Item 1. Business
Item 1. BUSINESS
Founded in 1951, Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (“K&S,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company”) specializes in developing cutting-edge semiconductor and electronics assembly solutions enabling a smarter and more sustainable future. Our ever-growing range of products and services supports growth and facilitates technology transitions across large-scale markets, such as advanced display, automotive, communications, compute, consumer, data storage, energy storage and industrial.
We design, develop, manufacture and sell capital equipment and consumables and provide services used to assemble semiconductor and electronic devices, such as integrated circuits, power discretes, light-emitting diode (“LEDs”), advanced displays and sensors. We also service, maintain, repair and upgrade our equipment and sell consumable aftermarket solutions and services for our and our peer companies’ equipment. Our customers primarily consist of integrated device manufacturers (“IDMs”), outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers (“OSATs”), foundry service providers, and other electronics manufacturers and automotive electronics suppliers.
Our goal is to be the technology leader and the most competitive supplier in terms of performance, cost and quality in each of our major product lines. Accordingly, we invest in research and engineering projects intended to expand our market access and enhance our leadership position in semiconductor, electronics and display assembly. We also remain focused on enhancing our value to customers through higher productivity systems, more autonomous capabilities and continuous improvement and optimization of our operational costs. Delivering new levels of value to our customers is a critically important goal.
K&S was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1956. Our principal offices are located at 23A Serangoon North Avenue 5, #01-01, Singapore 554369 and 1005 Virginia Dr., Fort Washington, PA 19034, and our telephone number in the United States is (215) 784-6000. We maintain a website with the address www.kns.com . We are not including the information contained on our website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this filing. We make available free of charge (other than an investor’s own Internet access charges) on or through our website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to these reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after the material is electronically filed with or otherwise furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission ( “ SEC ” ). Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports are also available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov .
Our year end for fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022 was September 28, 2024, September 30, 2023, and October 1, 2022, respectively.
Key Events in Fiscal 2024
Cancellation of Project W
The Company was engaged by one of its customers (the "Customer") to support the Customer with the development and future mass production of certain technologies relating to advanced display (the "Project"), which project was previously referred to as Project W. In connection with the Customer's strategic review of its business, the Customer informed the Company that it cancelled the Project. In connection with the foregoing, on March 11, 2024, the Company committed to a plan to cease operational activities and commence wind down activities concerning various aspects of the Project. As of September 28, 2024, the wind down activities have been substantially completed. The cancellation of the Project resulted in the reduction of the Company's fiscal 2024 revenue by approximately $15 million. The Company also incurred certain charges during the year ended September 28, 2024 and expects to incur an immaterial amount of additional related charges in fiscal year 2025. For additional information, please see "Part II, Item 8 — Financial Statements and Supplementary Data — Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements - Note 17: Restructuring and Cancellation of Project".
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Macroeconomic Headwinds
The cost of logistics remains high as a result of macroeconomic conditions, inflation and labor shortages across layers of the supply chain. The Company’s management continues to monitor the economy for signs of any expansion of economic or supply chain disruptions or broader supply chain inflationary and logistical costs resulting either directly or indirectly from the tensions in the Middle East and between Ukraine and Russia.
The ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the prolonged Ukraine/Russia conflict did not have a material impact on our financial condition and operating results in fiscal 2024. We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, existing facility agreements, and anticipated cash flows from operations will be sufficient to meet our liquidity and capital requirements, notwithstanding the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the prolonged Ukraine/Russia conflict and other macroeconomic factors, for at least the next twelve months from the date of this Annual Report. However, this is a highly dynamic situation. As the macroeconomic situation remains highly volatile and the geopolitical situation remains uncertain, there is uncertainty surrounding the operations of our manufacturing locations, our business, our expectations regarding future demand and supply conditions, our near- and long-term liquidity and our financial condition. Consequentially, our operating results could deteriorate.
During fiscal years 2021 and 2022, semiconductor suppliers rapidly increased production output in response to increases in end-consumer demand. Concerns surrounding supply availability have spurred defensive inventory purchases, which led to a heightened demand for our products.
The current macroeconomic conditions and declining consumer sentiment during fiscal years 2023 and 2024 have persisted, which continues to exacerbate inventory buildup in the semiconductor industry. Many of our customers who accumulated our products in the past three years continue to reduce their order rates as a result of inventory adjustment.
Due to general inflationary pressures, declining consumer sentiment, and an economic downturn caused, directly or indirectly, by various macroeconomic factors, including the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the prolonged Ukraine/Russia conflict, the sector continues to experience volatility and disruption. However, we believe that the long-term semiconductor industry macroeconomics have not changed and we anticipate that the industry’s growth projections will normalize.
For other information, please see “Part I, Item 1A — Risk Factors”.
Share Repurchase Program
On August 15, 2017, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized a program (the “Program”) to repurchase up to $100 million of the Company’s common stock on or before August 1, 2020. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the Board of Directors increased the share repurchase authorization under the Program to $200 million, $300 million and $400 million, respectively. On March 3, 2022, the Board of Directors increased the share repurchase authorization under the Program by an additional $400 million to $800 million, and extended its duration through August 1, 2025. On November 17, 2023, the Company modified its written trading plan under Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act, dated as of May 7, 2022, to facilitate repurchases under the Program. The modification provided for the purchase of up to approximately $169 million of the Company’s common stock from November 20, 2023 through August 1, 2025. The Program may be suspended or discontinued at any time and is funded using the Company’s available cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Under the Program, shares may be repurchased through open market and/or privately negotiated transactions at prices deemed appropriate by management. The timing and amount of repurchase transactions under the Program depend on market conditions as well as corporate and regulatory considerations.
During the fiscal year ended September 28, 2024, the Company repurchased a total of approximately 3,221.0 thousand shares of common stock at an aggregate cost of approximately $151.0 million. The stock repurchases were recorded in the periods they were delivered and accounted for as treasury stock in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company records treasury stock purchases under the cost method using the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method. Upon re-issuance of treasury stock, amounts in excess of the acquisition cost are credited to additional paid-in capital. If the Company reissues treasury stock at an amount below its acquisition cost and additional paid-in capital associated with prior treasury stock transactions is insufficient to cover the difference between acquisition cost and the reissue price, this difference is recorded against retained earnings.
As of September 28, 2024, our remaining stock repurchase authorization under the Program was approximately $30.3 million.
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Dividends
On August 26, 2024, May 16, 2024, March 14, 2024 and November 15, 2023, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share of common stock, resulting in an aggregate dividend of $0.80 per share of common stock for the fiscal year ended September 28, 2024. The declaration of any future cash dividend is at the discretion of the Board of Directors, subject to applicable laws, and will depend on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, business conditions and other factors, as well as a determination that such dividends are in the best interests of the Company’s shareholders.
Business Environment
The semiconductor business environment is highly volatile and is driven by internal dynamics, both cyclical and seasonal, in addition to macroeconomic forces. Over the long term, semiconductor consumption has historically grown, and is forecasted to continue to grow. This growth is driven, in part, by regular advances in device performance and by price declines that result from improvements in manufacturing technology. In order to exploit these trends, semiconductor manufacturers, both IDMs and OSATs, periodically invest aggressively in the latest generation capital equipment. This buying pattern often leads to periods of excess supply and reduced capital spending — the so-called semiconductor cycle. Within this broad semiconductor cycle there are also, generally weaker, seasonal effects that are specifically tied to annual, end-consumer purchasing patterns. Typically, semiconductor manufacturers prepare for heightened demand by adding or replacing equipment capacity by the end of the September quarter. Occasionally, this results in subsequent reductions in the December quarter. This annual seasonality can be overshadowed by effects of the broader semiconductor cycle. Macroeconomic factors also affect the industry, primarily through their effect on business and consumer demand for electronic devices, as well as other products that have significant electronic content such as automobiles, white goods, and telecommunication equipment. There can be no assurances regarding levels of demand for our products and we believe historic industry-wide volatility will persist.
From time to time, our customers may request that we deliver our products to countries where they own or operate production facilities or to countries where they utilize third-party subcontractors or warehouses as part of their supply chain. For example, customers headquartered in the U.S. may require us to deliver our products to their back-end production facilities in China. Our customer base in the Asia/Pacific region has become more geographically concentrated over time as a result of general economic and industry conditions and trends. Approximately 90.6% and 91.2% of our net revenue for fiscal 2024 and 2023, respectively, was for shipments to customer locations outside of the U.S., primarily in the Asia/Pacific region. Approximately 53.3% and 38.6% of our net revenue for fiscal 2024 and 2023, respectively, was for shipments to customers headquartered in China.
While our customers have generally been impacted by the current global macroeconomic conditions, those with operations in China, an important manufacturing and supply chain hub, have witnessed a faster decline in demand and, accordingly, a faster decline in product shipments, compared to the rest of the world. The shipments to customers headquartered in China are subject to heightened risks and uncertainties related to the respective trade and export control policies of the governments of China and the U.S. Furthermore, there remains a potential risk of conflict and instability in the relationship between Taiwan and China that could disrupt the operations of our customers and/or suppliers in both Taiwan and China and our manufacturing operations in Taiwan and China.
The U.S. and several other countries have levied tariffs on certain goods and have introduced other trade restrictions resulting in substantial uncertainties in the semiconductor, LED, memory and automotive markets.
Our Ball Bonding Equipment, Wedge Bonding Equipment and Advanced Solutions reportable segments, as well as the remaining operating segments in the “All Others” category, are primarily affected by the industry’s internal cyclical and seasonal dynamics in addition to broader macroeconomic factors that can positively or negatively affect our financial performance. The sales mix of IDM and OSAT customers in any period also impacts financial performance, as changes in this mix can affect our products’ average selling prices and gross margins due to differences in volume purchases and machine configurations required by each customer type.
Our Aftermarket Products and Services (“APS”) segment has historically been less volatile than the other reportable segments. APS sales are more directly tied to semiconductor unit consumption rather than capacity requirements and production capability improvements.
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We continue to position our business to leverage our research and development leadership and innovation and to focus our efforts on mitigating volatility, improving profitability and ensuring longer-term growth. We remain focused on operational excellence, expanding our product offerings through continuous research and development or acquisitions and managing our business efficiently throughout the business cycles. Our visibility into future demand is generally limited, forecasting is difficult, and we generally experience typical industry seasonality.
To limit potential adverse cyclical, seasonal and macroeconomic effects on our financial position, we have continued our efforts to maintain a strong balance sheet. As of September 28, 2024, our total cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $577.1 million, a $182.3 million decrease from the prior fiscal year end. We believe our ability to maintain a strong cash position will allow us to continue to invest in product development, pursue non-organic growth opportunities and return capital to investors through our share repurchase and dividend programs. Please see “Part II, Item 7. – Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition - Liquidity and Capital Resources” for more information.
Technology Leadership
We compete in the General Semiconductor, LED, Automotive & Industrial and Memory end markets by offering our customers advanced capital equipment, tools and solutions primarily addressing their semiconductor interconnect and device assembly needs. Our technology leadership directly contributes to the strong market positions of our ball bonder, wedge bonder, advanced solutions, and other leading tools, services and solutions. To maintain our competitive advantage, we invest in product development activities designed to enhance existing products and to deliver next-generation solutions. These investments often focus on progressing the broader assembly process in addition to advancing specific hardware and software features within our broadening capital equipment and aftermarket solutions portfolios. In support of this development effort, we typically work in close collaboration with customers, end users, and other industry members. In addition to producing technical advances, these collaborative development efforts strengthen customer relationships and enhance our reputation as a technology leader and solutions provider.
In addition to gold, silver alloy wire and aluminum wire, our leadership in the industry’s use of copper wire for the bonding process is an example of the benefits of our collaborative efforts. By working with customers, material suppliers, and other equipment suppliers, we have developed a series of robust, high-yielding production processes, which have made the use of copper wire for the bonding process widely accepted and significantly reduced the cost of assembling an integrated circuit.
Our leadership also has allowed us to maintain a competitive position in the latest generations of ball bonders. Building on the success of RAPID, which is the first product in the smart bonder series to address the Industry 4.0 requirements, our RAPID Pro introduces additional functionality including the latest response-based processes. The RAPID series continues to excel in providing real-time process and performance monitoring, real-time equipment health monitoring, advanced data analytics and traceability, predictive maintenance monitoring and analysis, and detection and enhanced post-bond inspection.
We optimize our bonder platforms to deliver variants of our products to serve emerging high-growth markets. For example, we have developed extensions to address opportunities in memory assembly with our RAPID MEM, in particular for NAND Flash storage.
Our leading technology for wedge bonder equipment uses ribbon or heavy wire for different applications such as power electronics, automotive and semiconductor applications. The advanced interconnect capabilities of PowerFusion PS improve the processing of high-density power packages, due to an expanded bondable area, wider leadframe capability, indexing accuracy and teach mode. In all cases, we are making a concerted effort to develop commonality of subsystems and design practices, in order to improve performance and design efficiencies. We believe this will benefit us as it will increase synergies between our various product engineering groups. Furthermore, we continually research adjacent market segments where our technologies could be used. Our Asterion hybrid wedge bonder has demonstrated the capability to provide and enable an expanded bond area, laser bonding, new robust pattern recognition capabilities and extremely tight process controls. Another example of our developing equipment for high-growth niche markets is our AT Premier PLUS . This machine utilizes a modified wire bonding process to mechanically place bumps on devices in a wafer format, for variants of the flip chip assembly process. Typical applications include complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (“CMOS”) image sensors, surface acoustical wave (“SAW”) filters and high brightness LEDs. These applications are commonly used in most, if not all,
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of the smartphones available today in the market. We also have expanded the use of AT Premier PLUS for wafer level wire bonding for micro-electro-mechanical systems (“MEMS”) and other sensors.
Our technology leadership and bonding process know-how have enabled us to develop highly function-specific equipment with high throughput and accuracy. This forms the foundation for our advanced packaging equipment development. With the launch of our APAMA TM , APAMA Plus TM and APTURA TM , we are also developing and manufacturing advanced packaging solutions for the emerging 2.5-dimensional integrated circuit (“2.5D IC”) and 3-dimensional integrated circuit (“3D IC”) markets. By reducing the interconnect dimensions, 2.5D ICs and 3D ICs are expected to provide form factor, performance and power efficiency enhancements over traditional flip-chip packages in production today. High-performance processing and memory applications, in addition to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, are earlier adopters of this new packaging technology. Chiplets are emerging as an alternative methodology for developing advanced system-level designs. Chiplets of various functions and typically fabricated in different process nodes are mixed-and-matched and assembled in a package with the goal of speeding up time-to-market and reducing cost. This methodology of developing advanced system-level designs is increasing the complexity of packages. Our leadership in system-in-package (“SiP”), multi-chip module (“MCM”) and heterogeneous integration are well positioned to address the requirements of this emerging and growing trend.
The APTURA TM is a highly capable thermo-compression bonding system which supports ultra-fine-pitch fluxless direct-copper thermo-compression as well as the CuFirst TM hybrid bonding process. Both fluxless thermo-compression ("FTC") as well as CuFirst TM are well positioned to enable growth of chiplet-based advanced packages.
We continue to expand technology partnerships with key customers and through engagements with institutions and consortiums, including the UCLA Center for Heterogeneous Integration and Performance Scaling (“CHIPS”), Penn State Center for Heterogeneous Integration of Micro Electronic Systems (“CHIMES”), and the “US-Joint” semiconductor consortium led by Resonac Holdings Corporation.
In addition to our growing heterogeneous opportunities, we have also broadened our mass reflow advanced packaging solutions to include high-accuracy flip chip and fan-out wafer level packaging (“FOWLP”) with Katalyst TM . Our electronics assembly solutions are also capable of advanced package-on-package, wafer level packaging (“WLP”), embedded die, and active and passive die placement for SiP, enabling us to diversify our business while further expanding market reach into the automotive, LED lighting, medical and industrial segments.
With the launch of LUMINEX TM , our high-speed die placement as well as mass die transfer are now available to support various applications in the integrated circuit and advanced display value chain. In LUMINEX TM , we believe we remain well positioned to provide mini-LED and direct-emissive displays for high volume adoption. We remain focused on driving innovation and delivering new solutions that directly address the next set of semiconductor assembly challenges assembling the next-generation of electronic devices.
We bring the same technology focus to our tools business, driving tool design and manufacturing technology to optimize the performance and process capability of the equipment in which our tools are used. For all our equipment products, tools are an integral part of their process capability. We believe our unique ability to simultaneously develop both equipment and tools is a core strength supporting our products' technological differentiation.
Customers
Our major customers include IDMs, OSATs, foundry service providers, and other electronic manufacturers and automotive electronics suppliers. Revenue from our customers may vary significantly from year-to-year based on their respective capital investments, and operating expense budgets, and overall industry trends. There was no customer with sales representing more than 10% of our net revenue in fiscal 2024. For additional information regarding our concentrations and customers, please see “Part II, Item 8 — Financial Statements and Supplementary Data — Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements - Note 16: Commitments, Contingencies and Concentrations”.
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Sales and Customer Support
We believe long-term customer relationships are critical to our success, and comprehensive sales support and customer support are an important means of establishing those relationships. To maintain these relationships, we primarily utilize our direct sales force, as well as distribution channels such as agents and distributors, depending on the product, region, and end-user application. In all cases, our goal is to position our sales support and customer support resources near our customers’ facilities so as to provide support for customers in their own language and consistent with local customs. Our sales support and customer support resources are located primarily in Singapore, Israel, Taiwan, China, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, India, the U.S., Germany, Mexico, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Supporting these local resources, we have technology centers offering additional process expertise in Singapore, China, Switzerland, Israel, the U.S. and the Netherlands.
By establishing relationships with semiconductor manufacturers, OSATs, and vertically integrated manufacturers of electronic systems, we gain insight into our customers' future semiconductor packaging strategies. In addition, we also send our products and equipment to customers and potential customers for trial and evaluation. These insights assist us in our efforts to develop products and processes that address our customers' future assembly requirements.
Backlog
Our backlog consists of customer orders scheduled for shipment within the next twelve months. A majority of our orders are subject to cancellation or deferral by our customers with limited or no penalties. Also, customer demand for our products can vary dramatically without prior notice. Because of the volatility of customer demand, possibility of customer changes in delivery schedules or cancellations and potential delays in product shipments, our backlog as of any particular date may not be indicative of net revenue for any succeeding period.
The following table reflects our backlog as of September 28, 2024 and September 30, 2023:
As of
(in thousands) September 28, 2024 September 30, 2023
Backlog $ 148,585 $ 423,824
Manufacturing
We believe excellence in manufacturing can create a competitive advantage, both by producing at lower costs and by providing superior responsiveness to changes in customer demand. To achieve these goals, we manage our manufacturing operations through a single organization and believe that fewer, larger factories allow us to capture economies of scale and generate cost savings through lower manufacturing costs.
Our equipment manufacturing activities consist mainly of integrating outsourced parts and subassemblies and testing finished products to customer specifications. We largely utilize an outsource model, allowing us to minimize our fixed costs and capital expenditures. For certain low-volume, high customization parts, we manufacture subassemblies ourselves. Just-in-time inventory management has reduced our manufacturing cycle times and lowered our on-hand inventory requirements. Raw materials used in our equipment manufacturing are generally available from multiple sources; however, many outsourced parts and components are only available from a single or limited number of sources.
Our ball bonder, wedge bonder, AT Premier, APAMA TM , APAMA Plus TM , APTURA TM and Katalyst TM bonder manufacturing and assembly is done at our facility in Singapore. Our Hybrid and Electronic Assembly solutions manufacturing and assembly is done at our facility in the Netherlands. Our advanced dispensing manufacturing and assembly is done at our facility in Taiwan. We have ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certifications for our equipment manufacturing facilities in Singapore and in the Netherlands.
We manufacture dicing blades, capillaries and a portion of our bonding wedge inventory at our facility in China. The capillaries are produced at our facilities in China and Israel. We both produce and outsource the production of our bonding wedges. Our China and Israel facilities are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certified.
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Research and Product Development
Many of our customers generate technology roadmaps describing their projected packaging technology requirements. Our research and product development activities are focused on delivering robust production solutions to those projected requirements. We accomplish this by regularly introducing improved versions of existing products or by developing next-generation products. We follow this product development methodology in all our major product lines.
Intellectual Property
Where circumstances warrant, we apply for patents on inventions governing new products and processes developed as part of our ongoing research, engineering, and manufacturing activities. We currently hold a number of U.S. patents, many of which have foreign counterparts. We believe the duration of our patents often exceeds the commercial life cycles of the technologies disclosed and claimed in the patents. Additionally, we believe much of our important technology resides in our trade secrets and proprietary software.
Competition
The market for semiconductor equipment and packaging materials products is intensely competitive. Significant competitive factors in the semiconductor equipment market include price, speed/throughput, production yield, process control, delivery time, innovation, quality and customer support, each of which contribute to lower the overall cost per package being manufactured. Our major equipment competitors are ASM Pacific Technology, Hesse GmbH, Han's Laser Technology Co., Ltd., BE Semiconductor Industries N.V., Hanwha Precision Machinery Co., Ltd., Panasonic Holdings Corporation, Yamaha Robotics Holdings Co. Ltd., and Nordson Corporation.
Significant competitive factors in the semiconductor packaging materials industry include performance, price, delivery, product life, and quality. Our significant consumables competitors are PECO Co., Ltd., Disco Corporation, Small Precision Tools Co., Ltd. and Chaozhou Three-Circle (Group) Co., Ltd.
In each of the markets we serve, we face competition and the threat of competition from established competitors and potential new entrants, some of which may have greater financial, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing resources.
Environmental and Other Regulatory Matters
We are subject to various federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations governing, among other things, the generation, storage, use, emission, discharge, transportation and disposal of hazardous materials and the health and safety of our employees. In addition, we are subject to environmental laws which may require investigation and cleanup of any contamination at facilities we own or operate or at third-party waste disposal sites we use or have used.
We have incurred in the past, and expect in the future to incur, costs to comply with environmental laws. We are not, however, currently aware of any material costs or liabilities relating to environmental matters, including any claims or actions under environmental laws or obligations to perform any cleanups at any of our facilities or any third-party waste disposal sites, that we expect to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results. However, it is possible that material environmental costs or liabilities may arise in the future.
Though the majority of our manufacturing activities take place outside of the U.S., certain of our advanced packaging products are subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) because they are based on U.S. technology or contain more than a de minimis amount of controlled U.S. content. The EAR require licenses for, and sometimes prohibit, the export of certain products. The Commerce Control List (“CCL”) sets forth the types of goods and services controlled by the EAR, including civilian science, technology, and engineering dual-use items. For products listed on the CCL, a license may be required as a condition to export depending on the end destination, end use or end user and any applicable license exceptions.
Our business is subject to various other regulations typical of businesses of our type in the jurisdictions in which we operate. We maintain an export compliance program designed to meet the requirements of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of State.
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Business Continuity Management Plan
We have developed and implemented a global Business Continuity Management Plan (“BCP”) for our business operations. The BCP is designed to facilitate the prompt resumption of our business operations and functions arising from an event which impacts or potentially impacts our business operations. As the scale, timing, and impact of disasters and disruptions are unpredictable, the BCP has been designed to be flexible in responding to actual events as they occur. The BCP provides a structured framework for safeguarding our employees and property, making a financial and operational assessment, protecting our books and records, perpetuating critical business functions, and enabling the continuation of customer transactions. We review and update our BCP on a periodic basis to reflect any changes in our Company’s structure, operations or environment that may affect its continuity.
Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”)
We continue to proactively manage and address the ESG topics that are of concern to us and our stakeholders. The sustainability governance structure at K&S continues to evolve and mature. In fiscal 2022, we embedded our four corporate social responsibility pillars into a wider ESG framework now covering the full spectrum of ESG-related efforts and initiatives, and further integrated these ESG-related considerations, efforts and initiatives into many of our business and operational practices.
We also established an ESG council to oversee our ESG efforts. The ESG council comprises sub-components overseen by organizational leads, with each lead providing regular updates on status and planned initiatives to defined ESG council work streams. The ESG council provides quarterly updates to our executive leadership, with the Nominating and Governance Committee (“NGC”) of the Board of Directors receiving summary reports on a semi-annual basis.
In fiscal 2023, we performed an independent, limited external assurance of our direct (Scope 1) and purchased energy indirect (Scope 2) greenhouse gas emissions data under the operational control boundary of eight of our global operational sites.
For more information on our ESG efforts, please refer to our Sustainability Report 2023, which can be found on our website at https://www.kns.com/ESG. This website reference is provided for convenience only and the content on the referenced website is expressly not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Human Capital
Our Employees
Our talented employees are critical to our ability to achieve the Company’s vision to be the leading technology and service provider of innovative interconnect solutions enabling a smart future. As of September 28, 2024, we had 2,681 full-time employees and 65 temporary workers worldwide.
Diversity & Inclusion
We are committed to providing a diverse and collaborative environment that is rich in opportunities and which enables our employees to grow both professionally and personally in their careers within the Company. We are also committed to treating employees with dignity and respect. Diversity is important to the Company and we believe that the combined knowledge and diverse views that our employees contribute across our global locations strengthens our competitive edge. We value different backgrounds, celebrate unique perspectives, and believe that diversity and inclusion are essential to creating an environment where we can achieve our best innovation, which is essential to the success of the Company. In fiscal 2022, the Company incorporated its Diversity & Inclusion (“D&I”) program into its ESG structure.
The vision of the D&I program is to enrich the experience of all Company employees, irrespective of their seniority or role. It aims to foster an environment that acknowledges and celebrates their contributions and achievements in a unified and supportive setting. The Company implemented a learning and development series titled “Inclusive Leader Mindset Change Training”. This program was designed to equip all people managers with valuable perspectives and tools to cultivate inclusive leadership.
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Safe Workplace
We endeavor to provide a safe and healthy workplace for all our employees. The health and safety of our employees is of paramount importance to the Company, and forms an integral part of our organizational culture. The Executive Safety Committee (the “Safety Committee”), that was established in fiscal 2022, provides overall leadership and policy in discharging the Company’s safety responsibilities while promoting a culture of safety within the Company. The Safety Committee, together with key site and operations leadership responsible for the Company’s workplace safety and health, works together to establish and communicate a vision for the Company’s workplace safety. Each of our key manufacturing and R&D sites have also established its Environment, Health and Safety (“EHS”) practices, objectives and performance targets, which are overseen by an EHS Committee, led by an EHS Manager or a Safety Representative from each key operations function. To ensure that all employees are familiar with our safety standards and actions, we conduct regular health and safety-related trainings including an online-based Corporate Safety Training module, as well as hands-on emergency preparedness training comprising periodic fire drill evacuations, first-aid, fire-fighting and hazardous chemical spillage response drills. This training is included in our new hire on-boarding programs with employee-wide refresher trainings conducted every two years.
As and when required, including as a response to a potential global health crisis, our Company will implement site specific business continuity and risk mitigation plans to help maintain the health and safety of our employees.
Human Resource (“HR”) Practices
At K&S, we aim to recruit, develop and retain a high performing and diverse workforce while fostering a safe and productive work environment for employees to maximize individual and organizational potential. Our regional HR managers support the local leaders and managers, ensuring that our employment and labor practices adhere to regional and local regulations. We continually review these policies and benchmark them against market peers to help ensure that we implement leading practices on recruitment, onboarding and employee development. Our HR function also includes centers of excellence in Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, HR Shared Services, and Global Compensation and Benefits, ensuring best practices in these important areas.
Employee Development
We believe in investing in our employees’ professional growth by encouraging them to continually develop their functional and leadership skills and to gain different experiences across the Company as they progress along their career paths and grow within our organization. Our Learning and Development Framework which is based on identified professional and management competencies and the Company’s core values, is tailored to specific target groups such as new hires, professional and support staff levels, manager levels as well as identified key talents from our succession planning process. These development programs are also based on the 70/20/10 learning and development model under which individuals obtain 70% of their knowledge through experiential learning, 20% through social learning and 10% from formal educational events. We encourage our employees to not only participate actively in technical and soft skill training programs, but also to learn through peer coaching and mentoring, and to develop professionally through various stretch assignments and projects. In fiscal 2024, we continued with our global leadership development programs aimed at accelerating the development of our high potential mid-career professionals and managers to prepare them to assume broader leadership roles.
Following employee feedback in the last employee engagement survey, we introduced a formalized career progression framework and associated tools to provide clarity and guidance to both managers and employees. The framework provides clarity and tools for employees in the Professional and Management Career tracks on the requisite competencies for advancement to the next career level within the Company. Employees are encouraged to enroll in the various training courses intended to support their development in the required competency stages as they chart their career progression with the Company.
Compensation & Benefits
We strive to ensure fair, equitable and competitive pay for all employees within the locations where they work, and we obtain market knowledge about pay levels by participating in multiple globally recognized compensation surveys annually. The survey organizations pool our data together with all the responding companies to determine market relevant pay ranges for all our positions. Our analysis and programs also evaluate industry sector information most relevant to us. The Company also strives to ensure that our employee benefits are compliant in the cities, states and countries in which we operate, while annual benefits benchmarking ensures that our benefits are attractive in the markets where we compete for talent.
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Employee Engagement
As part of our employee engagement initiatives, every two to three years, we conduct a global employee engagement survey, the “Voice of K&S”, to gather feedback from all our employees on various aspects of their work and on our corporate culture. Survey results are reviewed by management teams to identify improvement opportunity areas.
Flexible work arrangements, which had been critical to our success throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has now become part of our culture. We have provided tools and infrastructure to enable employees the choice and flexibility of a range of flexible work arrangement options that best meet their needs while allowing them to continue to fulfill the Company’s business objectives.
Open Door Policy
We maintain an open-door policy through our grievance and whistleblowing procedures and provide multiple avenues for employees to voice their concerns and raise suggestions. Employees may report any grievances to their immediate supervisor, local HR representatives or the Global Vice President of HR. Employees may also confidentially and anonymously raise any concerns of legal violation, violation of the Company’s codes and policies, improper or unethical business practices, or concealment of any wrong-doing through the whistleblower hotline, whistleblower website or the Company's General Counsel. We take every raised complaint seriously and prohibit any form of retaliation against any employee for lodging a complaint in good faith.
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