Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
General
Columbus McKinnon Corporation ("Columbus McKinnon" or the "Company") is a leading worldwide designer, manufacturer and marketer of intelligent motion solutions that move the world forward and improve lives by efficiently and ergonomically moving, lifting, positioning and securing materials. Key products include hoists, crane components, precision conveyor systems, rigging tools, light rail workstations and digital power and motion control systems. These are highly relevant, professional-grade solutions that solve our customers’ critical material handling requirements.
The Company is focused on commercial and industrial applications that require the safety, reliability and quality provided by its superior design and engineering know-how. Our products are used for mission critical applications where we have established, trusted brands with significant customer retention. Our targeted market verticals include manufacturing, transportation, energy and utilities, process industries, industrial automation, construction and infrastructure, food and beverage, entertainment, life sciences, consumer packaged goods and e-commerce/supply chain/warehousing.
In fiscal 2022, the Company completed its acquisition of Dorner Mfg. Corp. ("Dorner"). Dorner is a leading automation solutions company providing unique, patented technologies in the design, application, manufacturing and integration of high-precision conveying systems. Dorner is a leading supplier to the stable life sciences, food processing, and consumer packaged goods markets as well as the high growth industrial automation and e-commerce sectors. The addition of Dorner provides attractive complementary adjacencies including sortation and asynchronous conveyance systems. Dorner offers a broad range of precision conveying systems to our product offerings, which include low profile, flexible chain, large scale, sanitary and vertical elevation conveyor systems, as well as pallet system conveyors.
Further in fiscal 2022, the Company completed its acquisition of Garvey Corporation ("Garvey"), which further expanded its precision conveyance offerings. Garvey is a leading accumulation systems solutions company providing unique, patented systems for the automation of production processes whose products complement those of Dorner.
Most recently, in April 2023 we announced that we had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire montratec GmbH (montratec), a leading automation solutions company that designs and develops intelligent automation and transport systems for interlinking industrial production and logistics processes. We expect to close on this acquisition on May 31, 2023 subject to customary closing conditions. The acquisitions of Dorner and Garvey and expected acquisition of montratec accelerate the Company’s shift to intelligent motion solutions and serve as a platform to expand capabilities in advanced, higher technology automation solutions.
In the United States, we are the market leader for hoists, material handling digital power control systems and precision conveyors, our principal lines of products, and have strong market positions with certain chain, forged fittings, and actuator products. Additionally, in Europe, we believe we are the market leader for manual hoists and a market leader in the heavy load, rail and niche custom applications for actuation. We have achieved this leadership position through strategic acquisitions, our extensive, diverse, and well-established distribution channels and our commitment to product innovation and quality. We believe the substantial breadth of our product offerings and broad distribution channels in the United States and Europe provide us a strategic advantage in our markets. The acquisition of STAHL CraneSystems ("STAHL") in fiscal 2017, which is well-known for its custom engineering lifting solutions and hoisting technology, advanced our position as a global leader in the production of explosion-protected hoists. STAHL serves independent crane builders and Engineering Procurement and Construction ("EPC") firms, providing products to a variety of end markets including automotive, general manufacturing, oil and gas, steel and concrete, power generation, as well as process industries such as chemical and pharmaceuticals.
We are continuing to transform from a legacy cyclical industrial company to a top-tier, secular growth, intelligent motion solutions company. In accordance with our strategic framework, we are building out the Columbus McKinnon Business System ("CMBS") and growth framework to be market-led, customer-centric and operationally excellent with our people and values at the core.
With CMBS as the foundation, we are well positioned to execute our Core Growth Framework (Framework) strategy. The Framework defines four parallel paths for Columbus McKinnon’s growth and provides clear organic and strategic initiatives. Our Framework includes:
• Strengthening the Core which is a foundational path focused on initiatives that will strengthen competencies and improve our competitive position within our existing share of our Serviceable Addressable Market (”SAM”).
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Initiatives include further developing commercial and product management competencies and improving our digital tools for a better, more efficient customer experience.
• Growing the Core is a path that is focused on taking greater market share, both organically and through acquisitions, within our SAM. We are making progress on this path with product localization, new product development and advancements in automation and aftermarket support for our distributors.
• Expanding the Core is a path that is focused on improved channel access and geographic expansion. Here we expand beyond our SAM into the broader Total Addressable Market (“TAM”). This involves building out our presence both geographically and in new verticals with expanded offerings, which we expect we can accomplish organically as well as with acquisitions.
• Reimagining the Core is a more transformational path that rethinks our TAM and targets strategic expansion beyond our existing TAM. As we think more broadly about material handling and increasing trends in intelligent motion, not just lifting, but solutions for how materials move throughout customer environments, there are some compelling ideas that emerge. The Dorner and Garvey acquisitions are examples of reimagining Columbus McKinnon’s core, which added an additional $5 billion to our TAM, with the specialty conveying microsegment growing at an estimated 6% to 8% rate annually.
The strategy is geared toward investing in new products that solve our customers’ tough problems and expands into new platforms that provide intelligent motion solutions for material handling, such as precision conveyance capabilities. We believe our recent acquisitions of Dorner and Garvey establish a platform for expansion supported by new product development, a fragmented competitive landscape and complementary adjacencies. The acquisitions also allow Dorner and Garvey to expand geographically by having access to our global footprint and provide us with an entry point into a pipeline of additional acquisition opportunities in the fragmented precision conveying industry.
Our legacy Lifting business is cyclical in nature and sensitive to changes in general economic conditions, including changes in industrial capacity utilization, industrial production, and general economic activity indicators, like GDP growth. Both U.S. and Eurozone capacity utilization and the ISM Production Index are leading market indicators for our Company.
Business Description
We design, manufacture, and distribute a broad range of material handling products for various applications. Products include a wide variety of electric, air-powered, lever, and hand hoists, hoist trolleys, explosion-protected hoists, winches, and aluminum work stations; alloy and carbon steel chain; forged attachments, such as hooks, shackles, textile slings, clamps, and load binders; mechanical and electromechanical actuators and rotary unions; below-the-hook special purpose lifters; and power and motion control systems, such as AC and DC drive systems, radio remote controls, push button pendant stations, brakes, and collision avoidance and power delivery subsystems. The fiscal 2022 acquisitions of Dorner and Garvey expand our product offerings to include a broad range of highly engineered, precision conveying solutions. Our products are typically manufactured for stock or assembled to order from standard components, and are sold primarily through a variety of commercial distributors and, to a lesser extent, directly to end-users. Our STAHL subsidiary brings market leadership with independent crane builders and EPC firms. The diverse end-users of our products are in a variety of industries including manufacturing, power generation and distribution, utilities, wind power, warehouses, commercial construction, oil and gas exploration and refining, petrochemical, marine, ship building, transportation and heavy-duty trucking, agriculture, logging and mining. The acquisitions of Dorner and Garvey expand the Company's reach to include the stable life sciences, food processing and consumer packaged goods markets and high growth industrial automation and e-commerce sectors. We also serve a niche market for the entertainment industry, including permanent and traveling concerts, live theater, and sporting venues.
Products
Of our fiscal 2023 sales, $569,215,000, or 61%, were U.S. and $367,025,000 or 39% were non-U.S. The following table sets forth certain sales data for our products, expressed as a percentage of net sales for fiscal 2023 and 2022:
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Fiscal Years Ended March 31,
2023 2022
Hoists 49 % 48 %
High-precision conveying systems 16 16
Digital power control and delivery systems 11 11
Actuators and rotary unions 9 9
Chain and rigging tools 8 9
Industrial cranes 4 5
Elevator application drive systems 3 2
100 % 100 %
Hoists - We manufacture a wide variety of electric chain hoists, electric wire rope hoists, hand-operated hoists, winches, lever tools, and air-powered hoists. Load capacities for our hoist product lines range from one-eighth of a ton to nearly 275 tons. These products are sold under our Budgit, Chester, CM, Coffing, Little Mule, Pfaff, Shaw-Box, STAHL, Yale, and other recognized brands. Our hoists are sold for use in numerous general industrial applications, as well as for use in the construction, energy and utilities, steel and metals processing, mining, transportation, entertainment, and other markets. We also supply hoist trolleys, driven manually or by electric motors, which are used in conjunction with hoists.
We also offer several lines of standard and custom-designed, below-the-hook tooling, clamps, and textile strappings. Below-the-hook tooling, textile, and chain slings and associated forgings, and clamps are specialized lifting apparatus used in a variety of lifting activities performed in conjunction with hoisting or lifting applications.
We also manufacture explosion-protected hoists and custom engineered hoists, including wire rope and manual and electric chain hoists. These branded products are sold to a variety of end markets including automotive, general manufacturing, oil and gas, steel and concrete, power generation as well as process industries such as chemical and pharmaceuticals.
High-precision conveying systems – Our fiscal 2022 acquisitions of Dorner and Garvey expanded our product offerings to include high-precision, specialty conveyor system solutions. These conveyor systems range from build to order modular standard systems to highly engineered customer solutions. These products offer customers high quality and reliable solutions that enhance productivity and profitability.
We expect to further expand our product offering in the this space with the April 2023 announcement that we had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire montratec. montratec product offerings complement both Dorner and Garvey, and further our shift to intelligent motion and serve as a platform to expand capabilities in advanced, higher technology automation solutions. We expect to close on this acquisition on May 31, 2023 subject to customary closing conditions.
Digital Power Control and Delivery Systems - Through our Magnetek brand, we are a leading provider of innovative power control and delivery systems and solutions for overhead material handling applications used in a number of diverse industries, including aerospace, automotive, steel, aluminum, paper, logging, mining, ship loading, nuclear power plants, and heavy movable structures. We are a major supplier in North America of power and motion control systems, which include AC and DC drive systems, radio remote controls, push button pendant stations, brakes, and collision avoidance and power delivery subsystems. While we sell primarily to original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") of overhead cranes and hoists, we spend a great deal of effort understanding the needs of end users to gain specification. We can combine our products with engineered services to provide complete customer-specific system solutions.
We are also a leading independent supplier of AC and DC digital motion control systems for underground coal mining equipment. Our systems are used in coal hauling vehicles, shuttle cars, scoops, and other heavy mining equipment.
Actuators and Rotary Unions - Through our Duff-Norton and Pfaff brands, we design and manufacture industrial components such as mechanical and electromechanical actuators and rotary unions. Actuators are linear motion devices used in a variety of industries, including the transportation, paper, steel, energy, aerospace, and many other commercial industries. Rotary unions are devices that transfer a liquid or gas from a fixed pipe or hose to a rotating drum, cylinder or other device. Rotary unions are used in a variety of industries including pulp and paper, printing, textile and fabric manufacturing, rubber, and plastic.
Chain and Rigging Tools - We manufacture alloy and carbon steel chain for various industrial and consumer applications. U.S. federal regulations require the use of alloy chain for overhead lifting applications because of its strength and wear characteristics. A line of our alloy chain is sold under the Herc-Alloy TM brand name for use in overhead lifting, pulling, and
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restraining applications. In addition, we also sell specialized load chain for use in hoists, as well as three grades and multiple sizes of carbon steel welded-link chain for various load securing and other non-overhead lifting applications.
We produce a broad line of alloy and carbon steel closed-die forged chain attachments, including hooks, shackles, Hammerloks TM , and master links. These forged attachments are used in chain, wire rope, and textile rigging applications in a variety of industries, including transportation, mining, construction, marine, logging, petrochemical, and agriculture.
In addition, we manufacture carbon steel forged and stamped products, such as load binders, logging tools, and other securing devices, for sale to the industrial and logging markets through industrial distributors, hardware distributors, mass merchandiser outlets, and OEMs.
Industrial Cranes - We manufacture and market under our Unified Industries brand overhead aluminum light rail workstations primarily used in automotive and other industrial applications. We also manufacture crane components and crane kits through our STAHL branded products.
Elevator Application Drive Systems - Through our Magnetek brand we also design, build, sell, and support elevator application-specific drive products that efficiently deliver power used to control motion, primarily in high-rise, high-speed elevator applications. We are recognized as an industry leader for DC high-performance elevator drives, as well as for AC drives used with low- and high-performance traction elevators, due to our extensive application expertise and product reliability. Our elevator product offerings are comprised of highly integrated subsystems and drives, sold mainly to elevator OEMs. In addition, our product options include a number of regenerative controls for both new building installations and elevator modernization projects that help building owners save energy.
Distribution and Markets
We sell our products and solutions through various distribution channels and direct to certain end users. The following describes our global distribution channels:
General Distribution Channels - Our global general distribution channels consist of:
— Industrial distributors that serve local or regional industrial markets and sell a variety of products for maintenance repair, operating, and production, or MROP, applications through their own direct sales force.
— Rigging shops that are distributors with expertise in rigging, lifting, positioning, and load securing. Most rigging shops assemble and distribute chain, wire rope and synthetic slings, and distribute manual hoists and attachments, chain slings, and other products.
— Independent crane builders that design, build, install, and service overhead crane and light-rail systems for general industry and also distribute a wide variety of hoists and crane components. We sell electric wire rope hoists and chain hoists as well as crane components, such as end trucks, trolleys, drives, and electrification systems to crane builders.
Specialty Distribution Channels - Our global specialty distribution channels consist of:
— National and regional distributors that market a variety of MROP supplies, including material handling products, either exclusively through large, nationally distributed catalogs, or through a combination of catalog, internet, and branch sales and a field sales force.
— Material handling specialists and integrators that design and assemble systems incorporating hoists, overhead rail systems, trolleys, scissor lift tables, manipulators, air balancers, jib arms, and other material handling products to provide end-users with solutions to their material handling problems.
— Entertainment equipment distributors that design, supply, and install a variety of material handling and rigging equipment for concerts, theaters, ice shows, sporting events, convention centers, and night clubs.
Service-After-Sale Distribution Channel - Service-after-sale distributors include our authorized network of 23 chain repair service stations and over 229 certified hoist service and repair stations globally. This service network is designed for easy parts and service access for our large installed base of hoists and related equipment in that region.
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OEM/Government Distribution Channels - This channel consists of:
— OEMs that supply various component parts directly to other industrial manufacturers as well as private branding and packaging of our traditional products for material handling, lifting, positioning, and special purpose applications.
— Government agencies, including the U.S. and Canadian Navies and Coast Guards, that primarily purchase load securing chain and forged attachments. We also provide our products to the U.S. and other governments for a variety of military applications.
Independent Crane Builders and EPC firms - In addition to the Distribution Channels mentioned above, we sell explosion-protected hoists and custom engineered non-standard hoists to independent crane builders and EPC firms. Independent crane builders are lifting solution developers and final crane assemblers that source hoists as components. EPC firms are responsible for project management or construction management of production facilities that purchase lifting solutions from crane and hoist builders.
Backlog
Our backlog of orders at March 31, 2023 was approximately $308,717,000 compared to approximately $309,052,000 at March 31, 2022. Our orders for standard products are generally shipped within one week. Orders for products that are manufactured to customer specifications are generally shipped within four to twelve weeks. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted supply chains and has resulted in significantly longer lead-times and past-due backlog compared to these historical levels. In addition, fluctuations in backlog can reflect the project-oriented nature of certain aspects of our business.
Competitive Conditions
The material handling and precision conveyance industries remains fragmented. We face competition from a wide range of regional, national, and international manufacturers globally. In addition, we often compete with individual operating units of larger, highly diversified companies.
The principal competitive factors affecting our business include customer service and support as well as product availability, performance, functionality, brand reputation, reliability, and price. Other important factors include distributor relationships and territory coverage as well as the robustness of our digital tools which impacts the customer experience.
We believe we have leading U.S. market share in various products categories including hoists, trolleys and components, AC and DC material handling drives, screw jacks, precision conveyors, and elevator DC drives. These product categories represented 51% of our U.S. net sales for fiscal 2023.
Major competitors for hoists are Konecranes, and Kito (and its U.S. subsidiary Harrington) which recently merged with the Crosby Group; for chain are Campbell Chain, Peerless Chain Company (a U.S. subsidiary of Kito), and American Chain and Cable Company; for digital power control systems are Konecranes, Power Electronics International, Inc., Cattron Holdings (a division of Harbour Group), Conductix-Wampfler (a division of Delachaux Group), Control Techniques (a division of Nidec Corporation), OMRON Corporation, KEB GmbH, and Fujitec; for forged attachments are The Crosby Group, Brewer Tichner Company and Chicago Hardware and Fixture Company; for actuators and rotary unions are Deublin, Joyce-Dayton, and Nook Industries, a division of Altra Industrial Motion Corp.; and for precision conveyors and accumulators are FlexLink, Bosch Rexroth AG, MK North America, Inc., Duravant, Nercon Eng. & Mfg. Inc and Arrowhead Systems, recently acquired by Rexroth.
Human Capital Management
Headquartered in Buffalo, New York, Columbus McKinnon’s global footprint includes offices and manufacturing facilities in more than 25 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. At March 31, 2023, we had 3,392 employees globally. Approximately 6% of our employees are represented under two separate U.S. collective bargaining agreements that expire in May 2024 and September 2024. We also have various labor agreements with our non-U.S. employees that we negotiate from time to time. We have good relationships with our employees and positive, productive relationships with our unions. We believe the risk of employee or union led disruption in production is remote.
Successful execution of our strategy is dependent on attracting, developing, and retaining key employees and members of
our management team, which we achieve through the following:
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• We always begin with people and values at the center of all that we do and at the heart of our corporate social responsibility efforts. The Company’s people and the behaviors they display define our success, including integrity, respect and teamwork. Many of our material social factors, including Employee Health and Safety, Training and Development, Talent Recruitment and Retention, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Community Involvement, are directly connected to our commitment to people and values. Our people enable us to grow, and our values ensure we grow responsibly and sustainably.
• The Company places the highest priority on workplace safety. We feel it is critical to ensure our most valuable assets, our employees, have a safe environment to work in every day. “Connect safety to everything you do” highlights the importance of safety to our culture. As a permanent agenda item at all management meetings, safety comes first. For fiscal 2023 and 2022, the Company had an overall safety incident rate of 0.69 and 0.70, respectively (number of injuries and illnesses multiplied by 200,000, divided by hours worked).
• We are committed to embracing diversity, equity and inclusion and making it a part of everything we do. We know the positive impact diverse and inclusive teams have on our business, employees, customers, and communities around the world. We are dedicated to building a company that future generations can be proud of and a team that embraces diversity and appreciates differences across the enterprise. We have embedded diversity, equity and inclusion into the People and Values framework of the Columbus McKinnon Business System. We are working to create an environment of inclusion. We launched a series of virtual training modules around diversity, inclusion and unconscious bias. We have updated our core value “Win as a team” to specifically address embracing diversity.
We also recognize our corporate responsibility to advance our Environmental Social and Governance (“ESG”) efforts and to be held accountable for making progress. We are making significant investments in our people, processes and systems to enable meaningful progress in areas including, but not limited to, environmental stewardship, employee safety, workplace diversity and inclusion, connecting with our communities, and strong governance and risk management. We are taking deliberate steps to fully integrate ESG into our enterprise strategy, our business system, and our daily actions.
In addition, we also set the following objectives for fiscal 2023:
• Make significant investments to advance our ESG initiatives (People & Technology);
• Drive a people-first culture through engagement, training and development opportunities;
• Perform extensive data collection and analysis to identify areas for improvement;
• Build upon our progress toward ESG targets and goals;
• Decrease our complexity to customers with an organizational restructure to a bi-regional structure;
• Further align with global carbon emissions reporting standards, including CDP and TCFD;
• Be more transparent with internal and external stakeholders through communications and public disclosures.
As we look forward to fiscal 2024 and beyond, we have additional plans that will continue to move our ESG initiatives forward. We continue to collect and analyze data to set realistic, yet challenging goals and be transparent about our progress against our commitments.
Raw Materials and Components
Our principal raw material and component purchases aggregated to approximately $365 million in fiscal 2023 (or 61% of Cost of product sold in fiscal 2023) and included steel, consisting of rod, wire, bar, structural, and other forms of steel; electric motors; bearings; gear reducers; castings; steel and aluminum enclosures and wire harnesses; electro-mechanical components; and standard variable drives. We purchase most of these raw materials and components from a limited number of strategic and preferred suppliers under agreements that are negotiated on a Company-wide basis through our global purchasing group. Generally, as we experience fluctuations in our costs, we reflect these increases in costs as price increases to our customers with the goal of being margin neutral. Currently, as a result of macroeconomic conditions, including rising inflation, we are continuing to experience higher raw material, freight, and logistics costs than we have seen in recent years, which we have been able to recover with pricing actions. In the future, we may not be able to pass on these cost increases to our customers.
Trademarks
We own or have the rights to use certain trademarks, service marks and trade names that are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Trademarks that are important in identifying and distinguishing our products include, but are not limited to, Hammerloks™ and Herc-Alloy™. We also own domain names, including our website, www.columbusmckinnon.com.
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Environmental and Other Governmental Regulation
Like most manufacturing companies, we are subject to various federal, state, and local laws relating to the protection of the environment. To address the requirements of such laws, we have adopted a corporate environmental protection policy which provides that all of our owned or leased facilities must comply, and all of our employees have the duty to comply, with all applicable environmental regulatory standards, and we have initiated an environmental auditing program for our facilities to ensure compliance with such regulatory standards. We have also established managerial responsibilities and internal communication channels for dealing with environmental compliance issues that may arise in the course of our business. We have made, and could be required to continue to make, significant expenditures to comply with environmental requirements. Because of the complexity and changing nature of environmental regulatory standards, it is possible that situations will arise from time to time requiring us to incur additional expenditures to ensure environmental regulatory compliance. However, we are not aware of any environmental condition or any operation at any of our facilities, either individually or in the aggregate, which would cause expenditures having a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
Our operations are also governed by many other laws and regulations, including those relating to workplace safety and worker health, principally the Occupational Health and Safety Administration ("OSHA") in the U.S. and others outside the U.S. and regulations thereunder. The penalties for any breach of these regulations can vary and may be substantial. We believe that we are in substantial compliance with these laws and regulations and do not believe that future compliance with such laws and regulations will have a material adverse effect on our operating results, financial condition, or liquidity.
See Note 16 to our March 31, 2023 consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K for more information on our matters involving litigation.
Available Information
Our internet address is www.columbusmckinnon.com . We make available free of charge through our website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after such documents are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. The content on any website referred to in this Form 10-K is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K, and such content should not be considered part of this Form 10-K, unless expressly noted otherwise.
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