in 1998. We deliver a package of value that includes durable, high-reliability electronics, higher level and final assemblies, and contract manufacturing organization (“CMO”) solutions. Our CMO solutions support the production of medical disposables and drug delivery devices, from precision molded plastics and cold chain management to drug integration. Customers and industry trade publications regularly award us for our design and manufacturing expertise that, coupled with robust processes and procedures, help us ensure that we deliver the highest levels of quality, reliability, and innovative service throughout the entire life cycle of our customers’ products. Our Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) model is key to providing our customers convenient access to our highly integrated global footprint, enabled by our largely standardized operating system and procedures.
Our corporate headquarters is located at 1205 Kimball Boulevard, Jasper, Indiana. We manufacture products for our customers at facilities located in the United States, China, Mexico, Poland, Romania, and Thailand.
Reporting Segment
Operating segments are defined as components of an enterprise for which separate financial information is available that is evaluated regularly by the chief operating decision maker, or decision-making group, in deciding how to allocate resources and assessing performance. Each of our business units qualifies as an operating segment with its results regularly reviewed by our chief operating decision maker, the Chief Executive Officer. Our operating segments meet the aggregation criteria under the accounting guidance for segment reporting. As of June 30, 2025, all of our operating segments provided contract manufacturing services, including engineering and supply chain support, for the production of electronic assemblies and other products including medical devices, medical disposables, and precision molded plastics primarily in automotive, medical, and industrial applications, to the specifications and designs of our customers. The nature of the products, the production process, the type of customers, and the methods used to distribute the products have similar characteristics across all our operating segments. Each of our operating segments serves customers in multiple markets, and many of our customers’ programs are manufactured and serviced by multiple operating segments. We leverage global processes such as component procurement and customer pricing that provide commonality and consistency among the various regions in which we operate. All of our operating segments have similar long-term economic characteristics, and as such, have been aggregated into one reportable segment.
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Our Business Strategy
We intend to achieve sustained, profitable growth in the markets we serve by supporting the global growth initiatives of our customers as a multifaceted manufacturing solutions company through:
•Leveraging Our Global Footprint – responding to customer demand through our presence in key regions with existing facilities, which we focus on expanding, and our consideration of potential new geographic regions;
•Expanding Our Package of Value – enhancing our core contract manufacturing services strengths and expanding our package of value in areas such as complex system assembly, specialized processes, and precision molded plastics with particular emphasis on Kimball medical solutions;
•Expanding Our Markets – exploring opportunities and making investments that will broaden existing or establish new markets.
Our Business Offerings
For 40 years, we have manufactured safety-critical electronic assemblies for automotive customers, developing invaluable expertise that extends beyond the automotive industry to benefit our medical and industrial customers as well. Because they operate in industries that demand rigorous engineering controls and that commonly require long product life cycles, our customers rely on our track record of quality, international standard certifications, financial stability, social responsibility, and commitment to long-term relationships. By harnessing our experience and expertise in design and process validation, traceability, process and control change, as well as lean manufacturing, we have achieved substantial growth and diversification.
Many of our customers are multinational companies operating across multiple global regions, and they maximize their supplier relationship by partnering with us at multiple facilities across these locations and regions. We leverage key supply chain advantages and our streamlined operations to cost-effectively manufacture both electronic and non-electronic products, from high volume-low mix to high mix-low volume, within a single production facility for customers from all three of our end market verticals. Our robust new product introduction process and our extensive manufacturing capabilities give us the ability to execute to the various quality and reliability expectations of each of our customers. Our CRM model and our strategic approach to expanding our global footprint aligns with our customers’ preferences in our three end market verticals allowing us to support their global growth initiatives.
Our customers benefit from consistent supply chain processes across all regions thanks to our global component sourcing, procurement, quoting, and customer pricing operations. Our central sourcing organization employs global procurement strategies that ensure consistent component availability and a uniform pricing approach by leveraging our collective global purchasing volume. Our unified, global quoting model allows us to seamlessly respond to our customers’ production needs anywhere across our global footprint.
We combine cross-functional teams from multiple facilities in quality, operational excellence, quoting, and design engineering support with our business development team members located in-region with our global customers. The diverse skill sets on these teams provide a robust conduit critical for executing our customers’ objectives and building strong customer relationships. Our robust customer scorecard process provides valuable feedback to all levels of our company, driving continuous improvement initiatives, strengthening our award-winning service, and fostering deep customer loyalty. Our customers trust and value our people, our deep-rooted Guiding Principles, and our sustainability leadership.
We offer our services globally on a contract basis, and we manufacture products to our customers’ specifications. Our services primarily include:
•Production and testing of printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs);
•High-level and final assembly of medical, automotive, and industrial products;
•Design services and support, including innovative Design for Excellence solutions;
•Supply chain services and support;
•Rapid prototyping and new product introduction support;
•Product design and process validation and qualification;
•Industrialization and automation of manufacturing processes;
•Reliability testing (testing of products under a series of extreme environmental conditions);
•Aftermarket services;
•Production and assembly of medical devices, medical disposables including packaging, and other non-electronic products;
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•Drug delivery devices and solutions with and without electronics;
•Class 7 and 8 clean room assembly, cold chain and product sterilization management;
•Design engineering and production of precision molded plastics; and
•Complete product life cycle management.
We take pride in our attentive approach to understanding and adapting to our customers’ ever-changing needs and preferences. We continuously seek opportunities to grow and diversify our business and the value we deliver to customers while enhancing our global presence.
We value our customers and their unique needs and expectations. Our customer focus and dedication to unparalleled excellence in engineering and manufacturing has resulted in proven success in the contract manufacturing industry. Personal relationships are important to us, and we strive to build long-term global partnerships. Our commitment to support our customers is backed by our history and demonstrated performance for over the past 60 years.
Marketing Channels
Manufacturing services, including engineering and supply chain support, are marketed by our business development team. We use a CRM model to provide our customers with convenient access to both our global footprint and all of our services throughout the entire product life cycle.
Major Competitive Factors
Key competitive factors in the markets we serve include quality and reliability, engineering design services, production flexibility, on-time delivery, customer lead time, test capability, competitive pricing, and global presence. Numerous contract manufacturing service providers compete globally for business from existing and potential customers. We also face competition from our customers’ own capacity and capabilities to in-source production. The proliferation of electronic components in today’s advanced products and the continuing trend by original equipment manufacturers in the electronics industry to subcontract the assembly process to companies with a core competency in this area drive growth in our industry. The nature of the EMS industry is such that the start-up of new customers and new programs to replace expiring programs occurs frequently. New customers and program start-ups generally cause margin dilution early in the life of a program, which is often recovered as the program becomes established and matures. Our continuing success depends upon our ability to replace expiring customers/programs with new customers/programs.
We, and the industry in general, have special conditions affecting working capital that are significant for understanding our business, including fluctuating inventory levels, which may increase in conjunction with the start-up of new programs and component availability. Additionally, the nature of the contract manufacturing business is such that customers may be required to make advance payments for certain inventory purchases and share in the risk of excess and obsolete inventory.
Our Competitive Strengths
We derive our competitive strengths from our experience in producing safety critical electronic assemblies for automotive customers for 40 years and leveraging this experience to create valuable and innovative solutions for customers in different industries. Our strengths include:
•Core competency of producing durable electronics;
•Body of knowledge in the design and manufacture of products that require high levels of quality control, reliability, and durability;
•Highly integrated, global footprint;
•Fully integrated engineering, manufacturing and supply chain services as the contract manufacturing organization (“CMO”) for our customers’ non-electronic components, medical disposables, and precision molded plastics;
•CRM model and our customer scorecard process;
•Ability to provide our customers with valuable design input for improved manufacturability, reliability, and cost;
•Quality systems, industry certifications, and regulatory compliance;
•Integrated supply chain solutions and competitive bid processes that result in competitive raw material pricing; and
•Complete product life cycle management.
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Competitors
Numerous manufacturers in the EMS industry compete for business from existing and potential customers. Our competition includes EMS companies such as Benchmark Electronics, Inc., Flex Ltd., Jabil Inc., Plexus Corp., and Sanmina Corporation. We do not have a significant share of the EMS market and were ranked the 24th largest global EMS provider for calendar year 2024 by Manufacturing Market Insider in the March 2025 edition published by New Venture Research.
Locations
As of August 22, 2025, we have eight manufacturing facilities with two located in Indiana, two in Mexico, and one located in each of China, Poland, Romania, and Thailand. We continually assess our capacity needs and evaluate our operations to optimize our service levels for supporting our customers’ needs around the globe, and we have recently executed a lease for a third manufacturing facility in Indiana to expand our medical CMO footprint. When the leased facility is fully operational, it will replace the existing Indianapolis, Indiana facility. See Item 1A - Risk Factors for information regarding financial and operational risks related to our international operations.
Seasonality
Consolidated sales revenue is generally not affected by seasonality.
Customers
While the total electronic assemblies market has broad applications, our customers are concentrated in the automotive, medical, and industrial end markets.
Sales by industry as a percent of net sales for each of the three years in the period ended June 30, 2025 were as follows:
Year Ended June 30
Included in our sales were a significant amount to Nexteer Automotive, Philips, and ZF, which accounted for the following portions of net sales:
Year Ended June 30
Philips * * 14%
* amount is less than 10% of total
The nature of the contract manufacturing business is such that start-up of new programs to replace expiring programs occurs frequently. Our agreements with customers are often not for a definitive term and are amended and extended, but generally continue for the relevant product’s life cycle, which can be difficult to predict at the beginning of a program. Typically, our customer agreements do not commit the customer to purchase our services until a short time before we begin performing those services. Our customers generally have the right to cancel a particular program subject to contractual provisions governing termination, the final product runs, excess or obsolete inventory, and end-of-life pricing, which reduce the additional costs that we incur when a manufacturing services agreement is terminated.
Raw Materials
Raw materials utilized in the manufacture of contract electronic products are generally readily available from both domestic and foreign sources, although from time to time the industry experiences shortages of certain components due to supply and demand forces, combined with rapid product life cycles of certain components. In addition, unforeseen events such as natural disasters and global events, like pandemics, can and have disrupted portions of the supply chain. We believe that maintaining close communication with suppliers helps minimize potential disruption in our supply chain.
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The EMS industry has experienced component shortages, component allocations, and shipping delays, particularly with semiconductors, in recent fiscal years. Further component shortages or allocations could increase component costs and potentially interrupt our operations and negatively impact our ability to meet commitments to customers. We take various actions to attempt to mitigate the risk and minimize the impact to our customers as well as the adverse effect component shortages, component allocations, or shipping delays could have on our results. Through contractual pricing arrangements and negotiations with our customers, we attempt to mitigate the adverse effect that cost increases could have on our results.
Raw materials are normally acquired for specific customer orders and often are not interchangeable among products. Inherent risks associated with rapid technological changes within our industry are mitigated by procuring raw materials, for the most part, based on firm orders. In certain instances, such as when lead times dictate, we enter into contractual agreements for material in excess of the levels required to fulfill customer orders. In turn, material authorization agreements with customers cover a portion of the exposure for material that we must purchase prior to having a firm order. We may also purchase additional inventory to support new product introductions, transfers of production between manufacturing facilities, and to mitigate the potential impact from component shortages.
Intellectual Property
Our primary intellectual property is our proprietary manufacturing technology and processes that allow us to provide competitive contract manufacturing and design services to our customers. As such, this intellectual property is complex and normally contained within our facilities. To protect our trade secrets, our manufacturing technology and processes, and other proprietary rights, we rely primarily on a combination of intellectual property laws pertaining to trade secrets and copyrights; non-disclosure agreements with our customers, employees, and suppliers; and our internal security procedures and systems. We feel that relying on trade secret or copyright protections is a superior strategy because there is no disclosure of the information to outside parties, and protections do not expire after a length of time. We also maintain trademark rights (including registrations) for “Kimball Electronics,” and other wordmarks and trademarks that we use in our business in the United States and around the world. We have policies and procedures to identify and protect our own intellectual property and that of our customers and suppliers.
Sustainability Commitment
We are committed to responsible, sustainable environmental, social, and governance philosophies and practices, which have been a part of our fabric since our founding in 1961. Our approach is guided by long-standing principles that emphasize environmental stewardship, workplace safety, ethical business conduct, and meaningful community engagement. These principles are embedded in our operations and culture across all global locations. To illustrate how our employees uphold these values in their daily work, we published our most recent annual Guiding Principles Report in March 2025. The Report details our ESG priorities and performance, and highlights how our sustainability efforts support long-term stakeholder relationships and global business success. It reflects several long-standing Guiding Principles of the Company: our customer is our business; our people are the company; the environment is our home; we strive to help our communities be great places to live; profitability and financial resources give us the freedom to shape our future and achieve our vision. The Report is posted on our website at https://www.kimballelectronics.com/sustainability. The Company’s website and the information contained therein, or incorporated therein, are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Environmental Stewardship and Energy Use
Our operations are subject to various foreign, federal, state, and local laws and regulations with respect to environmental and ecological matters. We believe that we are in substantial compliance with present laws and regulations and that there are no material liabilities related to such items. We believe that continued compliance with foreign, federal, state, and local laws and regulations which have been enacted relating to the protection of the environment will not have a material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, or competitive position. Management believes capital expenditures for environmental control equipment will not represent a material portion of total capital expenditures.
Our operations require significant amounts of energy, primarily in the form of electricity. Federal, foreign, and state regulations may control the allocation of energy sources available to us, but to date we have experienced no interruption of production due to such regulations.
We participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) climate change and water security questionnaires to quantify our environmental practices and demonstrate progress toward reducing our environmental impact. Our participation in CDP, our annual Guiding Principles report, and other public sustainability communications reflect our commitment to transparency, continuous improvement, and environmental stewardship, consistent with our belief that ‘the environment is our home’ and our dedication to excellence, leadership, and responsibility in the communities where we operate.
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Additionally, our annual Guiding Principles report aligns with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, the United Nations (UN) Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) and Global Compact (UNGC), the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Electronic Manufacturing Services & Original Design Manufacturing Standard, and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework. We are members of the Responsible Minerals Initiative. We publish our sustainability report and our responses to the CDP climate change and water security questionnaires annually on our website at kimballelectronics.com/sustainability. The contents of the sustainability reports and CDP questionnaire responses are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC.
Refer to the discussion in Item 1A - Risk Factors for further details of the legal and regulatory initiatives related to environmental matters including climate change that could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Responsible Sourcing and Supply Chain Integrity
We are committed to the use of a socially responsible supply chain to reduce the risk of human rights violations and the use of conflict minerals (tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold, or “3TG”) from the Democratic Republic of Congo and certain adjoining countries. Our efforts include requiring our suppliers to undertake reasonable due diligence within their supply chain to ensure that the 3TG in the materials we source from them do not directly or indirectly contribute to significant adverse human rights impacts, as well as conducting due diligence before allowing a potential supplier to become one of our preferred suppliers.
Our responsible sourcing program also includes broader efforts to integrate ethical and environmental considerations into procurement practices, improve material efficiency, and monitor resource use across our operations and supply chain. We request the return of reporting forms related to conflict minerals from our suppliers under the Responsible Minerals Initiative, or RMI, Conflict Minerals Survey. Further, we seek to remove any suppliers that continue to fail to meet our supplier and conflict minerals policies after being provided the opportunity to remedy non-compliance via implementation of a corrective action plan. We also conduct recurring, annual training for all employees and certain select contractors on export compliance, anti-corruption and anti-slavery, and insider trading. In addition, Kimball Electronics is a member of the RMI, which is evaluating the supply chain risks of conflict minerals and other minerals (e.g., cobalt, mica) and studying how to mitigate those risks.
Human Rights
As reflected in our Vision and Guiding Principles, Kimball Electronics is committed to the highest standards of conduct in its business dealings. We are a human-centered company that fully supports human rights. For us, human rights are more than just being compliant--they are about doing the right thing. Our Guiding Principles outline the critical role Kimball plays as a corporate citizen for our customers, our people, our partners, our environment, our Share Owners, and our communities. Our human rights beliefs are deeply rooted in our Guiding Principles and expressed in our Global Human Rights Policy, which is supported by annual review that explains some of the practical actions that we take each year to implement our Policy.
Kimball has been built upon the tradition of pride in craftsmanship, mutual trust, personal integrity, respect for dignity of the individual, a spirit of cooperation, and a sense of family and good humor. We seek to enhance this culture as we grow. We believe that no company should prosper while violating the basic human rights of others whether through unlawful slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labor, or otherwise exploitative means. We believe in upholding principles of human rights, fair remuneration and economic inclusion, fair labor practices, worker safety, and observing fair labor practices within our organization and our supply chain.
Contributing to Our Communities
One of our Guiding Principles is to strive to help our communities be great places to live. We live this Guiding Principle and further the goals of our Human Rights Policy and our Global Policy on Philanthropic Contributions and Non-Commercial Sponsorships when we contribute and encourage our employees to contribute to our local communities. Our contributions are intended to support the communities in which we operate, those who may not be in a position to directly benefit from employment with us or from our primary business activities, or those who can benefit from the value derived from our support or collaboration. See the Giving section of our Guiding Principles Report for more information about the ways that we supported a wide range of charitable and non-commercial causes through donations of time, talent, and treasure that align with our Guiding Principles.
Our People are the Company: Inclusion, Engagement, and Accountability; Human Capital Management
We believe in creating quality for life. We believe our people are the company. We believe lasting relationships create our global success. We believe our people are our competitive edge for our service, quality, and value. Our people are the reason for our success. Kimball Electronics has been built upon the tradition of pride in craftsmanship, mutual trust, personal integrity, respect for dignity of the individual, a spirit of cooperation, and a sense of family and good humor. We seek to enhance this culture as we grow. We believe in the inherent value of all individuals.
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Because our people are the reason for our success, central to our long-term strategy is attracting, developing, and retaining the best talent globally and strengthening collaboration. We are committed to pay equity and apply the principle of equal pay for work of equal value in all regions where we operate. As of June 30, 2025, Kimball Electronics employed approximately 5,700 people worldwide, with approximately 1,000 located in the United States and approximately 4,700 located in foreign countries. Three of our Independent Directors are female along with 50% of the Board’s leadership and 50% of our executive leadership team.
We value and work to promote a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment. We are committed to holding ourselves accountable, taking action to continuously improve our policies and practices, and upholding the principles that encompass diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as outlined in our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEI&B”) statement. Our strategy is to achieve excellence in customer service, employee relations, and business objectives through creativity, responsiveness, and innovation as a result of increased well-being, sense of belonging, and meaningful work for our employees. We actively promote DEI&B, and incorporate DEI&B into our culture, values, and strategies. We provide a report on the diversity of our employees to our Board and in our Guiding Principles Report.
The average tenure within our workforce is 8 years, and we work hard to mitigate turnover risk by consistently and formally surveying our workforce about how well we are living up to our People Guiding Principles by asking them to anonymously rate us on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high). We currently have a score of 8.13 across our enterprise. We believe this is evidence that we truly operate our business as our people are the company. We consistently have a participation rate in our Guiding Principles survey of approximately 85%. Upon completion of this survey every year, each local management team receives qualitative and quantitative feedback and are responsible for crafting improvement plans based on our people’s inputs. These commitments are further detailed in our 2024 Guiding Principles Report, available at https://www.kimballelectronics.com/sustainability.
Our U.S. operations are not subject to collective bargaining arrangements. Certain foreign operations are subject to collective bargaining arrangements, many mandated by government regulation or customs of the particular countries. We believe that our employee relations are good.
For additional information, see our definitive Proxy Statement to be filed no later than 120 days after the end of the Company’s fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Available Information
The Company makes available free of charge through its website, https://investors.kimballelectronics.com, its annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). All reports the Company files with the SEC are also available via the SEC website, http://www.sec.gov. The Company’s website and the information contained therein, or incorporated therein, are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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Item 1A - Risk Factors
The following important risk factors, among others, could affect future results and events, causing results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements made in this report and presented elsewhere by management from time to time. Such factors, among others, may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations and should be carefully considered. Additional risks and uncertainties that we do not currently know about, we currently believe are immaterial, or we have not predicted may also affect our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Because of these and other factors, past performance should not be considered an indication of future performance.
Business and Operational Risks
Reduction of purchases by, or the loss of, one or more key customers could reduce revenues and profitability.
Losses of key customers within specific industries or significant volume reductions from key customers are both risks. Our continuing success is dependent upon replacing expiring contract customers/programs with new customers/programs. See “Customers” in Item 1 - Business for disclosure of the net sales as a percentage of consolidated net sales for each of our significant customers during fiscal years 2025, 2024, and 2023. Regardless of whether our agreements with our customers, including our significant customers, have a definite term, our customers typically do not commit to firm production schedules for more than one quarter. Our customers generally have the right to cancel a particular product, subject to contractual provisions governing the final product runs, excess or obsolete inventory, recovery of dedicated investments, and end-of-life pricing. As many of our costs and operating expenses are relatively fixed, a reduction in customer demand, particularly a reduction in demand for a product that represents a significant amount of revenue, can harm our gross profit margins and results of operations.
Significant declines in the level of purchases by key customers or the loss of a significant number of customers could have a material adverse effect on our business. As many of our costs and operating expenses are relatively fixed, a reduction in customer demand, particularly a reduction in demand for a product that represents a significant amount of revenue, can harm our gross profit margins and results of operations.
Consolidation among our customers exposes us to increased risks, including reduced revenue and dependence on a smaller number of customers. Consolidation in industries that utilize our services may occur as companies combine to achieve further economies of scale and other synergies, which could result in an increase in excess manufacturing capacity as companies seek to divest manufacturing operations or eliminate duplicative product lines. Excess manufacturing capacity may increase pricing and competitive pressures for our industry as a whole and for us in particular. In addition, the nature of the contract manufacturing industry is such that the start-up of new customers and new programs to replace expiring programs occurs frequently, and new customers and program start-ups generally cause margin dilution early in the life of a program.
We can provide no assurance that we will be able to fully replace any lost sales from these risks, which could have an adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
Our ability to efficiently utilize our manufacturing capacity is highly dependent on our customers’ actions.
Regardless of whether our agreements with our customers, including our significant customers, have a definite term, our customers typically do not commit to firm production schedules for more than one quarter. Our customers generally have the right to cancel a particular product, subject to contractual provisions governing the final product runs, excess or obsolete inventory, recovery of dedicated investments, and end-of-life pricing. Accordingly, our relative ability (or inability) to forecast customer demand levels can make it difficult to schedule production and maximize the efficient use of our manufacturing capacity and supply chain capabilities.
Many factors outside of our control impact our customers and their ordering behavior, including global pandemics, recessions in end markets, changing technologies and industry standards, commercial acceptance for products, shifting market demand, product obsolescence, changing sourcing strategies, and our customers’ loss of business. New customer relationships also present risk because we do not have an extensive product or customer relationship history.
We cannot assure you that our current or future customers will not terminate their manufacturing service arrangements with us or significantly change, reduce, cancel, or delay the amount of services ordered. Such changes, delays and cancellations have led to, and may lead in the future to declines in our production, increases in excess or obsolete inventory that we may not be able to sell to customers or third parties, and reductions in the efficient use of our manufacturing facilities. In the past, we have also been required to increase staffing and other expenses in order to meet anticipated demand. On occasion, customers have required rapid increases in production for one or more of their products, which stresses our resources and may have an adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
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Supply chain disruptions could increase our inventory costs, interrupt our operations, or prevent us from purchasing sufficient materials, parts, and components necessary to meet customer demand at competitive prices, in a timely manner, or at all.
We depend on suppliers globally to provide timely delivery of materials, parts, and components for use in our products. We have experienced, and may again experience in the future, shortages of some of the materials, parts and components that we use, particularly with semiconductors. These shortages can result from strong demand for those components or from problems experienced by suppliers, such as shortages of raw materials and shipping delays for such components with common carriers. These unanticipated component shortages have and, when they occur, may continue to result in curtailed production or delays in production, which prevent us from making scheduled shipments to customers.
Our integrated supply chain solutions for purchasing components and materials is a competitive strength and key to our strategy as a CMO. Inflation and prices from suppliers have increased and may continue to rise. When prices rise for these or other similar reasons, they impact our margins and results of operations if we are not able to pass the increases through to our customers or otherwise offset them through cost savings. Many of our customer contracts permit periodic prospective adjustments to pricing based on decreases and increases in component prices and other factors; however, we could bear the risk of component price increases that occur between any such re-pricing or, if such re-pricing is not permitted or accepted by customers, during the balance of the term of the particular customer contract. There can be no assurance that we will continue to be able to purchase the components and materials needed to manufacture customer products at favorable prices. Accordingly, certain component price increases could adversely affect our gross profit margins and results of operations.
We have also experienced, and may again experience in the future, such shortages due to the effects of and responses to industry-wide conditions, pandemics, natural disasters, and other events outside our control, including macroeconomic events, trade restrictions, political crises, social unrest, terrorism, and conflicts (including the Russian invasion of, and ongoing war in, Ukraine). We cannot reasonably predict the full extent to which these events may impact our supply chain, because any impacts will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and continuously evolving, including new information that may emerge concerning new or existing pandemics, further actions by governmental entities or others in response to the types of events described above, and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume.
Suppliers adjust their capacity as demand fluctuates, and component shortages and/or component allocations could occur in addition to longer lead times. Certain components we purchase are primarily manufactured in select regions of the world and issues in those regions could cause manufacturing delays. Maintaining strong relationships with key suppliers of components critical to the manufacturing process is essential. Our production of a customer’s product has and could again be negatively impacted by any quality, reliability or availability issues with any of our component suppliers. Component shortages may also increase our cost of goods sold because we may be required to pay higher prices for components in short supply and redesign or reconfigure products to accommodate substitute components. These and other price increases, including increased tariffs, could have an adverse impact on our profitability if we cannot offset such increases with other cost reductions or by price increases to customers. If a component shortage is threatened or anticipated, we have and may in the future purchase such components in greater quantities and over longer lead times to avoid a delay or interruption in our operations. Purchasing additional components in this way may cause us to incur additional inventory carrying costs and may cause us to experience inventory obsolescence, both of which may not be recoverable from our customers and could adversely affect our gross profit margins and results of operations. If suppliers fail to meet commitments to us in terms of price, delivery, or quality, or if the supply chain is unable to react timely to increases in demand, it could interrupt our operations and negatively impact our ability to meet commitments to customers.
The substantial investments required to start up and expand facilities and new customer programs may adversely affect our margins and profitability.
We continue to expand our global operations by increasing our product and service offerings, including as a CMO, and scaling our infrastructure at certain facilities to support our business. This expansion increases the complexity of our business and places significant strain on our management, personnel, operations, systems, technical performance, financial resources, and internal financial control and reporting functions. We may not be able to manage these expansions effectively or successfully, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth, and negatively affect our operating results.
Start-ups of new customer programs require the coordination of the design and manufacturing processes, as well as substantial investments in resources and equipment. The design and engineering required for certain new programs can take an extended period of time, and further time may be required to achieve customer acceptance. Accordingly, the launch of any particular program may be delayed, less successful than we originally anticipated, or not successful at all. Additionally, even after acceptance, most of our customers do not commit to long-term production schedules, and we are unable to forecast the level of customer orders with certainty over a given period of time. If our customers do not purchase anticipated levels of products, we may not recover our up-front investments, may not realize profits, and may not effectively utilize expanded fixed manufacturing capacities. All of these types of manufacturing inefficiencies could have an adverse impact on our financial position, operating margins, results of operations, or cash flows.
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Our international operations make us vulnerable to financial and operational risks associated with doing business in foreign countries.
We derive a substantial majority of our revenues from our operations outside the United States, primarily in China, Mexico, Poland, Romania, and Thailand. Our international operations are subject to a number of risks, which may include the following:
•global, regional, or local economic and political instability;
•widespread health emergencies and foreign governments’ measures taken in response to them;
•foreign currency fluctuations including currency controls and inflation, which may adversely affect our ability to do business in certain markets and reduce the U.S. dollar value of revenues, profits, or cash flows we generate in non-U.S. markets;
•warfare, riots, terrorism, general strikes, or other forms of violence and/or geopolitical disruption, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war there;
•compliance with laws and regulations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, applicable to operations outside of the U.S.;
•changes in U.S. or foreign policies, regulatory requirements, and laws;
•tariffs and other trade barriers imposed by the United States and/or other countries;
•potentially adverse tax consequences, including changes in tax rates and the manner in which multinational companies are taxed in the United States and other countries; and
•foreign labor practices.
These risks could have an adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. Certain foreign jurisdictions restrict the amount of cash that can be transferred to the United States or impose taxes and penalties on such transfers of cash. To the extent we have excess cash in foreign locations that could be used in, or is needed by, our operations in the United States, we may incur significant penalties and/or taxes to repatriate these funds.
Changes to U.S. tariff measures and other potential changes in international trade relations implemented by the U.S. or other countries could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.
Our supply chain is heavily reliant on raw materials and components manufactured and assembled in various countries, including China. These supply chain operations are subject to tariff and other international trade regulations in each of the countries where we operate. For example, when imported into the U.S., such raw materials and components are subject to applicable rates of duty. The U.S. government has recently made statements and taken certain actions that have created significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the U.S. and various other countries regarding trade policies, treaties, government regulations, and tariffs, including implementing tariffs on certain countries and implementing and subsequently pausing and, sometimes, reimplementing such tariffs on others. Because of these statements and actions, we are exposed to the possibility of supply disruptions and increased costs and expenses. Significant uncertainty exists about the future relationship between the U.S. and other countries regarding trade policies, treaties, and tariffs.
We are currently evaluating the potential impact of the imposition of tariffs on our business, our customers and financial condition and implementing measures that may address or mitigate the potential impact on our business. We cannot predict with certainty the future trade policy of the U.S. or other countries, and we cannot reasonably predict the full extent to which these events may impact our supply chain, because any impacts will depend on future trade policy, treaty, and tariff developments that are highly uncertain and continuously evolving. Relevant factors include whether such tariffs are ultimately implemented, the timing and duration of implementation and the amount, scope, and nature of such tariffs and potential exclusions from the application of those tariffs. These tariffs and other unfavorable government policies on international trade (such as export controls) may increase the cost of manufacturing our customers’ products, affect the demand for our manufacturing services, or restrict our access to raw materials and components used in the manufacture of our customers’ products, each of which could negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations. Further, such developments, or the perception that any such developments could occur, may have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global trade and, in particular, trade between the impacted nations and the U.S. Any of these factors could depress economic activity and adversely impact the price and demand for our customers’ products, increase our costs, and affect our customers and suppliers, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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We operate in a highly competitive industry and may not be able to compete successfully.
Numerous manufacturers within the contract manufacturing industry compete globally for business from existing and potential customers. Some of our competitors have greater resources and more geographically diversified international operations than we do. We also face competition from the manufacturing operations of our customers, who are continually evaluating the merits of manufacturing products internally against the advantages of outsourcing to contract manufacturing service providers. In the past, some of our customers have decided to in-source a portion of their manufacturing from us in order to utilize their excess internal manufacturing capacity. The competition may further intensify as more companies enter the markets in which we operate, as existing competitors expand capacity, and as the industry consolidates.
In relation to customer pricing pressures, if we cannot achieve the proportionate reductions in costs, profit margins may suffer. The high level of competition in the industry impacts our ability to implement price increases or, in some cases, even maintain prices, which also could lower profit margins. In addition, as end markets dictate, we are continually assessing excess capacity and developing plans to better utilize manufacturing operations, including consolidating and shifting manufacturing capacity to lower cost venues as necessary.
If our engineering and manufacturing services do not meet our customers’ quality standards, our sales, operating results, and reputation could suffer.
We make substantial investments of capital and operating expenses to implement comprehensive, company-wide quality systems, certifications, and controls in our operations in an effort to ensure sustained compliance with various product and quality system regulations and requirements, and to meet the needs of our customers. However, in the event we fail to adhere to these requirements, we become subject to costs associated with product defects, interruptions in production, and reputational harm. Our failure to comply with applicable quality system standards could, in turn, adversely affect our customers through failures to supply product to them. Quality or noncompliance failures could have an adverse effect on our reputation in addition to an adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. While we maintain product liability and other insurance coverage that we believe to be generally in accordance with industry practices, our insurance coverage may not be adequate to protect us fully against substantial claims and costs that may arise from warranty and other liabilities related to product defects.
Our business may be harmed due to failure to successfully implement information technology solutions or a lack of reasonable safeguards to maintain data security, including adherence to data privacy laws and physical security measures.
The operation of our business depends on effective information technology systems, including data management, analytics, and emerging machine learning and artificial intelligence platforms and applications. These systems are subject to the risk of security breach or cybersecurity threat, including misappropriation of assets or other sensitive information, such as confidential business information and personally identifiable data relating to employees, customers, and other business partners, or data corruption which could cause operational disruption. The unpredictability of AI, machine learning, and similar systems that automate certain operational tasks bring the potential for unintended consequences and unexpected disruptions in business operations, financial losses, and reputational damage. As we could be the target of cyber and other security threats, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated, we must continuously monitor and develop our information technology networks and infrastructure to prevent, detect, address, and mitigate the risk of unauthorized access, misuse, computer viruses, and other events that could have a security impact. Information systems require an ongoing commitment of significant resources to research new technologies and processes, maintain and enhance existing systems, and develop new systems in order to keep pace with changes in information processing technology and evolving industry standards as well as to protect against cyber risks and security breaches. While we provide employee awareness training around phishing, malware, and other cyber threats to help protect against these cyber and security risks, we cannot ensure the measures we take to protect our information technology systems will be sufficient.
Implementation delays, poor execution, or a breach of information technology systems could disrupt our operations, damage our reputation, or increase costs related to the mitigation of, response to, or litigation arising from any such issue. Similar risks exist with our third-party vendors. Any problems caused by these third parties, including those resulting from disruption in communications services, cyber attacks, or security breaches, have the potential to hinder our ability to conduct business. In addition, data privacy laws and regulations, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the UK GDPR, ePrivacy Directive, the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), and similar legislation in jurisdictions in which we operate, pose increasingly complex compliance challenges and potentially elevate costs, and any failure to comply with these laws and regulations could result in significant penalties.
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We depend on attracting and retaining executive officers, key employees, skilled personnel, and sufficient labor to efficiently operate our business.
Our success depends to a large extent on our ability to attract and retain highly qualified and diverse executive officers, key employees, and skilled personnel, and to continue to implement our succession plans for managers and other key employees. These employees are not generally bound by employment or non-competition agreements, and we cannot assure you that we will retain them. The labor market for these employees is intensely competitive, and compensation and benefit costs continue to increase significantly in the current economic environment. In particular, the high demand for manufacturing labor in certain geographic areas in which we operate makes recruiting new production employees and retaining experienced production employees difficult.
Our success also depends on keeping pace with technological advancements, including Industry 4.0, and adapting services to provide manufacturing capabilities which meet customers’ changing needs. Therefore, we must retain our qualified engineering and technical personnel and successfully anticipate and respond to technological changes in a cost effective and timely manner.
Shortages of workers could adversely impact our ability to operate our business effectively and timely serve our customers’ needs, which could adversely affect our relations with customers, result in reductions in orders from customers, or cause us to lose customers. Turnover in personnel could result in additional training and inefficiencies that could adversely impact our operating results. Our culture and guiding principles focus on continuous training, motivating, and development of employees, and we strive to attract, motivate, and retain qualified personnel. To aid in managing our growth and strengthening our pool of qualified personnel, we will need to internally develop, recruit, and retain diverse, qualified personnel. If we are not able to do so, our business and our ability to continue to grow could be harmed.
Regulatory and Litigation Risks
Failure to protect our intellectual property could undermine our competitive position.
Competing effectively depends, to a significant extent, on maintaining the proprietary nature of our intellectual property. We attempt to protect our intellectual property rights worldwide through a combination of keeping our proprietary information secret and utilizing trademark, copyright, and trade secret laws, as well as licensing agreements and third-party non-disclosure and assignment agreements. Because of the differences in foreign laws concerning proprietary rights, our intellectual property rights do not generally receive the same degree of protection in foreign countries as they do in the United States, and therefore, in some parts of the world, we have limited protections, if any, for our intellectual property. If we are unable to adequately protect our intellectual property embodied in our solutions, designs, processes, and products, the competitive advantages of our proprietary technology could be reduced or eliminated, which would harm our business and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial position.
Anti-takeover provisions in our organizational documents and Indiana law could delay or prevent a change in control.
Certain provisions of our Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation and the Amended and Restated By-Laws may delay or prevent a merger or acquisition that a Share Owner may consider favorable. For example, the Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation authorizes our Board of Directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock, prevents Share Owners from acting by written consent without unanimous consent, and requires a supermajority Share Owner approval for certain business combinations with related persons. These provisions may discourage acquisition proposals or delay or prevent a change in control, which could harm our stock price. Indiana law also imposes some restrictions on potential acquirers.
Our failure to maintain applicable registrations for our manufacturing facilities could negatively impact our ability to produce products for our customers.
We make substantial investments of capital and operating expenses to implement comprehensive, company-wide quality systems, certifications, and controls in our operations in an effort to ensure sustained compliance with various product and quality system regulations and requirements, and to meet the needs of our customers. However, in the event we fail to adhere to these requirements, we become subject to potential investigations and fines and penalties. Our failure to comply with applicable regulations and quality system standards could, in turn, adversely affect our customers through failures to supply product to them or delays in their ability to obtain and maintain product approvals. As a medical device manufacturer, we also have additional compliance requirements. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) extensively regulates all aspects of product and manufacturing quality for medical products under its current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) regulations. Outside the U.S., our operations and our customers’ products are subject to similar regulatory requirements, notably by the European Medicines Agency and the Safe Food and Drug Administration in China. For instance, we are required to register with the FDA and are subject to periodic inspection by the FDA for compliance with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation (“QSR”) requirements, which require manufacturers of medical devices to adhere to certain regulations, including testing, quality control and documentation procedures. Any determination by the FDA or other regulatory authorities of manufacturing or other deficiencies could adversely affect our business. Failure or noncompliance could have an adverse effect on our reputation in addition to an adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
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Climate change, and the legal and regulatory initiatives related to climate change, could subject us to extensive environmental regulation and significant potential environmental liabilities.
There is increasing concern that a gradual increase in global average temperatures due to increased concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will cause significant changes in weather patterns around the globe and an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters or extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, cyclones, or floods. Physical climate risks and the operation of facilities in areas subject to increased water stress could impair our production capabilities, disrupt the operations of our supply chain and infrastructure, and impact our customers and their demand for our services.
The past and present operation and ownership by Kimball Electronics of manufacturing plants and real property are subject to extensive and changing federal, state, local, and foreign environmental laws and regulations, including those relating to discharges in air, water, and land, the handling and disposal of solid and hazardous waste, the use of certain hazardous materials in the production of select products, and the remediation of contamination associated with releases of hazardous substances.
In addition, as regulators and investors increasingly focus on climate change and other sustainability issues, we are subject to new disclosure frameworks and regulations. For example, the European Parliament adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the resulting adoption of EU sustainability reporting standards to be developed by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, with such standards to be tailored to EU policies building on and contributing to international standardization initiatives, will apply not only to local operations in the EU, but under certain circumstances, to entire global companies like Kimball Electronics that have EU operations. As part of our commitment to transparency and accountability, we wrote our annual Guiding Principles Report to align with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), as outlined by the CSRD. We expect that continued compliance with the CSRD and ESRS could require significant effort in future years. Other climate change disclosure requirements, and compliance with such rules, if and when they are finalized, could also require significant effort, particularly if they do align with existing initiatives like ESRS and CSRD.
We cannot predict what environmental legislation or regulations will be enacted in the future, how existing or future laws or regulations will be administered or interpreted, or what environmental conditions may be found to exist. Compliance with more stringent laws or regulations, or stricter interpretation of existing laws, may require additional expenditures, some of which could be material. In addition, any investigations or remedial efforts relating to environmental matters could involve material costs or otherwise result in material liabilities.
The long-term effects of climate change on the global economy and our industry in particular are unclear. Changes in climate where we, our customers, and our supply chain operate could have a long-term adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. In addition, we have committed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, waste and hazardous waste intensity and increase our use of renewable electricity and recycled water significantly by 2030 as part of our long-term sustainability strategy, and we may take additional voluntary steps to mitigate our impact on the environment. Climate transition risks related to shifts to a low-carbon economy and the associated costs of retrofitting or constructing facilities with green technology, in addition to investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency could involve material costs or otherwise impact our customers and their demand for our services.
Environmental regulations or changes in the supply, demand, or available sources of energy, water, or other resources may affect the availability or cost of goods and services, including natural resources, necessary to run our business. The cost of energy is a critical component of freight expense and the cost of operating manufacturing facilities. Increases in the cost of energy in particular could reduce our profitability. Given the political significance and uncertainty around these issues, we cannot predict how climate change, and the legal and regulatory initiatives related to climate change, will affect our operations and financial condition.
Compliance with government legislation and regulations may significantly increase our operating costs in the United States and abroad.
Legislation and regulations promulgated by the U.S. federal and foreign governments could significantly impact our profitability by burdening us with forced cost choices that either cannot be recovered by increased pricing or, if we increase our pricing, could negatively impact demand for our products. For example:
•Changes in policies by the U.S. or other governments could negatively affect our operating results due to changes in duties, tariffs or taxes, or limitations on currency or fund transfers, as well as government-imposed restrictions on producing certain products in, or shipping them to, specific countries. These changes could force our customers or us to consider various strategic options including, but not limited to, looking for different suppliers, shifting production to facilities in different geographic regions, absorbing the additional costs, or passing the cost on to customers. Ultimately, these changes could adversely affect the competitiveness of our domestic operations, which could lead to
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the reduction or exit of certain U.S. manufacturing capacity. Depending on the types of changes made, demand for our foreign manufacturing facilities could be reduced, or operating costs in our manufacturing facilities could be increased, which could negatively impact our financial performance. Moreover, any retaliatory actions by other countries where we operate could also negatively impact our financial performance.
•The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act contains provisions to improve transparency and accountability concerning the supply of certain minerals, known as “conflict minerals,” originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) and adjoining countries. These rules could adversely affect the sourcing, supply, and pricing of materials used in our products, as the number of suppliers who provide conflict-free minerals may be limited. We may also suffer reputational harm if we determine that certain of our products contain minerals not determined to be conflict-free or if we are unable to modify our products to avoid the use of such materials. We may also face challenges in satisfying customers who may require that our products be certified as containing conflict-free minerals or that we adopt more stringent guidelines like those fostered by the Responsible Business Alliance (“RBA”) and Responsible Materials Initiative (“RMI”).
•We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign environmental, health and safety, product stewardship and producer responsibility laws and regulations, including those arising from global pandemics or relating to the use, generation, storage, discharge and disposal of hazardous chemicals used during our manufacturing process, those governing worker health and safety, those requiring design changes, supply chain investigation or conformity assessments, and those relating to the recycling or reuse of products we manufacture. These include EU regulations and directives, such as the Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (“RoHS”), the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“WEEE”) directives, and the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (“REACH”) regulation, and similar regulations in China (the Management Methods for Controlling Pollution for Electronic Information Products or “China RoHS”). In addition, new technical classifications of e-Waste being discussed in the Basel Convention technical working group could affect both our customers’ abilities and obligations in electronics repair and refurbishment. If we fail to comply with any present or future regulations or timely obtain any needed permits, we could become subject to liabilities, and we could face fines or penalties, the suspension of production, or prohibitions on sales of products we manufacture. In addition, such regulations could restrict our ability to expand our facilities or could require us to acquire costly equipment, or to incur other significant expenses, including expenses associated with the recall of any non-compliant product or with changes in our operational, procurement and inventory management activities.
Sustainability/ESG issues, including those related to climate change and sustainability, may increase our costs and impose difficult and expensive compliance requirements.
Customers, consumers, investors, and other stakeholders, particularly in the EMS industry, are increasingly focusing on environmental issues, including climate change, water use, deforestation, waste, and other sustainability concerns. Along with our stakeholders and our broader industry, we have increased our focus on sustainability and measurement of our progress against sustainability criteria, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to achieve relevant criteria with our current focus. Our ability to successfully execute relevant initiatives and accurately report our progress presents numerous operational, financial, legal, reputational and other risks, many of which are outside our control, and all of which could have a material negative impact on our business.
New disclosures, along with the evolving global regulatory landscape, may present increased compliance costs and regulatory or enforcement risks, as well as increased competition from market participants who may adopt more robust sustainability/ESG reporting and sustainable business practices. If our sustainability initiatives fail to satisfy investors, current or potential customers, consumers, and our other stakeholders, our reputation, our ability to sell products and services to customers, our ability to attract or retain employees, and our attractiveness as an investment or business partner could be negatively impacted. Similarly, our failure or perceived failure to pursue or fulfill our goals, targets, and objectives, or to satisfy various reporting standards within the timelines we announce, or at all, could also have similar negative impacts and expose us to government enforcement actions and private litigation.
In addition, our customers have adopted, and may continue to adopt, procurement policies that require us to comply with governance, social, and environmental responsibility provisions. Our customers have also adopted, and may continue to adopt, goals and policies that serve to increase their demand for goods or services that do not produce significant greenhouse gas emissions and are not related to carbon-based energy sources. Furthermore, an increasing number of investors have adopted, and may continue to adopt, ESG policies for their portfolio companies, and various voluntarily sustainability initiatives and organizations have promulgated different social and environmental responsibility and sustainability guidelines. These practices, policies, provisions, and initiatives are under active development, subject to change, can be unpredictable and conflicting, and may prove difficult and expensive for us to comply with and could negatively affect our reputation, business, or financial condition.
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Financial Risks
We are exposed to the credit risk of our customers.
The instability of market conditions drives an elevated risk of potential bankruptcy of customers resulting in a greater risk of uncollectible outstanding accounts receivable. Accordingly, we intensely monitor our receivables and related credit risks. The realization of these risks could have a negative impact on our profitability.
Failure to effectively manage working capital may adversely affect our cash flow from operations.
We closely monitor inventory and receivable efficiencies and continuously strive to improve these measures of working capital, but customer financial difficulties, cancellation or delay of customer orders, shifts in customer payment practices, transfers of production among our manufacturing facilities, additional inventory purchases to mitigate potential impact from component shortages, or manufacturing delays could adversely affect our cash flow from operations.
We could incur losses due to asset impairment.
As business conditions change, we must continually evaluate and work toward the optimum asset base. It is possible that certain assets such as, but not limited to, facilities, equipment, intangible assets, or goodwill could be impaired at some point in the future depending on changing business conditions. Such impairment could have an adverse impact on our financial position and results of operations.
Fluctuations in our effective tax rate could have a significant impact on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.
Our effective tax rate is highly dependent upon the geographic mix of earnings across the jurisdictions where we operate. Changes in tax laws or tax rates in those jurisdictions could have a material impact on our operating results. Judgment is required in determining the worldwide provision for income taxes, other tax liabilities, interest, and penalties. We base our tax position upon the anticipated nature and conduct of our business and upon our understanding of the tax laws of the various countries in which we have assets or conduct activities. Our tax position, however, is subject to review and possible challenge by taxing authorities and to possible changes in law (including adverse changes to the manner in which the United States and other countries tax multinational companies or interpret their tax laws). We cannot determine in advance the extent to which some jurisdictions may assess additional tax or interest and penalties on such additional taxes. In addition, our effective tax rate may be increased by changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in our cash management strategies, changes in local tax rates, or countries adopting more aggressive interpretations of tax laws.
Several countries where we operate provide tax incentives to attract and retain business. We have obtained incentives where available and practicable. Our taxes could increase if certain incentives were retracted, they were not renewed upon expiration, we no longer qualify for such programs, or tax rates applicable to us in such jurisdictions were otherwise increased. In addition, our growth may cause our effective tax rate to increase, depending on the jurisdictions in which we expand our business or acquire operations. Given the scope of our international operations and our international tax arrangements, changes in tax rates and the manner in which multinational companies are taxed in the United States and other countries could have a material impact on our financial results and competitiveness.
Certain of our subsidiaries provide financing, products, and services to, and may undertake certain significant transactions with, other subsidiaries in different jurisdictions. Moreover, several jurisdictions in which we operate have tax laws with detailed transfer pricing rules which require that all transactions with non-resident related parties be priced using arm’s length pricing principles and that contemporaneous documentation must exist to support such pricing. Due to inconsistencies among jurisdictions in the application of the arm’s length standard, our transfer pricing methods may be challenged and, if not upheld, could increase our income tax expense. In addition, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development continues to issue guidelines and proposals related to transfer pricing and profit shifting that may result in legislative changes that could reshape international tax rules in numerous countries and negatively impact our effective tax rate.
We are exposed to foreign currency risk.
During fiscal year 2025, after appreciating sharply against many foreign currencies for several months, the dollar depreciated sharply, erasing essentially all of its appreciation since February 2022. Fluctuations in exchange rates could impact our operating results. Our risk management strategy includes the use of derivative financial instruments to hedge certain foreign currency exposures. Any hedging techniques we implement contain risks and may not be entirely effective. Exchange rate fluctuations could also make our products more expensive than competitors’ products not subject to these fluctuations, which could adversely affect our revenues and profitability in international markets.
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A failure to comply with the financial covenants under our credit facilities could adversely impact us.
Our primary credit facility requires us to comply with certain financial covenants. We believe the most significant covenants under our credit facilities are the ratio of consolidated total indebtedness minus unencumbered U.S. cash on hand in the United States in excess of $15 million to adjusted consolidated EBITDA, as defined in our primary credit facility, and the interest coverage ratio. More detail on these financial covenants is discussed in Item 7 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. As of June 30, 2025, we had $147.5 million in borrowings under our credit facilities and had total cash and cash equivalents of $88.8 million. In the future, a default on the financial covenants under our credit facilities could cause an increase in the borrowing rates or make it more difficult for us to secure future financing, which could adversely affect our financial condition.
We are exposed to inflation, interest rate, and other banking and capital market risks.
High levels of inflation in the U.S. and other countries where we operate have and may continue to increase our costs and may impact pricing and customer demand, both of which may impact our revenues and earnings. We have exposure to interest rate risk on our borrowings under our credit facilities. The interest rates of these borrowings are based on a spread plus applicable base rate, including the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (“EURIBOR”), the prime rate of a reference bank, or the federal funds rate. An adverse change in the base rates upon which our interest rates are determined could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations, or cash flows. Rising interest rates have increased our costs of borrowing. Additionally, volatility in capital markets could present challenges to us if we need to raise funds in the equity market. This, in turn, may cause us to adopt strategies that may be less capital-intensive. Volatility in the credit markets, including due to the recent bank failures as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s actions and pace of interest rate increases to combat inflation in the U.S., may have an adverse effect on our ability to obtain debt financing.
General Risk Factors
We will face risks associated with the organic and inorganic growth of our business and we may neither be able to continue that growth nor have the necessary resources to dedicate to that growth.
We plan to expand our business to new customers, new commercial applications, and new commercial markets, including those where we may have limited operating experience, through organic growth and acquisitions. Accordingly, we may be subject to increased business, technology, and economic risks that could materially affect our business. In recent periods, we have increased our focus on organic growth and customer acquisition. In the future, we may increasingly focus on this organic growth, and we may identify inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions and customer divestitures. Expanding in the verticals in which we are already operating will continue to require significant resources and there is no guarantee that such efforts will be successful or beneficial to us. Historically, sales to new customers have often led to additional sales to the same customers or similarly situated customers. As we expand into and within new and emerging markets for our services, we will likely face additional regulatory scrutiny, risks, and business challenges from our customers, governments, and other stakeholders in those markets. While this approach to growth within new and existing commercial markets and verticals has proven successful in the past, it is uncertain we will achieve the same penetration and organic growth or identify suitable inorganic growth opportunities in the future and our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations could be negatively impacted.
Changes in financial accounting standards or policies have affected, and in the future may affect, our reported financial condition or results of operations.
We prepare our financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP. These principles are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the SEC, and various bodies formed to interpret and create appropriate accounting policies. A change in these policies can have a significant effect on our reported results and may affect our reporting of transactions that are completed before a change is announced. Changes to those rules or questions as to how we interpret or implement them may have a material adverse effect on our reported financial results or on the way we conduct business. See Note 1 - Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information on the adoption of the new accounting guidance.
Litigation or legal proceedings could expose us to significant liabilities and have a negative impact on our reputation.
We are or may become party to various claims and legal proceedings in the ordinary course of our business. These claims and legal proceedings may include lawsuits or claims relating to contracts, intellectual property, product recalls, product liability, employment matters, environmental matters, regulatory compliance, or other aspects of our business. Even when not merited, the defense of these claims and legal proceedings may divert our management’s attention, and we may incur significant expenses in defending these claims and proceedings. In addition, we may be required to pay damage awards or settlements or
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become subject to injunctions or other equitable remedies, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, cash flows, or results of operations. The outcome of litigation is often difficult to predict, and the outcome of pending or future claims and legal proceedings may have a material adverse effect on our financial position, cash flows, or results of operations. We evaluate these claims and legal proceedings to assess the likelihood of unfavorable outcomes and to estimate, if possible, the amount of potential losses. Based on these assessments and estimates, we establish reserves or disclose the relevant litigation claims or legal proceedings, as appropriate. These assessments and estimates are based on the information available to management at the time and involve a significant amount of management judgment. Actual outcomes or losses may differ materially from our current assessments and estimates. If actual outcomes or losses differ materially from our current assessments and estimates or additional claims or legal proceedings are initiated, we could be exposed to significant liabilities.
Natural disasters, pandemics, or other catastrophic events may impact our production schedules and, in turn, negatively impact profitability.
Natural disasters, pandemics, or other catastrophic events, including severe weather (including cyclones, hurricanes, and floods) as well as terrorist attacks, power interruptions, fires, and pandemics, could disrupt operations and likewise our ability to produce or deliver products. Our manufacturing operations require significant amounts of energy, including natural gas and oil, and governmental regulations may control the allocation of such fuels to Kimball Electronics. Employees are an integral part of our business, and events such as a pandemic could reduce the availability of employees reporting for work. In the event we experience a temporary or permanent interruption in our ability to produce or deliver product, revenues could be reduced, and business could be materially adversely affected. In addition, catastrophic events, or the threat thereof, can adversely affect U.S. and world economies, and could result in reduced demand for our customers’ products and delayed or lost revenue for our services. Further, any disruption in our IT systems could adversely affect the ability to receive and process customer orders, manufacture products, and ship products on a timely basis, and could adversely affect relations with customers, potentially resulting in reduction in orders from customers or loss of customers. We maintain insurance to help protect us from costs relating to some of these matters, but it may not be sufficient or paid in a timely manner to us in the event of such an interruption.
Item 1B - Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 1C - Cybersecurity
We depend on information systems and technology in substantially all aspects of our business, including communications among our employees and with suppliers and customers. We recognize the significance of developing, implementing, and maintaining cybersecurity measures to safeguard our information systems and products and protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our data.
Cybersecurity Risk Management and Strategy
We have designed our cybersecurity risk management program and strategy to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our critical information technology systems and information. Our program is integrated into, and among the risks evaluated and considered by, our broader enterprise risk management program, through which we identify, assess, prioritize, and mitigate risks across the Company to support the achievement of our strategic objectives.
Managing Material Risks & Integrated Overall Risk Management
Cybersecurity is a critical part of our enterprise risk management. To address cybersecurity threats, we leverage a multi-layer approach, with our Audit Committee providing oversight and direction and our Chief Legal and Administrative Officer leading a team that is responsible for forming our enterprise-wide information security strategy, training, policy, standards, architecture and processes to protect us against cybersecurity risks. Our program includes protocols for preventing, detecting, and responding to cybersecurity incidents, and cross-functional coordination and governance of business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Components of our program include:
•a continuous, four-phase Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process of risk program development, risk assessment and prioritization, risk response, and risk validation and monitoring designed to help identify cybersecurity threats to our critical IT systems, information, and our broader enterprise IT environment;
•the periodic engagement of independent security firms and other third-party experts, where appropriate, to assess, test, and certify components of our cybersecurity program, such as penetration (pen) testing, and to otherwise assist with aspects of our cybersecurity processes and controls;
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•focused, annual, and mandatory risk management education for our employees and leaders, including cybersecurity awareness training, multiple cybersecurity and phishing awareness campaigns throughout each year, and tabletop exercises;
•regular assessments of the design and operational effectiveness of the program’s key processes and controls by management, our internal audit team, and third-party experts; and
•a risk management process for third-party service providers and vendors not under our direct control that includes pre-selection due diligence and validation, and post-selection periodic monitoring to manage cybersecurity risks and monitor adherence to applicable cybersecurity standards.
We utilize ISO 27001 to identify, assess, and manage information security risk and maintain a compliant Information Security Management System (“ISMS”). Our global information security management program is ISO 27001:2013 certified.
Third Party Engagements for Risk Management
We engage a range of external experts, including cybersecurity consultants and auditors to support, evaluate and test our cybersecurity risk management systems. We engage a managed security service provider (“MSSP”) that provides continuous threat intelligence by monitoring our network and connected devices to detect attacks and indicators of potential attacks.
Our collaboration with other third parties includes regular audits of our ISO 27001 compliance, penetration testing, threat assessments, and consultation on security enhancements. These partnerships provide expert knowledge and insights which are designed to ensure our cybersecurity strategies and processes are appropriate.
Governance
The Board’s Role
The Board is responsible for overseeing overall risk management for the Company, including annual or more frequent review and approval of the Enterprise Risk Management approach and processes implemented by management to identify, assess, manage and mitigate risk. The Board has delegated certain responsibilities for oversight of the Company’s cybersecurity and information security framework, data protection, cybersecurity, and risk management to the Audit Committee of the Board. Our Board recognizes that cybersecurity protection is vital to maintaining our operations, and the trust of our business and supply chain partners, and of our Share Owners.
At each of their respective meetings, the Board and/or Audit Committee receive, and provide feedback on, reports on relevant data protection and cybersecurity matters. Additionally, at two meetings each year, management includes additional, in-depth technology and cybersecurity briefings from senior members of our information technology department, internal audit function, and legal department. The topics covered by these reports and briefings include risk management strategies, data protection, ongoing risk mitigation activities, cybersecurity strategy, governance structure, and the results of security breach simulations.
Management’s Role
Our cybersecurity risk management program is led by our Chief Legal and Administrative Officer (CL&AO), who reports to our CEO and manages our security team principally responsible for managing our cybersecurity risk assessment processes, our security controls, and our detection and response to cybersecurity incidents. The CL&AO meets regularly with the CEO and his direct reports to discuss cybersecurity risk and ensure appropriate resources are prioritized to address risks. We continue to secure our own manufacturing and information technology infrastructure; to train our employees throughout each year about malware, viruses, hacking, phishing, and other information security risks, including how to avoid and mitigate them; and to protect our sensitive data from failures, breaches, or cyber incidents. We periodically (more than annually) perform tabletop exercises to test our incident response procedures, identify gaps and improvement opportunities and exercise team preparedness.
The Company’s CL&AO has formal education in information technology and computer science, and extensive experience over 30 years leading information systems and network security functions, centered on technology-intensive telecommunication companies and electronics manufacturers. Our CL&AO receives regular updates on cybersecurity matters, results of mitigation efforts, and cybersecurity incident response and remediation.
The Company’s team responsible for developing and executing our cybersecurity policies together with our CL&AO, including our Director of Cybersecurity and Director of IT Infrastructure and Operations, are individuals with formal education and degrees in information technology or cybersecurity, experience working in information technology and cybersecurity, including relevant industry experience in security related industries, or a combination of both education and experience. Additionally, leaders in the Company’s information technology function receive periodic training and education on cybersecurity-related topics. The CL&AO is responsible for providing quarterly updates to the Board’s Audit Committee regarding the effectiveness of the Company’s cybersecurity program and any material cybersecurity incidents that may arise.
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The Company’s Kimball Electronics Support Center (“KESC”) serves as the central point for all cybersecurity incidents and reporting, including incidents that directly target employees or our information systems and incidents originating from third parties. The KESC monitors, detects, alerts, and responds to cybersecurity incidents, evaluating each incident pursuant to our Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan. The KESC escalates incidents with significant impact and pervasiveness to the Company’s Cybersecurity Incident Response Team (“CIRT”) for further action. Depending on the nature of the attack or indicator, our MSSP will collaborate with our KESC, CIRT, and senior members of our information technology department in response to incidents to contain, mitigate, respond to, investigate and eliminate threats. Where appropriate, the CIRT will escalate incidents to the Audit Committee and the Board for additional consideration, action, and potential disclosure.
The KESC, our cybersecurity leaders, and/or our CIRT evaluate each incident, as appropriate, in terms of its impact on our operations, our ability to conduct business with customers and suppliers, our brand reputation and health, safety, and the speed and degree to which the incident has been contained. These teams are also responsible for activating containment and resolution efforts and interfacing with third-party service providers like our MSSP where appropriate to support the Company through the resolution of the incident. After initial identification, the KESC monitors all cybersecurity incidents for changes in degree of impact or pervasiveness and communicates with our leaders, including the CL&AO and CIRT about the same.
Risks from Cybersecurity Threats
As part of our overall risk mitigation strategy, we maintain insurance coverage for certain aspects of cybersecurity risks; however, such insurance may not be sufficient either in type or amount to cover us against claims related to cybersecurity breaches, cyberattacks, and other related breaches.
As of the date of this report, we do not believe that any risks from cybersecurity threats, including those resulting from any previous cybersecurity incidents, have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect our Company, including our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. Despite our security measures, however, there can be no assurance that we, or third parties with which we interact, will not experience a cybersecurity incident in the future that will materially affect us. For more information on our cybersecurity related risks, see Item 1A - Risk Factors - “Our business may be harmed due to failure to successfully implement information technology solutions or a lack of reasonable safeguards to maintain data security, including adherence to data privacy laws and physical security measures.”
Item 2 - Properties
We have eight manufacturing facilities with two located in Indiana, two in Mexico, and one located in each of Poland, Romania, China, and Thailand. These facilities occupy approximately 1,499,000 square feet in aggregate, substantially all of which are owned. We lease a facility in the Netherlands to accommodate our support services there. In addition, we own a 42,000 square-foot building to house our headquarters located in Jasper, Indiana. Additionally, we executed a lease for a third manufacturing facility in Indiana to expand our medical CMO footprint and production has not started. This lease adds 308,000 square feet. When the leased facility is fully operational, it will replace the existing Indianapolis, Indiana facility. Our Tampa facility, excluded from above, is classified as held for sale, see Note 4 - Restructuring Activities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information.
Generally, our manufacturing facilities are utilized at normal capacity levels on a multiple shift basis. At times, certain facilities utilize reduced shifts due to demand and sales fluctuations. We continually assess our capacity needs and evaluate our operations to optimize our service levels by geographic region. See Item 1A - Risk Factors for information regarding financial and operational risks related to our international operations.
Significant loss of income resulting from a facility catastrophe would be partially offset by business interruption insurance coverage.
We hold a land lease for our facility in China that expires in fiscal year 2056 and one for our facility in Thailand that expires in fiscal year 2030. See Note 1 - Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information concerning leases. In addition, we own approximately 71 acres of land which includes land where our facilities reside.
Item 3 - Legal Proceedings
We and our subsidiaries are not parties to any pending legal proceedings, other than ordinary routine litigation and claims incidental to the business. The outcome of current routine pending litigation and claims, individually and in the aggregate, is not expected to have a material adverse impact on our business or financial condition.
Item 4 - Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
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Information about Our Executive Officers
Our executive officers as of August 22, 2025 are as follows:
(Age as of August 22, 2025)
Name Age Office and Area of Responsibility
Richard D. Phillips 55 Chief Executive Officer and Director
Adam M. Baumann 44 Chief Accounting Officer
Jana T. Croom 48 Chief Financial Officer
Jessica L. DeLorenzo 40 Chief Human Resources Officer
Douglas A. Hass 49 Chief Legal & Administrative Officer, Secretary
Steven T. Korn 61 Chief Operating Officer
Kathy R. Thomson 56 Chief Commercial Officer
Executive officers are appointed annually by the Board of Directors. The following is a brief description of the business experience during the past five or more years of each of our executive officers.
Mr. Phillips was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Director effective March 1, 2023. Mr. Phillips was most recently the President and Chief Executive Officer from 2019 until 2022 for Elkay Manufacturing Company. Previously, Mr. Phillips served as the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Board member from 2017 through 2019, for Essendant, Inc. Mr. Phillips currently serves on the Board of Greenheck Group.
Mr. Baumann was appointed Chief Accounting Officer effective July 1, 2023. He joined Kimball Electronics in April 2019 as Assistant Corporate Controller and served as our Corporate Controller since March 2021. Mr. Baumann was previously employed by Vectren Corporation from 2009 to 2019.
Ms. Croom is our Chief Financial Officer effective July 1, 2021. Ms. Croom joined Kimball Electronics in January 2021 in the role of Vice President, Finance. Prior to joining Kimball Electronics, she held the position of Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis for NiSource Inc. since August 2019. Previously at NiSource Inc., she served as Director of Operations Planning since March 2017 and Director of Regulatory Affairs since April 2014. Ms. Croom currently serves on the Board of First Energy Corp.
Ms. DeLorenzo was appointed Vice President, Human Resources in June 2018, and her title was changed to Chief Human Resources Officer in 2025 to better reflect the evolution of her role at the Company. Ms. DeLorenzo joined Kimball Electronics in 2015 in the position of Director, Organizational Development.
Mr. Hass was appointed Chief Legal and Administrative Officer and Secretary in 2025, having previously served as our Chief Legal and Compliance Officer and Secretary since 2022. He joined Kimball Electronics in 2020 as Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary. From 2016 through 2020, Mr. Hass served as General Counsel and Secretary of Nasdaq-listed Lifeway Foods. Mr. Hass had assumed the leadership of information technology and computing systems, including cybersecurity, following the departure of our former Chief Information Officer on January 1, 2025. Mr. Hass currently serves on the Board of Columbus Insurance, Ltd.
Mr. Korn was appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer effective July 1, 2023. Previously, Mr. Korn was our President, Global Electronics Manufacturing Services Operations since July 2020, and Vice President, North American Operations since 2007.
Ms. Thomson was appointed to the role of Chief Commercial Officer effective July 1, 2023. Previously, Ms. Thomson was our Vice President, Global Business Development and Design Services since August 2018. Prior to joining Kimball Electronics, she held the position of Vice President of Business Development for Creation Technologies since 2012.
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PART II
Item 5 - Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Share Owner Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
The Company’s common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol: KE.
Dividends
Since our inception, we have not paid any dividends on our common stock, and we currently do not have plans to pay dividends in fiscal year 2026. Our Board of Directors (the “Board”) regularly reviews our capital allocation strategy.
Share Owners
On August 7, 2025, the Company’s common stock was owned by approximately 925 Share Owners of record.
Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans
The information required by this item concerning securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans is incorporated by reference to Item 12 - Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Share Owner Matters of Part III.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
On October 21, 2015, our Board approved an 18-month stock repurchase plan (the “Plan”), authorizing the repurchase of up to $20 million worth of our common stock. Then, separately on each of September 29, 2016, August 23, 2017, November 8, 2018, November 10, 2020, and November 15, 2024 the Board extended and increased the Plan to allow the repurchase of up to an additional $20 million worth of common stock with no expiration date, which brought the total authorized stock repurchases under the Plan to $120 million.
During fiscal year 2025, the Company repurchased $11.9 million of common stock under the Plan. The following table contains information about our purchases of equity securities during the three months ended June 30, 2025.
(1)Excludes 1% U.S. excise tax on share repurchases which is recognized as part of the cost basis of the shares acquired in the Consolidated Statements of Share Owners’ Equity.
Item 6 - [Reserved]
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Item 7 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained within this document are considered forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements may be identified by the use of words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “estimates,” “forecasts,” “seeks,” “likely,” “future,” “may,” “might,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “will,” “potentially,” “can,” “goal,” “predict,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, global economic conditions, geopolitical environment and conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, global health emergencies, availability or cost of raw materials and components, tariffs and other trade barriers, foreign exchange fluctuations, and our ability to convert new business opportunities into customers and revenue. Additional cautionary statements regarding other risk factors that could have an effect on the future performance of Kimball Electronics are located within Item 1A - Risk Factors.
Business Overview
We are a global, multifaceted manufacturing solutions provider. We provide electronics manufacturing services (“EMS”), including engineering and supply chain support, to customers in the automotive, medical, and industrial end markets. We further produce higher level and final assemblies and offer contract manufacturing organization (“CMO”) solutions which include the production of medical disposables and drug delivery devices, from precision molded plastics and cold chain management to drug integration. Our manufacturing services, including engineering and supply chain support, utilize common production and support capabilities globally. We are well recognized by our customers and the industry for our excellent quality, reliability, and innovative service. CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, a leading brand and technical publication for electronics manufacturers worldwide, has recognized us for the past 13 consecutive years for rankings in Highest Overall Customer Rating in their Service Excellence Awards. Most recently, we were recognized by our customers for highest ratings in service excellence in seven categories: dependability/timely delivery, manufacturing quality, responsiveness, technology, value for the price, flexibility, and overall satisfaction.
The contract manufacturing services industry is very competitive. As a mid-sized player, we can expect to be challenged by the agility and flexibility of the smaller, regional players, and we can expect to be challenged by the scale and price competitiveness of the larger, global players. We enjoy a unique market position between these extremes which allows us to compete with the larger scale players for high-volume projects, but also maintain our competitive position in the generally lower volume durable electronics market space. We expect to continue to effectively operate in this market space; however, one significant challenge will be maintaining our profit margins. Pricing is competitive in the market as production efficiencies and material pricing advantages for most projects drive costs and prices down over the life of the projects. This characteristic of the contract electronics marketplace is expected to continue.
The Worldwide Manufacturing Services Market - 2025 Edition, a comprehensive study on the worldwide EMS market published by New Venture Research (“NVR”), provided worldwide forecast trends through 2029. NVR projects the worldwide assembly market for electronics products to grow at a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of 6.3% over the next five years.
We continue to monitor the current economic and industry conditions for uncertainties that may pose a threat to our future growth or cause disruption in business strategy, execution, and timing in the markets in which we compete.
Net sales in fiscal year 2025 decreased 13% from the prior fiscal year, with decreases in each of our end market verticals. The decrease in sales to customers in the automotive markets were largely driven by the loss of a major automotive program that was unrelated to Kimball and other automotive programs going end of life. The decrease in sales to customers in the medical markets was primarily driven by lower demand resulting from customer overstocking of inventory. We expect moderate medical growth in fiscal year 2026. The decrease in sales to customers in the industrial market were related to the sale of GES and declines in smart metering and public safety. We expect consolidated net sales in fiscal year 2026 to decline marginally from fiscal year 2025, largely due to the continued impact of the loss of a major automotive program discussed above.
We have a strong focus on cost control balanced with managing the future growth prospects of our business. We expect to make investments that will strengthen or add new capabilities to our package of value as a multifaceted manufacturing solutions company, including through entering into a lease on a new facility for our Indianapolis operations, and our recently completed capacity expansions. Managing working capital in conjunction with fluctuating demand levels is likewise key. In addition, a long-standing component of our profit-sharing incentive bonus plan is its link to our financial performance, which results in varying amounts of compensation expense as profits change.
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We completed the divestiture of our GES business on July 31, 2024 and undertook restructuring efforts beginning in fiscal year 2024 to align our cost structure with reduced end-market demand levels. In addition, on November 4, 2024, the Company announced that its Board of Directors has approved a plan to cease operations at our Tampa facility, which concluded with the assets being held for sale at the end of the fiscal year. The decision was another important step towards sharpening our strategic focus, while leveraging our global footprint and streamlining the operating structure. Production activities on existing customer programs have been transferred out of Tampa as of June 30, 2025, with the majority of the work going to our plants in North America, primarily our newly expanded facility in Mexico and Jasper.
We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet as of the end of fiscal year 2025, which included a current ratio of 2.2, a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.3, and Share Owners’ equity of $570 million. Refer to the Future Liquidity section of Liquidity and Capital Resources below for further discussion of our liquidity.
The continuing success of our business is dependent upon our ability to replace expiring customers/programs with new customers/programs. We monitor our success in this area by tracking the number of customers and the percentage of our net sales generated from them by years of service as depicted in the table below. While variation in the size of program awards makes it difficult to directly correlate this data to our sales trends, we believe it does provide useful information regarding our customer loyalty and new business growth.
Year End
More than 10 Years
Less than 5 Years
% of Net Sales 6 % 6 % 4 %
Total
Our total number of customers declined by seven from 2024 to 2025; three of which were divested with our automation, test, and measurement business, and the remaining four customers accounted for less than 1% of our consolidated net sales in fiscal year 2024.
A detailed discussion of risk factors and uncertainties that could have an effect on our performance are located within Item 1A - Risk Factors.
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Presentation of Results of Operations and Liquidity and Capital Resources
A discussion regarding our financial condition and results of operations for fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024 is presented below. A discussion regarding our financial condition and results of operations for fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year 2023 can be found under captions entitled “Results of Operations - Fiscal Year 2024 Compared with Fiscal Year 2023” and “Liquidity and Capital Resources” in the section entitled “Item 7 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2024 filed with the SEC on August 23, 2024, which is available free of charge through the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov or the Company’s website, https://investors.kimballelectronics.com. The Company’s website and the information contained therein, or incorporated therein, are not intended to be incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Results of Operations - Fiscal Year 2025 Compared with Fiscal Year 2024
At or For the Year Ended
Selling and Administrative Expenses 50.3 3.4 % 66.7 4.0 % (25) %
Other General Income — — % (0.9) (0.1) % 100 %
Goodwill Impairment — — % 5.8 0.3 % (100) %
(Gain on Disposal) Asset Impairment (2.4) (0.2) % 17.0 1.0 % (114) %
Other Income (Expense) (19.3) (24.1)
Provision for Income Taxes 9.2 4.7 97 %
Diluted Earnings per Share $ 0.68 $ 0.81 (16) %
Net Sales by Vertical Market For the Year Ended
Net sales in fiscal year 2025 decreased by 13% compared to net sales in fiscal year 2024. The impact from foreign currency fluctuations on net sales was less than 1% in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. By end market vertical, our market verticals fluctuated as follows:
•Sales to customers in the automotive market were down in the current fiscal year when compared to the prior fiscal year driven by the loss of a major automotive program that was unrelated to Kimball and other automotive programs going end of life.
•Sales to customers in the medical market decreased when compared to the prior fiscal year. This decrease was primarily driven by lower demand resulting from customer overstocking of inventory.
•In the industrial end market vertical, the sale of GES accounts for approximately one third of the sales decrease compared to the prior fiscal year. We also experienced declines in our smart metering programs, where our customers are experiencing continued market share declines from commoditization, and to a lesser degree, declines in public safety and climate control customers.
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Sales to Nexteer Automotive and ZF accounted for the following portions of our net sales:
Year Ended June 30
Nexteer Automotive 19% 16%
Gross profit as a percent of net sales declined in fiscal year 2025 when compared to fiscal year 2024 as we experienced lost absorption on lower revenue.
For fiscal year 2025, selling and administrative expenses declined as a percent of net sales and in absolute dollars when compared to fiscal year 2024, driven by cost reduction efforts, the divestiture of GES in July 2024, the classification of factoring fees, decreased profit-sharing bonus expense, and lower allowance from credit losses.
Other General Income in fiscal year 2024 consisted of $0.9 million resulting from payments received related to class action lawsuits in which Kimball Electronics was a class member. These lawsuits alleged that certain suppliers to the EMS industry conspired over a number of years to raise and fix the prices of electronic components, resulting in overcharges to purchasers of those components. There was no Other General Income reported in fiscal year 2025.
In fiscal year 2025, we recorded pre-tax restructuring expense of $11.0 million, primarily for employee-related costs as we undertook restructuring efforts to align our cost structure with reduced end market demand levels and incurred costs related to the Tampa closure. In fiscal year 2024, we recorded pre-tax restructuring expense of $2.4 million, for employee-related costs as we undertook restructuring efforts to align our cost structure with reduced end market demand levels.
We completed the divestiture of GES on July 31, 2024 and recorded a gain on disposal of $2.4 million during fiscal year 2025. In fiscal year 2024, we recorded pre-tax impairment charges of $5.8 million and $17.0 million on goodwill and assets held for sale, respectively. See Note 3 - Sale of GES of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information.
Other Income (Expense) consisted of the following:
Other Income (Expense) Year Ended
Foreign Currency/Derivative Gain (Loss) (1,751) (1,425)
Gain (Loss) on SERP Investments 614 680
Factoring fees / AR program discounts (2,415) —
Credit facilities fees and bank charges (1,018) (873)
Interest expense has decreased in the year ended June 30, 2025 compared to the year ended June 30, 2024 due to lower borrowings on credit facilities and lower interest rates. Prior to fiscal year 2025, factoring fees were recorded in Selling and Administrative Expenses on our Consolidated Statements of Income. The Foreign Currency/Derivative Gain (Loss) resulted from net foreign currency exchange rate movements during the periods. The losses in fiscal year 2025 and 2024 were driven by the weakening of the U.S. dollar versus foreign currencies that we have exposure to in our business. The revaluation to fair value of the SERP investments recorded in Other Income (Expense) is offset by the revaluation of the SERP liability recorded in Selling and Administrative Expenses, and thus there is no effect on net income.
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Our income before income taxes and effective tax rate were comprised of the following U.S. and foreign components:
The consolidated effective tax rate for fiscal year 2025 was driven higher by the limitation on the deductibility of business interest expense under Section 163(j) and the inclusion of GILTI income which resulted in additional U.S. tax on foreign earnings.
The consolidated effective tax rate for fiscal year 2024 was lower due to the impact of the GES impairment charges, partially offset by the valuation allowance. The domestic unfavorable tax rate was also distorted by the impairment charges.
Our overall effective tax rate will fluctuate depending on the geographic distribution of our worldwide earnings. See Note 12 - Income Taxes of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information.
We recorded net income of $17.0 million in fiscal year 2025, or $0.68 per diluted share, a decrease of 17.2% from fiscal year 2024 net income of $20.5 million, or $0.81 per diluted share.
Open orders were down 2% as of June 30, 2025 compared to June 30, 2024. Open orders are the aggregate sales price of production pursuant to unfulfilled customer orders, which may be delayed or canceled by the customer subject to contractual termination provisions. The majority of open orders as of June 30, 2025 are expected to be filled within the next twelve months. Open orders at a point in time may not be indicative of future sales trends due to the contract nature of our business and the variability of order lead times among our customers.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Working capital at June 30, 2025 was $381.0 million compared to working capital of $471.7 million at June 30, 2024. The current ratio was 2.2 at June 30, 2025 and 2.3 at June 30, 2024, respectively. The debt-to-equity ratio was 0.3 at June 30, 2025 and 0.5 at June 30, 2024. Our short-term liquidity available, represented as cash and cash equivalents plus the unused amount of our credit facilities, some of which are uncommitted, totaled $373.5 million at June 30, 2025 and $220.1 million at June 30, 2024.
Cash Conversion Days (“CCD”) are calculated as the sum of Days Sales Outstanding (“DSO”) plus Contract Asset Days (“CAD”) plus Production Days Supply on Hand (“PDSOH”) less Accounts Payable Days (“APD”) and less Advances from Customers Days (“ACD”). CCD, or a similar metric, is used in our industry and by our management to measure the efficiency of managing working capital. The following table summarizes our CCD for the quarterly periods indicated.
Three Months Ended
We define Days Sales Outstanding as the average of monthly trade accounts and notes receivable divided by an average day’s net sales, Contract Asset Days as the average monthly contract assets divided by an average day’s net sales, Production Days Supply on Hand as the average of monthly gross inventory divided by an average day’s cost of sales, Accounts Payable Days as the average of monthly accounts payable divided by an average day’s cost of sales, and Advances from Customers Days as the average of monthly customer deposits divided by an average day’s cost of sales. Over the past two quarters, we have improved our CCD metrics by better aligning our working capital with the lower sales levels.
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Cash Flows
The following table reflects the major categories of cash flows for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2025 and 2024.
Year Ended June 30
Net cash provided by operating activities $ 183.9 $ 73.2
Net cash used for investing activities $ (14.7) $ (46.5)
Net cash (used for) provided by financing activities $ (160.9) $ 9.0
Cash Flows from Operating Activities
Net cash provided by operating activities for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025 was primarily driven by change in receivables, which provided cash of $71.8 million due to lower sales levels and increased use of factoring programs, and inventories, which provided cash of $74.6 million due to working down previously inflated inventory levels from strategic inventory builds to mitigate part shortages. Net income adjusted for non-cash items also generated operating cash flow of $56.5 million in fiscal year 2025.
Net cash provided for operating activities for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 was driven by net income adjusted for non-cash items, partially offset by changes in operating assets and liabilities. Net income and non-cash adjustments generated operating cash flow of $82.6 million in fiscal year 2024. Partially offsetting this was cash used of $9.4 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities in fiscal year 2024.
Cash Flows from Investing Activities
Net cash used for investing activities during fiscal year 2025 includes $33.7 million cash used for capital investments primarily to support new business awards and replacement of older machinery, partially offset by the $18.5 million of proceeds from the sale of GES. See Note 3 - Sale of GES of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information on the divestiture of GES.
Net cash used for investing activities during fiscal year 2024 includes $47.0 million cash used for capital investments. The capital investments were primarily to support new business awards, replacement of older machinery and equipment, and facility expansions.
Cash Flows from Financing Activities
Net cash used for financing activities for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025 resulted largely from net payments on our credit facilities of $147.3 million.
Net cash provided by financing activities for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 resulted largely from net borrowings on our credit facilities of $13.5 million primarily for working capital purposes and capital expenditures.
Credit Facilities
The Company maintains a U.S. primary credit facility (the “primary credit facility”) scheduled to mature on May 4, 2027. The primary credit facility provides for $300 million in revolving borrowings, with an option to increase the amount available for borrowing to $450 million at the Company’s request, subject to the consent of each lender participating in such increase. On December 20, 2024, the Company entered into an amended and restated credit agreement which resulted in the addition of a term loan borrowing, allowing for term loan borrowings of $100 million repayable in scheduled quarterly installments, and is scheduled to mature on December 20, 2029. This facility is maintained for working capital and general corporate purposes of the Company. The Company terminated its 364-day multi-currency revolving credit facility (the “secondary credit facility”), which previously allowed for borrowings up to $100 million and had a maturity date of January 3, 2025. We were in compliance with the financial covenants of the primary credit facility during the period ended June 30, 2025.
Through the amendment of the primary credit facility, including adding a $100 million term loan borrowing, we were able to maintain our same total borrowing capacity even with the termination of the secondary credit facility. Additionally, we were able to secure our primary credit facility’s interest rate pricing for the $100 million term loan for five years, which is beyond the duration of our current primary credit facility.
We also maintain foreign credit facilities for working capital and general corporate purposes at specific foreign locations rather than utilizing funding from intercompany sources. These foreign credit facilities can be canceled at any time by either the bank or us and generally include renewal clauses. As of June 30, 2025, we maintained foreign credit facilities at our Thailand operation, our Netherlands subsidiary, and our Poland operation.
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See Note 9 - Credit Facilities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information on our credit facilities, including the terms of the credit facilities such as interest, commitment fees, and debt covenants.
Factoring Arrangements
We participate in our customers’ supply chain financing arrangements in order to extend terms for the customer without negatively impacting our cash flow. These arrangements in all cases do not contain recourse provisions which would obligate us in the event of our customers’ failure to pay. Receivables are considered sold when they are transferred beyond the reach of Kimball Electronics and its creditors, the purchaser has the right to pledge or exchange the receivables, and we have surrendered control over the transferred receivables. During the fiscal years ended June 30, 2025 and 2024, we sold $338.4 million and $410.0 million of accounts receivable, respectively.
During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, we entered into an accounts receivable factoring program with a financial institution for certain domestic receivables. We sell our entire interest in certain receivables for 100% of face value, less a discount. We are required to remit amounts collected as a servicer under the Receivables Purchase Agreement (the “RPA”) on a weekly basis to the financial institution that purchased the receivables. Our risks with respect to receivables we service include commercial disputes regarding such receivables and no greater than 5.0% of sold and outstanding receivables in the event of customer insolvency. In fiscal year 2025, under this program, we sold $19.4 million of receivables. See Note 1 - Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for more information regarding our factoring arrangements.
Future Liquidity
As of June 30, 2025, following a year of strong cash generated from operating activities and debt reduction, we are in a much improved liquidity position with $88.8 million in cash and unused borrowings in USD equivalent under all of our credit facilities of $284.7 million. Additionally, considering expected future sources of liquidity from cash generated from operations and proceeds from the sale of the Tampa facility, we are positioned to meet our working capital and other operating needs for at least the next twelve months.
We expect to continue to prudently make capital investments, including for capacity expansions and potential acquisitions, that would help us continue our growth as a multifaceted manufacturing solutions company. In March 2025, we executed a lease for a facility in Indiana to expand our medical CMO footprint with the lease commencing in June 2025. The initial lease term is ten years and annual base rent of $1.8 million, increasing 3% each year. At June 30, 2025, our capital expenditure commitments were approximately $35 million, consisting primarily of leasehold improvements and capital related to new program wins. We anticipate our available liquidity will be sufficient to fund these capital expenditures.
We expect to continue our restructuring efforts, including the closure of our Tampa facility. We expect these restructuring efforts to be predominantly cash expenditures to be incurred over the first half of fiscal year 2026. We estimate additional pre-tax restructuring charges between $0.5 million to $1.0 million. Now that Tampa’s operations have ceased, we expect to sell the building and land, with the proceeds from the sale anticipated to exceed the combined amount of the total expected restructuring costs and the carrying value of the Assets Held for Sale.
We have purchase obligations that arise in the normal course of business for items such as raw materials, services, and software acquisitions/license commitments. In certain instances, such as when lead times dictate, we enter into contractual agreements for material in excess of the levels required to fulfill customer orders. In turn, material authorization agreements with customers cover a portion of the exposure for material that we must purchase prior to having a firm order.
At June 30, 2025, our foreign operations held cash totaling $85.3 million. Most of our accumulated unremitted foreign earnings have been invested in active non-U.S. business operations. The Company continually evaluates its global cash needs. If such funds were repatriated or we determined that all or a portion of such foreign earnings are no longer permanently reinvested, we may be subject to applicable non-U.S. income and withholding taxes. Determination of the amount of any potential future unrecognized deferred tax liability on such unremitted earnings is not practicable and is recorded in the period when any foreign earnings are determined to be no longer permanently reinvested. During fiscal year 2025, the Company changed its indefinite reinvestment assertion for our subsidiary in China, and has recorded a deferred tax liability on their earnings for the applicable withholding taxes. The Company continues to assert permanent reinvestment of foreign earnings in all other foreign jurisdictions as well as for earnings prior to fiscal year 2025 for China.
The Company’s Repurchase Plan allows the repurchase of up to $120 million of our common stock. Purchases may be made under various programs, including in open-market transactions, block transactions on or off an exchange, or in privately negotiated transactions, all in accordance with applicable securities laws and regulations. The Repurchase Plan has no expiration date but may be suspended or discontinued at any time. The extent to which the Company repurchases its shares, and
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the timing of such repurchases, will depend upon a variety of factors, including market conditions, regulatory requirements, and other corporate considerations, as determined by the Company’s management team. The Company expects to finance the purchases with existing liquidity. The Company has repurchased $103.7 million of common stock under the Repurchase Plan through June 30, 2025.
Our ability to generate cash from operations to meet our liquidity obligations could be adversely affected in the future by factors such as general economic and market conditions, lack of availability of raw material components in the supply chain, a decline in demand for our services, loss of key contract customers, unsuccessful integration of acquisitions and new operations, global health emergencies, and the related uncertainties around the financial impact, and other unforeseen circumstances. In particular, should demand for our customers’ products and, in turn, our services decrease significantly over the next 12 months, the available cash provided by operations could be adversely impacted.
Fair Value
During fiscal year 2025, no level 1 or level 2 financial instruments were affected by a lack of market liquidity. For level 1 financial assets, readily available market pricing was used to value the financial instruments. Our foreign currency derivative assets and liabilities, which were classified as level 2, were independently valued using observable market inputs such as forward interest rate yield curves, current spot rates, and time value calculations. To verify the reasonableness of the independently determined fair values, these derivative fair values were compared to fair values calculated by the counterparty banks. Our own credit risk and counterparty credit risk had an immaterial impact on the valuation of the foreign currency derivatives. See Note 14 - Fair Value of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of June 30, 2025, we do not have any material off-balance sheet arrangements.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Kimball Electronics’ Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These principles require the use of estimates and assumptions that affect amounts reported and disclosed in the Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes. Actual results could differ from these estimates and assumptions. Management uses its best judgment in the assumptions used to value these estimates, which are based on current facts and circumstances, prior experience, and other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable. Management believes the following critical accounting policies reflect the more significant judgments and estimates used in preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements and are the policies that are most critical in the portrayal of our financial position and results of operations. Management has discussed these critical accounting policies and estimates with the Audit Committee of the Company’s Board of Directors and with the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm.
Revenue recognition - Kimball Electronics recognizes revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the Company expects to be entitled in exchange for those services and products. The majority of our revenue is recognized over time as manufacturing services are performed where we manufacture a product with no alternative use and have an enforceable right to payment for performance completed to date. The remaining revenue is recognized when the customer obtains control of the manufactured product.
Taxes - Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the estimated future tax consequences attributable to temporary differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. These assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which the temporary differences are expected to reverse. We evaluate the recoverability of our deferred tax assets each quarter by assessing the likelihood of future taxable income and available tax planning strategies that could be implemented to realize our deferred tax assets. If recovery is not likely, we provide a valuation allowance based on our best estimate of future taxable income in the various taxing jurisdictions and the amount of deferred taxes ultimately realizable. Future events could change management’s assessment.
We operate within multiple taxing jurisdictions and are subject to tax audits in these jurisdictions. These audits can involve complex issues, which may require an extended period of time to resolve. However, we believe we have made adequate provision for income and other taxes for all years that are subject to audit. As tax positions are effectively settled, the tax provision will be adjusted accordingly. The liability for uncertain income tax and other tax positions, including accrued interest and penalties on those positions, was $1.5 million and $1.6 million at June 30, 2025 and June 30, 2024, respectively.
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New Accounting Standards
See Note 1 - Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for information regarding New Accounting Standards.
Item 7A - Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Foreign Exchange Rate Risk: Kimball Electronics operates internationally and thus is subject to potentially adverse movements in foreign currency rate changes. Our principal foreign currency exposures include the Euro, Polish zloty, Romanian leu, Chinese renminbi, Thai baht, and Mexican peso. Our risk management strategy includes the use of derivative financial instruments to hedge certain foreign currency exposures. Derivatives are used only to manage underlying exposures and are not used in a speculative manner. Further information on derivative financial instruments is provided in Note 15 - Derivative Instruments of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements. We estimate that a hypothetical 10% adverse change in foreign currency exchange rates from levels at June 30, 2025 relative to non-functional currency balances of monetary instruments, to the extent not hedged by derivative instruments, would not have a material impact on profitability in an annual period. Actual future gains and losses could have a material impact in an annual period depending on changes or differences in market rates and interrelationships, hedging instruments, timing, and other factors.
Interest Rate Risk: Our primary exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates relates to our primary credit facility, described further in Note 9 - Credit Facilities of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, as the interest rates paid for borrowings are determined at the time of borrowing based on market indices. Therefore, although we can elect to fix the interest rate at the time of borrowing, the facility does expose us to market risk for changes in interest rates. We estimate that a hypothetical 10% change in interest rates on borrowing levels at June 30, 2025 would not have a material impact of profitability in an annual period. The interest rate on all borrowings at June 30, 2025 are based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”).
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Item 8 - Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Page No.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting 34
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB No. 34) 35
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 43
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MANAGEMENT’S REPORT ON INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING
The management of Kimball Electronics, Inc. is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting and for the preparation and integrity of the accompanying financial statements and other related information in this report. The consolidated financial statements of the Company and its subsidiaries, including the footnotes, were prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and include judgments and estimates, which in the opinion of management are applied on an appropriately conservative basis. We maintain a system of internal and disclosure controls intended to provide reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded from loss or material misuse, transactions are authorized and recorded properly, and that the accounting records may be relied upon for the preparation of the financial statements. This system is tested and evaluated regularly for adherence and effectiveness by employees who work within the internal control processes and by our staff of internal auditors.
The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors, which is comprised of directors who are not employees of the Company, meets regularly with management, our internal auditors, and the independent registered public accounting firm to review our financial policies and procedures, our internal control structure, the objectivity of our financial reporting, and the independence of the independent registered public accounting firm. The internal auditors and the independent registered public accounting firm have free and direct access to the Audit Committee, and they meet periodically, without management present, to discuss appropriate matters.
Because of inherent limitations, a system of internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements and even when determined to be effective, can only provide reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation and presentation.
These consolidated financial statements are subject to an evaluation of internal control over financial reporting conducted under the supervision and with the participation of management, including the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Based on that evaluation, conducted under the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of June 30, 2025.
/s/ RICHARD D. PHILLIPS
Richard D. Phillips
Chief Executive Officer
/s/ JANA T. CROOM
Jana T. Croom
Chief Financial Officer
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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Share Owners and the Board of Directors of Kimball Electronics, Inc.
Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Kimball Electronics, Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of June 30, 2025 and 2024, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, share owners’ equity, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended June 30, 2025, and the related notes and the schedule listed in the Index at Item 15 (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2025, based on the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of June 30, 2025 and 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended June 30, 2025, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also, in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2025, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by COSO.
Basis for Opinions
The Company’s management is responsible for these financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying management’s report on internal control over financial reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
Our audits of the financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures to respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.