What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2025-11-20 compared with 2024-11-14 · 91 added, 85 removed, 196 unchanged (47% of the section changed)

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.

Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc.

(“K&S,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company”) is a global leader in semiconductor assembly technology, advancing device performance across automotive, compute, industrial, memory and communications markets.

Founded on innovation in 1951, K&S is uniquely positioned to overcome increasingly dynamic process challenges – creating and delivering long-term value by aligning technology with opportunity.

We design, develop, manufacture and sell capital equipment and consumables and provide services used to assemble semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuits, power discretes, light-emitting diode (“LEDs”), 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.

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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.

Accordingly, we invest in research and engineering projects intended to expand our market access and enhance our leadership position in semiconductor 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.

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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.

Our year end for fiscal 2025, 2024 and 2023 was October 4, 2025, September 28, 2024, and September 30, 2023, respectively.

Key Events in Fiscal 2025

Middle East Conflict

On October 7, 2023, an escalated armed conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization commenced, leading to a series of extended hostilities along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.

Though a further ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization took effect on October 10, 2025, there have been subsequent claims of breaches on both sides.

The Company has a manufacturing facility and a business office in Haifa, and our capillaries are manufactured at our facilities in Israel and China.

As of the date of this report, our business and manufacturing operations in Israel have not been impacted and no material damage or utilities interruptions have been noted at our Israeli facility.

Trade routes remain open, and our suppliers and business partners in Israel remain operational.

Furthermore, disruption to our workforce has been minimal.

Given that any further escalation or other hostilities cannot be excluded, we continue to monitor the situation and remain ready to activate our Business Continuity Plan (“BCP”) if necessary.

Cessation of EA Equipment Business

On March 25, 2025, the Board of Directors the Company approved a strategic plan related to the cessation of the Company's EA equipment business.

As part of the plan, the Company began the process of winding down the EA equipment business in an effort to prioritize core semiconductor assembly business opportunities and enhance overall through-cycle financial performance.

The cessation of the EA equipment business is subject to a consultation process with the applicable works council and union representatives, which the Company initiated in the third fiscal quarter of 2025 and, as of October 4, 2025, had substantially completed.

The wind down activities remains ongoing and are expected to be substantially completed by fiscal 2026, after which there will be some service support activities to serve out the remaining customer obligations.

For additional information, see "Note 17:

Cessation of Business" in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in "Part II, Item 8 — Financial Statements and Supplementary Data".

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".

As previously disclosed in fiscal 2024, in connection with the Customer's strategic review of its business, the Customer informed the Company that it cancelled the Project.

On November 4, 2024, the Company and the Customer entered into a written agreement pursuant to which the Customer agreed to reimburse the Company for certain costs and expenses that the Company incurred in connection with the Project.

Pursuant to the agreement, the Customer agreed to pay $86.2 million to the Company.

In the quarter ended December 28, 2024, $15.1 million was included within "Net Revenue" for delivered products and the remaining $71.1 million was included in "Gain relating to cessation of business" in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

In the quarter ended March 29, 2025, the Company received the reimbursement amount from the Customer.

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.

The Company’s management continues to monitor 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 or between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the imposition of new, increased or retaliatory tariffs.

The ongoing tensions in the Middle East, including the Israel-Iran war, and the prolonged Ukraine/Russia conflict have not had a material impact on our financial condition and operating results in fiscal 2025.

We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, 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.

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 or 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.

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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”.

For additional 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.

On August 15, 2017, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to $100 million of the Company’s common stock on or before August 1, 2020.

In 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022, the Board of Directors increased the share repurchase authorization to $200 million, $300 million, $400 million and $800 million, respectively, and extended its duration through August 1, 2025 (the "Prior Program").

During the three months ended December 28, 2024, the Company repurchased a total of approximately 657.0 thousand shares of common stock under the Prior Program at a cost of approximately $30.3 million.

On December 2, 2024, the Company announced that it had completed share repurchases under the Prior Program.

Additionally, as announced on November 13, 2024, the Board of Directors authorized a new share repurchase program to repurchase up to $300 million of the Company's common stock (the "New Program").

On December 2, 2024, the Company entered into a new written trading plan under Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act, to facilitate repurchases under the New Program.

The plan permits the purchase of up to approximately $300 million of the Company’s common stock from December 2, 2024 through December 2, 2029.

The New 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 New 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 New Program depend on market conditions as well as corporate and regulatory considerations.

During the fiscal year ended October 4, 2025, the Company repurchased a total of approximately 1,785.0 thousand shares of common stock under the New Program at a cost of approximately $66.2 million.

The stock repurchases were recorded in the periods the repurchased shares 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.

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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.

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.

As of October 4, 2025, our remaining stock repurchase authorization under the New Program was approximately $233.8 million.

On each of August 29, 2025, June 5, 2025, March 6, 2025 and November 13, 2024, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.205 per share of common stock, resulting in an aggregate dividend of $0.82 per share of common stock for the fiscal year ended October 4, 2025.

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.

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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.

telecommunication equipment.

There can be no assurances regarding levels of demand for our products and we believe historic industry-wide volatility will persist.

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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.

As of October 4, 2025, our total cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were $510.7 million, a $66.4 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.

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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.

We compete in the General Semiconductor, 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.

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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.

Recently, we launched the Asterion-PW, extending our leadership in power device applications with a fast and precise ultrasonic pin welding solution.

Another example of our developing equipment for high-growth niche markets is our AT Premier PLUS .

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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,

of the smartphones available today in the market.

These applications are commonly used in most, if not all, 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.

We recently introduced ATPremier MEM PLUS™, a cutting-edge wafer level packaging solution, deploying innovative vertical wire technology to address emerging advanced memory applications within today's fast-paced semiconductor market.

Engineered for high-volume, at-the-edge AI applications, our vertical wire technology has broken barriers to enable a new level of transistor-dense DRAM and NAND assembly.

Our technology leadership and bonding process know-how have enabled us to develop highly function-specific equipment with high throughput and accuracy.

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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.

The APTURA TM is a highly capable thermo-compression bonding system which supports an ultra-fine-pitch fluxless direct-copper thermo-compression bonding process.

With this system, we 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”) and the “US-Joint” semiconductor consortium led by Resonac Holdings Corporation.

In respect of advanced dispensing, we recently announced the launch of ACELON™, a next-generation precision dispensing solution designed for a broad range of semiconductor, Surface Mount Technology ("SMT"), and automotive assembly applications.

This new advanced dispensing platform leverages the Company's market-leading machine architecture in wire bonding, which has already been successfully deployed by leading customers in critical high-reliability and high-volume production environments worldwide for decades.

ACELON™ provides flexibility for handling larger substrates and complex assembly configurations through a significantly expanded working area.

The system delivers industry-leading precision with sub-20µm wet accuracy, ensuring consistent material placement for critical applications where dimensional tolerances are paramount.

We are focused on driving innovation and delivering new solutions in 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.

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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”.

Revenue from our customers may vary significantly year-to-year based on their respective capital investments and operating expense budgets, as well as overall industry trends.

For additional information regarding our concentrations and customers, please see "Note 16:

Commitments, Contingencies and Concentrations” in the notes to our consolidated financial statements in “Part II, Item 8 — Financial Statements and Supplementary Data”.

Sales and Customer Support

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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:

(in thousands) September 28, 2024 September 30, 2023

The following table reflects our backlog as of October 4, 2025 and September 28, 2024:

(in thousands) October 4, 2025 September 28, 2024

Backlog $ 245,280 $ 148,585

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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 ball bonder, wedge bonder, AT Premier series, 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 facilities in the Netherlands and Singapore.

Our advanced dispensing manufacturing and assembly is done at our facility in Taiwan.

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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

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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 sustainability governance structure at K&S continues to evolve and mature, and our ESG council continues to oversee the Company's 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.

In fiscal 2024, we performed an independent, limited external assurance of our direct (Scope 1) and purchased energy indirect (Scope 2) greenhouse gas emissions data, as well as selected sustainability performance data on paper usage, water consumption, and waste generated and disposed, under the operational control boundary of seven of our global operational sites.

For more information on our ESG efforts, please refer to our Sustainability Report 2024, which can be found on our website at https://www.kns.com/ESG.

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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.

As of October 4, 2025, we had 2,551 full-time employees and 41 temporary workers worldwide.

Inclusive Workplace Practices

As a technology company operating in a dynamic and global environment, our success depends on attracting, retaining, and developing top talent across diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

We are committed to fostering a workplace culture that promotes fairness, innovation, and opportunity for all employees.

We are proud of our inclusive talent strategy that emphasizes fair and consistent hiring practices and cross-functional collaboration.

The Company has also implemented a learning and development series titled “Inclusive Leader Mindset Change Training”, which was designed to equip people managers with valuable perspectives and tools to cultivate inclusive leadership.

As a multinational company, we respect cultural differences and local labor laws, and we tailor our engagement strategies accordingly.

Safe Workplace

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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 Executive Safety Committee (the “Safety Committee”) 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.

Each of our key manufacturing and R&D sites have also established 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 health and safety-related trainings including 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.

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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.

We have implemented 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 from our 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.

Employees are encouraged to enroll in various training courses intended to support their development in the required competency stages as they chart their career progression with the Company.

To complement the other competencies, we also plan to roll out our Engineering Competency Framework in fiscal 2026.

This will allow our engineers to understand how to grow technically and the skills they will need to develop to move to the next career level, which we believe will lead to more robust planning for future talent needs and support succession planning for critical technical roles.

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.

The survey providers aggregate our data 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.

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Employee Engagement

We also monitor our workforce composition and retention trends together with employee engagement, and these insights feed into our strategic workforce planning and help us identify areas for improvement.

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.

Where we have identified retention risks in certain departments, we have also used quarterly pulse surveys to gather employee feedback for early detection of issues and to improve engagement.

Flexible work arrangements, which had been critical to our success throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has now become part of our culture.

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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.

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 wrongdoing 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.

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business