Flux Power Holdings, Inc. 10-K

ITEM 1 – BUSINESS Overview We design, develop, manufacture, and sell a portfolio of advanced lithium-ion energy storage solutions for electrification of a range of industrial commercial sectors which include material handling, airport ground support equipment (“GSE”), and other commercial and industrial applications. We believe our mobile and stationary energy storage solutions provide our customers a reliable, high performing, cost effective, and more environmentally friendly alternative as compared to traditional lead acid and propane-based solutions. Our modular and scalable design allows different configurations of lithium-ion battery packs to be paired with our proprietary wireless battery management system to provide the level of energy storage required and “state of the art” real time monitoring of pack performance. We believe that the increasing demand for lithium-ion battery packs and more environmentally friendly energy storage solutions in the material handling sector should continue to drive our revenue growth. Our Strategy Our long-term strategy is to meet the rapidly growing demand for lithium-ion energy solutions and to be the supplier of choice, targeting large companies having demanding energy storage needs. We have established selling relationships equipment OEMs and customers with large fleets of forklifts and GSEs. We intend to reach this goal by investing in research and development to expand our product mix, by expanding our sales and marketing efforts, improving our customer support efforts and continuing our efforts to increase production capacity and efficiencies. Our research and development efforts will continue to focus on providing adaptable, reliable and cost-effective energy storage solutions for our customers. Our largest sector of penetration thus far has been the material handling sector which we believe is a multi-billion dollar addressable market. We believe the sector will provide us with an opportunity to grow our business as we enhance our product mix and service levels and grow our sales to large fleets of forklifts and GSEs. Applications of our modular packs for other industrial and commercial uses, such as solar energy storage, are providing additional current growth and further opportunities. We intend to continue to expand our supply chain and customer partnerships and seek further partnerships and/or acquisitions that provide synergy to meeting our growth and “building scale” objectives. Supply Chain Issues and Higher Procurement Costs Due to COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions continue, notably with delivery delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. In addition, the price of steel and certain other electrical components used in our products have seen dramatic increases, along with increased shipping costs. It is impossible to predict how long the current disruptions to the cost and availability of raw materials and component parts will last. We implemented price increases on certain new product orders in October 2021 and April 2022 to offset rising global costs of raw materials and component parts. In addition, we increased our inventory of raw materials and component parts to $16.3 million as of June 30, 2022 to mitigate supply chain disruptions and support timely deliveries. However, there can be no assurance that our price increases, inventory levels or any future steps we take will be sufficient to offset the rising procurement costs and manage sourcing of raw materials and component parts effectively. To address some of these negative consequences and to support the future growth of our business, we have implemented a number of new strategic initiatives: Strategic Initiatives. To support our high growth business and strategy, our first priority over the coming quarters is achieving “profitability,” specifically, cash flow breakeven. Accordingly, we have strategic initiatives underway in two areas: ○ Gross margin improvements ● Utilize lower cost, more reliable, and secondary suppliers of key components including cells, steel, electronics, circuit boards and other key components. ● Actively manage our suppliers to avoid supply chain disruptions and related risks. ● Introduce new designs, including a simplified “platform” that reduces part count, lowers cost, improves manufacturability and serviceability. ● Focus on ensuring profitability of all product lines including managing mix of products. ● Seek more competitive carriers to reduce shipping costs. ● Implement Lean Manufacturing process to enhance capacity utilization, efficiency, quality. ● Introduce comprehensive “cost of quality” initiative to ensure effective and robust processes. ● Implement “automated cell module assembly” to assemble purchased “individual” battery cells into a “module” for the battery pack. This will enable lower inventory from simplified SKU count and lower costs. 5 ○ Business expansion to accelerate gross margin ● Leverage current high-profile “proven customer relationships” to respond to growing demand of large fleets for lithium-ion value proposition. ● Pursue new market that can leverage our technology and manufacturing capabilities. ● Expand features of our popular “SkyBMS” (telemetry) which provides customized fleet management, and real time reports. ● Expand our manufacturing and service capacities to ensure customer satisfaction from increased deliveries, and service. ● Capitalize on our leadership position with new offerings. ● While we are “agnostic to the type of lithium chemistry,” ensure our research to support other chemistries as they may become available. Ensure we have leadership with our core technology, without dependence on purchasing critical technology. There can be no assurance that these initiatives and efforts will be successful. DESCRIPTION OF OUR BUSINESS Our Business We have leveraged our experience in lithium-ion technology to design and develop a portfolio of industrial and commercial energy storage packs that we believe provide attractive solutions to customers seeking an alternative to lead acid and propane-based power products. We believe that the following attributes are significant contributors to our success: Engineering and integration experience in lithium-ion for motive applications: Our engineers design, develop, test, and service our advanced lithium-ion energy storage solutions. We have been developing lithium-ion applications for the advanced energy storage market since 2010, starting with products for automotive electric vehicle manufacturers. We believe our engineering experience enables us to develop competitive solutions that meet our customers’ needs currently and in the foreseeable future. UL Listing: We launched our Class 3 Walkie Pallet Pack product line in 2014 and obtained UL Listing for all three different power configurations. We have also obtained UL Listing for our Class 1 Packs, our Class 2 Packs, and our Class 3 End Rider. In addition, we have completed the process for obtaining UL Listings for our newest source of battery cells. We believe this UL Listing provides us a significant competitive advantage and provides assurance to customers that our technology has been rigorously tested by an independent third party and determined to be safe, durable and reliable. Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) approvals: Many of our energy storage packs have been tested and approved for use by Toyota Material Handling USA, Inc., Crown Equipment Corporation, and The Raymond Corporation, among the top global lift truck manufacturers by revenue according to Material Handling & Logistics. We also provide a “private label” Class 3 Walkie Pallet Pack to a major forklift OEM. Broad product offering and scalable design: We offer energy storage packs for use in a variety of industrial motive applications. We believe that our modular and scalable design enables us to optimize design, inventory, and part count to accommodate natural product extensions of our products to meet customer requirements. We have leveraged our Class 3 Walkie Pallet Pack design to develop larger energy storage packs for larger forklifts, GSE Packs, and other industrial equipment applications. Natural product extensions, based on our modular, scalable designs, include solar backup power for electric vehicle (“EV”) mobile charging stations and robotic warehouse equipment. Significant advantages over lead acid and propane-based solutions: We believe that lithium-ion battery systems have significant advantages over existing technologies and will displace lead acid batteries and propane-based solutions, in most applications. Relative to lead acid batteries, such advantages include environmental benefits, no water maintenance, faster charge times, greater cycle life, longer run times, and less energy used that provide operational and financial benefits to customers. When compared to lead acid solutions, our energy storage solutions do not discharge carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to lithium chemistry efficiencies. In addition, when compared to propane-based solutions, lithium-ion systems avoid the generation of exhaust emissions and associated odor and environmental contaminates, and maintenance of an internal combustion engine, which has substantially more parts subject to wear than an electric motor. 6 Proprietary Battery Management System: Critical to our success is our innovative and proprietary versatile BMS that optimizes the performance of our lithium-ion energy solutions and provides a platform for adding new battery pack features, including customized telemetry (pack data and reports available anytime, anywhere) for customers. The BMS serves as the brain of the battery pack, managing cell balancing, charging, discharging, monitoring and communication between the pack and the forklift. Our “next generation” versatile BMS is currently part of our full product lines and provides significant product features for improved customer productivity. Our BMS also enables ongoing feature development for reduced cost and higher performance. We have included our proprietary telemetry solution, branded “SkyBMS” which provides real time reports on pack performance, health, and remaining useful life. Our Products We design, develop, test and sell our energy storage packs for use in a broad range of lift trucks, industrial equipment including airport GSE, energy storage for solar applications, and other commercial applications. Within each of these product segments, we offer a range of power and equipment solutions. Our current product offering is summarized in the chart below. Our battery pack system design is adaptable with three core design modules used in our entire family of small, medium, and large pack forklift products. A scalable modular design allows for core modules to be configured to address a variety of unique power and space requirements. We also have the capability to offer varying chemistries and configurations based on the specific application. Currently, our energy storage packs use lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery cells, which we source from a variety of overseas suppliers that meet our power, reliability, safety and other specifications. Our BMS works with a number of battery configurations providing the flexibility to use battery cells developed and manufactured by other suppliers. We believe we can readily adapt our energy storage packs to incorporate new chemistries as they become available in the future in order to meet changing customer preferences and to reduce the cost of our products. 7 We also offer 24-volt onboard chargers for our Class 3 Walkie Pallet Packs, and smart “wall mounted” chargers for larger applications. Our smart charging solutions are designed to interface with our BMS and integrate easily into most all major chargers in the market. New Product Update During the second half of the Fiscal 2022, we introduced new product designs to respond to customer requests and to allow for greater operational efficiencies for us. Some of the improvements included higher capacities for extra-long and demanding shifts, easier servicing, cost efficiencies, and other features to solve a variety of existing performance challenges of customer operations. We intend to continue to develop and to introduce new product designs for margin enhancement, part commonality and improved serviceability. In March 2022, we introduced three (3) new products: Product Description ● L36 lithium-ion battery pack, a 36-volt option for 3-wheel forklifts; ● The L36 addresses the 3-wheel forklift market. According to our OEM partners the 3-wheel forklift offerings are some of their best selling products. We are now strategically placed to fully address this market. ● C48 lithium-ion battery pack for Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR); and ● The improved robustness and environmental protections mean it is no longer just a solar battery, but is now being sold into tugs and other types of industrial equipment, expanding our product offerings. ● S24 lithium-ion battery pack providing twice the capacity (210Ah) for Walkie Pallet Jacks for heavy duty ● The S24-210Ah is a new high-capacity variant of our ‘slim’ walkie battery and addresses some of the toughest walkie applications in the market, giving exceptional runtime and fast recharge times when paired with an external high-powered charger. Industry Overview Historically, lithium-ion battery solutions were unable to compete with lead acid and propane-based solutions in industrial applications on the basis of cost. However, the supply of lithium-ion batteries has rapidly expanded, leading to price declines of eighty-five percent (85%) since 2010 according to BloombergNEF. BloombergNEF also estimates that lithium-ion battery prices, which averaged $1,160 per kilowatt hour in 2010, were $156 per kWh in 2019 and could drop below $100 per kWh in 2024. Lithium metal itself represents well less than 5% cost of our packs. The sharp decline in the price of lithium-ion batteries has made these energy solutions more cost competitive. Affordability has in turn enabled customers to shift away from lead acid and propane-based solutions for power lift equipment to lithium-ion based solutions with more favorable environmental and performance characteristics. We believe our position as a pioneer in the field and our extensive experience providing lithium-ion based energy storage solutions will enable us to take advantage of this shift in customer preferences. Lift Equipment - Material Handling Equipment We focus on energy storage solutions for industrial equipment and related industrial applications because we believe they represent large and growing markets that are just beginning to adopt lithium-ion based technology. We apply our scalable, modular designs to natural product extensions in the industrial equipment market. These markets include not only the sale of lithium-ion battery solutions for new equipment but also a replacement market for existing lead acid battery packs. According to Modern Materials Handling, worldwide new lift truck orders reached approximately 1.4 million units in 2017. The Industrial Truck Association (“ITA”) has estimated that approximately 200,000 lift trucks had been sold yearly since 2013 in North America (Canada, the United States and Mexico), with sales relatively evenly distributed between electric rider (Class 1 and Class 2), motorized hand (Class 3), and internal combustion engine powered lift trucks (Class 4 and Class 5). The ITA estimates that electric products represented approximately sixty-nine percent (69%) of the North American shipments in 2020, reflecting the long-term trend of increasing mix of electric products versus internal combustion (propane) engines. Driven by growth in global manufacturing, e-commerce and construction, Research and Markets expects that the global lift truck market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of six and four-tenths percent (6.4%) through 2024. 8 Customers Our customers include OEMs, lift equipment dealers, battery distributors and end users. Our customers vary from small companies to Fortune 500 companies. During the year ended June 30, 2022, we had four (4) major customers that each represented more than 10% of our revenues on an individual basis, and together represented approximately $29,254,000 or 69% of our total revenues. During the year ended June 30, 2021, we had three (3) major customers that each represented more than 10% of our revenues on an individual basis, and together represented approximately $16,004,000 or 61% of our total revenues. Shift Toward Lithium-ion Battery Technologies The lithium-ion battery value proposition of higher performance, environmental benefit, and lower life cycle cost is driving an increase in demand for safe and efficient alternatives to lead acid and propane-based power products. The lithium-ion value proposition includes a number of factors impacting customer preferences: Duration of Charge/Run Times : Lithium-based energy storage systems can perform for a longer duration compared to lead acid batteries. Lithium-ion batteries provide up to 50% longer run times than lead acid batteries of comparable capacity, or amps-per-hour rating, allowing equipment to be operated over a long period of time between charges. High/Sustained Power : Lithium-ion batteries are better suited to deliver high power versus legacy lead acid. For example, a 100Ah lead acid battery will only deliver 80Ah if discharged over a four-hour period. In contrast, a 100Ah lithium-ion system will achieve over 92Ah even during a 30-minute discharge. Additionally, during discharge, the energy storage pack sustains its initial voltage, maximizing the performance of the forklift truck, whereas, lead acid voltages, and hence power, decline over the working shift. Charging Time : Lead acid batteries are limited to one shift a day, as they discharge for eight hours, need eight hours for charging, and another eight hours for cooling. For multi-shift operations, this typically requires battery changeout for the equipment. Because lithium batteries can be recharged in as little as one hour and do not degrade when subjected to opportunity charging, hence, battery changeout is unnecessary. Safe Operation : The toxic nature of lead acid batteries presents significant safety and environmental issues in the event of a cell breach. During charging, lead acid batteries emit combustible gases and increase in temperature. Lithium-ion (particularly LFP) batteries do not get as hot and avoid many of the safety and environmental issues associated with lead acid batteries. Extended Life : The performance of lead acid batteries degrades after approximately 500 charging cycles in industrial equipment applications. In comparison, lithium-ion batteries last up to five times longer in the same application. Size and Weight : Lithium is about one-third the weight of lead acid for comparable power ratings. Lower weight enables forklift OEMs the ability to optimize the design of the truck based on a smaller footprint for lithium-ion instead of lead acid. Lower Cost : Lithium-ion batteries provide power dense solutions with extended cycle life, reduced maintenance and improved operational performance, resulting in lower total cost of ownership. Less Energy Used : we believe our lithium-ion batteries use 20-50% less energy based on our internal studies comparing lithium-ion to lead acid. 9 Marketing and Sales We sell our products through a number of different channels including OEMs, lift equipment dealers and battery distributors as well as directly to end users. In the industrial motive market, OEMs sell their lift products through dealer networks and directly to end customers. Because of environmental issues associated with lead acid batteries and to preserve customer choice, industrial lift products are typically sold without a battery pack. Equipment dealers source battery packs from battery distributors and battery pack suppliers based on demand or in response to customer specifications. End customers may specify a specific type and manufacturer of battery pack to the equipment dealer or may purchase battery packs from battery distributors or directly from battery suppliers. Our direct sales staff is assigned to major geographies throughout North America to collaborate with our sales partners who have an established customer base. We plan to hire additional sales staff to support our expected sales growth. In addition, we have developed a nation-wide sales network of relationships with equipment OEMs, their dealers, and battery distributors. To support our products, we have a nation-wide network of service providers, typically forklift equipment dealers and battery distributors, who provide local customer service to large customers. We also maintain a customer support center and provide Tech Bulletins and training to our service and sales network out of our corporate headquarters. We have partnered with an experienced GSE distributor, to market our lithium-ion battery packs for airport GSE Manufacturing and Assembly Rather than manufacture our own battery cells and be limited to a single chemistry, our battery cells are sourced from a limited number of manufacturers located in China. We source the remainder of the components primarily from vendors in the United States. We developed our BMS to be agnostic to a battery’s lithium-ion chemistry and cell manufacturer. Despite such flexibility, we have experienced occasional supply interruptions in the past, and more recently, we have been forced to navigate supply chain and transportation issues stemming from the global pandemic. We are continuing to monitor and test potential new cell technologies on an ongoing basis to help mitigate our supply chain risks. Final assembly, testing and shipping of our products is done from our ISO 9001 certified facility in Vista, California, which includes three assembly lines. We buy chargers from several sources, including a U.S. based supplier. Additionally, we are a qualified dealer for a well-known manufacturer of “high capacity, modular, smart chargers” which support our larger packs. Research and Development Our engineers design, develop, test, and service our advanced lithium-ion energy storage solutions at our company headquarters in Vista, California. We believe our strengths include our core competencies and capabilities in designing and developing proprietary technology for our BMS, lean manufacturing processes, systems engineering, engineering application, and software engineering for both battery packs and telemetry. We believe that our ability to develop new features and technology for our BMS is essential to our growth strategy. As we continue to develop and expand our product offerings, we anticipate that research and development will continue to be a substantial part of our strategic priorities in the future. We seek to develop innovative new and improved products for cell and system management along with associated communication, display, current sensing and charging tools. Our research and development efforts are focused on improving performance, reliability and durability of our energy storage solutions for our customers and on lowering our costs of production. Competition Our competitors in the lift equipment market are primarily major lead acid battery manufacturers, including Stryten Energy, East Penn Manufacturing Company, EnerSys Corporation, and Crown Battery Corporation. Although these competitors have been introducing offerings of a lithium-ion battery, we do not believe that these suppliers offer lithium-based products for lift equipment in any significant volume to end users, equipment dealers, OEMs or battery distributors. Several OEMs offer lithium-ion battery packs on Class 3 forklifts for sale only with their own new forklifts. Some OEMs also offer forklift models designed with an integrated lithium-ion battery. As the demand for lithium-ion battery packs has increased, small lithium battery pack providers have entered the market, most of whom we believe are suppliers of other power products and have simply added a lithium product to their product lines. 10 The key competitive factors in this market are performance, reliability, durability, safety and price. We believe we compete effectively in all of these categories in light of our experience with lithium-ion technology, including our development capabilities and the performance of our proprietary BMS. We believe that the UL Listing covering many of our core products is a significant differentiating competitive advantage and we intend to extend that advantage by seeking to obtain UL Listings for our other energy storage pack products in the coming months. In addition, because our BMS is not reliant on any specific battery cell chemistry, we believe we can adapt rapidly to changes in advanced battery technology or customer preferences. Intellectual Property Our success depends, at least in part, on our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of patents pending, patent applications, trade secrets, including know-how, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, copyright laws, trademarks, intellectual property licenses and other contractual rights to establish and protect our proprietary rights in our technology. In addition to such factors as innovation, technological expertise and experienced personnel, we believe that a strong patent position is important to remain competitive. As of June 30, 2022, we have two issued patents and three trademark registrations protecting the Flux Power name and logo. We have filed three new patents on advanced technology related to lithium-ion battery packs. The technology behind these pending patents are designed to: ● increase battery life by optimizing the charging cycle, ● give users a better understanding of the health of their battery in use, and ● apply artificial intelligence to predictively balance the cells for optimal performance. We do not know whether any of our efforts will result in the issuance of patents or whether the examination process will require us to narrow our claims. Even if granted, there can be no assurance that these pending patent applications will provide us with protection. Suppliers We obtain a limited number of components and supplies included in our products from a small group of suppliers. During the year ended June 30, 2022, we had one (1) supplier who accounted for more than 10% of our total purchases, which represented approximately $13,884,000 or 28% of our total purchases. During the year ended June 30, 2021, we had two (2) suppliers who accounted for more than 10% of our total purchases, on an individual basis, and together represented approximately $9,260,000 or 27% of our total purchases. Government Regulations Product Safety Regulations . Our products are subject to product safety regulations by Federal, state, and local organizations. Accordingly, we may be required, or may voluntarily determine to obtain approval of our products from one or more of the organizations engaged in regulating product safety. These approvals could require significant time and resources from our technical staff and, if redesign were necessary, could result in a delay in the introduction of our products in various markets and applications. Environmental Regulations . Federal, state, and local regulations impose significant environmental requirements on the manufacture, storage, transportation, and disposal of various components of advanced energy storage systems. Although we believe that our operations are in material compliance with current applicable environmental regulations, there can be no assurance that changes in such laws and regulations will not impose costly compliance requirements on us or otherwise subject us to future liabilities. 11 Moreover, Federal, state, and local governments may enact additional regulations relating to the manufacture, storage, transportation, and disposal of components of advanced energy storage systems. Compliance with such additional regulations could require us to devote significant time and resources and could adversely affect demand for our products. There can be no assurance that additional or modified regulations relating to the manufacture, storage, transportation, and disposal of components of advanced energy systems will not be imposed. Occupational Safety and Health Regulations . The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) and other regulatory agencies have jurisdiction over the operations of our Vista, California facility. Because of the risks generally associated with the assembly of advanced energy storage systems we expect rigorous enforcement of applicable health and safety regulations. Frequent audits by, or changes, in the regulations issued by Cal/OSHA, or other regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over our operations, may cause unforeseen delays and require significant time and resources from our technical staff. Human Capital Resources As of June 30, 2022, we had 121 employees. We engage outside consultants for business development, operations and other functions from time to time. None of our employees is currently represented by a trade union. Corporate Office Our corporate headquarters and production facility totals approximately 63,200 square feet and is located in Vista, California. Our production facility is ISO 9001 certified. The telephone number at our principal executive office is (760)-741-FLUX or (760)-741-3589. Other Information Our Internet address is www.fluxpower.com. We make available on 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 we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Other than the information expressly set forth in this annual report, the information contained, or referred to, on our website is not part of this annual report. The SEC also maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers, such as us, that file electronically with the SEC. 12