Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We manufacture and sell a comprehensive line of protective clothing and accessories for the industrial and public protective clothing market. All Lakeland products either protect the wearer from something in their environment or protect a product or process from the wearer. Our products must meet minimum performance requirements defined by industry best practice, and/or international or local standards.
Our products are sold globally by our in-house sales teams, our customer service group, and authorized independent sales representatives to a global network of over 1,600 safety and industrial supply distributors. Our authorized distributors supply end users, such as integrated oil, chemical/petrochemical, automobile, transportation, steel, glass, construction, smelting, heavy and light industry, cleanroom, janitorial, pharmaceutical, and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as scientific, medical laboratories and the utilities industries (electrical, natural gas, and water). In addition, we supply federal, state and local governmental agencies and departments, such as fire and law enforcement, airport crash rescue units, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Internationally, we sell to a mixture of end users directly, and to industrial distributors depending on the particular country and market. Sales are made into more than 50 foreign countries, the majority of which are into China, countries within the European Economic Community (“EEC”), Canada, Chile, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, India, Middle East and countries within Southeast Asia.
The Company has seven revenue generating reportable geographic segments under ASC Topic 280 “Segment Reporting”: USA Operations, Other Foreign, Europe (UK), Mexico, Asia, Canada, and Latin America.
Lakeland regards owning and operating its own manufacturing facilities as a sustainable strategic advantage. We believe that ownership of manufacturing is the keystone to building a resilient supply chain. Having five manufacturing locations in five countries, coupled with sourcing core raw materials from multiple suppliers in various countries, affords Lakeland with manufacturing capabilities and supply chain resilience that cannot be matched by our competitors who use contractors. Owning our manufacturing provides us with the ability to rapidly scale up production to meet emergency demand; shift production between locations in response to geopolitical threats to take advantage of new trade agreements or avoid complications that may arise from trade disputes; and to maintain the highest levels of product quality.
On December 2, 2022, we acquired UK-based Eagle Technical Products Limited (“Eagle”). Eagle is a leading designer and provider of protective apparel to the fire and industrial sectors. Eagle provides differentiated product offerings through its innovative and technical solutions. The acquisition enhances our product portfolio, particularly within fire service protective clothing, and expands our sales presence in the Middle East and Europe.
For purposes of this Form 10-K, (a) FY refers to a fiscal year ended January 31; for example, FY23 refers to the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 and (b) Q refers to a quarter, for example Q4 FY 23 refers to the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023.
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Business Strategy
Key elements of our strategy include:
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Improve Sales & Marketing in Existing Markets: We believe that we have continued opportunities to increase market penetration and improve margins in existing markets by our sales and marketing focus on vertical markets. The four vertical markets that we are focusing on are our core industrial (e.g. oil & petrochemicals, manufacturing, and auto) markets, the fire services market, the utilities (e.g. electrical, gas, and water) market, and critical environments (clean rooms) markets. Our focus on verticals allows our sales and marketing groups to better provide the expertise in specific applications relative to our products that our customers are seeking. The result is an improved ability to focus on specific products and sell multiple product lines to the same accounts affording us the opportunity to bundle products to secure business.
We have integrated the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican sales teams into one coordinated unit, a strategic recognition that the three countries are increasingly part of a great North American market with inter-related industries and companies throughout, and our sales teams are sharing opportunities with each other. We have experienced situations in which we could not break through with a company in one country, but the team in another country was able to make a conversion to our products. Then, after successful use of our products in one country, the doors open to us in the other. We have installed SalesForce CRM software to facilitate this strategy globally.
We continue to pursue conversion of end users to our core disposable and chemical products, based on our overall performance and prices, however we are working hard to provide our sales teams with the tools needed to increase sales of higher value product lines, specifically fire service, critical environment, and performance wear (utilities). Our marketing is being significantly upgraded in terms of resources, better sales collateral materials, and increasingly effective use of social media. The Company plans to continue its efforts to align its global markets in terms of sales collateral, sales software, and e-commerce in the coming year and into the future.
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Introduce New Products: We continued our history of product development and innovation by introducing new proprietary products across all our product lines. Through our acquisition of Eagle Technical Products, we are now offering CE (European standard) firefighting turnout gear in markets outside of North America where NFPA-certified ensembles are being challenged by lighter-weight CE turnout gear. Also, Eagle has brought us an innovative luminescent trim for our turnout gear that is not dependent on retro-reflective technology to make firefighters more visible in low light. .
Additionally, we recently received CE certification (European) for a new powered air-purifying respirator (“PAPR”) suit. This product is currently approved for use with a specific powered air-purifying respirator; however, the technology developed to attain certification of this product is applicable to other “PAPRs” and will allow us to develop additional PAPR suits approved for use with other brands and models.
We have continued to develop our CleanMax line of clean and sterile manufactured garments for use in critical and aseptic work environments by adding a new product targeting the rapidly growing, regulated cannabis market (CBD oils, etc.). We also continued developing and introducing our High Performance wear line targeting electrical and gas distribution with a complete layering system designed to improve worker comfort and be worn away from as well as to work. We continue ramping up manufacturing and adding products to both of these lines.
We own 20 patents on fabrics and production machinery, with one application in process, and continue to work on developing fabrics that could potentially lead us into new markets and channels. In North America, our growth strategy is to focus on key target sectors where we have advantages, and to increase our involvement at the end user level by adding sales personnel and enhancing our marketing and product training tools to make it easier for the sales teams of our distributors to be successful promoting our products.
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Increased Focus on Fire Service: We believe a global trend, outside of North America, towards CE certified products, and the complexity of supply chain management and manufacturing make the global fire service market a place where we can leverage our certification and product knowledge to aid our customers in understanding the differences between these competing standards and to utilize our broad manufacturing base and supply chain/vendor relationships to provide reduced lead-times and superior products for our customers.
The addition of Eagle’s products into our global sales channels, coupled with bringing the manufacture of Eagle products “in house” provides us immediate sales opportunities in all markets outside of North America. With Eagle’s CE products, Lakeland will be one of very few manufacturers of Fire Service gear to offer complete lines of both NFPA and CE certified products.
Integration of Eagle onto the Lakeland platform has already begun. Eagle is currently offering Lakeland products, chemical suits, and NFPA certified turnout gear, into their existing markets and Lakeland has already begun selling Eagle hoods and CE certified products into our existing markets in Asia, South America, and Europe. Eagle products are currently produced at several contract manufacturers, but manufacturing will eventually be brought “in house” as contractual obligations with existing customers are fulfilled and new business is bid specifying Lakeland manufacturing.
This strategy is consistent with all of the three previously discussed key elements of our “Business Strategy”
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Continued Emphasis on Customer Service . We continue to offer a high level of customer service to distinguish our products and to create customer loyalty. The extension of common technology and information systems beyond the United States and Canada to all Lakeland subsidiaries will provide us with the necessary business intelligence to better anticipate customer demand and improve our planning and customer service. We offer well-trained and experienced sales and support personnel, on-time delivery and accommodation of custom and rush orders. We also seek to advertise our Lakeland branded tradenames and trademarks.
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Continued Development of Manufacturing Capability: It is critical that we increase our manufacturing capacity to meet our sales growth targets. We currently operate five manufacturing facilities in five countries, affording us a unique capability to take advantage of various trade agreements and to adjust our manufacturing as those agreements change. Lakeland is also committed to manufacturing R&D and invests in new equipment to improve efficiencies, improve quality, and maximize manufacturing flexibility.
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Decrease Manufacturing Expenses by Opening New Manufacturing Facilities: We have successfully opened new manufacturing facilities in Vietnam and India to hedge against ever increasing manufacturing costs in China. We will open a new facility in Monterrey, Mexico in FY24. Our China operation will continue for the foreseeable future to service products that are more complex and higher margin and for the manufacture of products for sale into China. Manufacturing expansion is not only necessary to control rising costs, but also for Lakeland to achieve its growth objectives.
We continue to diversify our raw material and component suppliers, qualifying multiple suppliers whenever possible to enable us to press for price reductions and better payment terms, as well as providing for continuity of supply.
We are sourcing raw materials and components from most of the countries in which we have operations in order to reduce freight costs and inventory levels.
We are re-engineering many products to reduce the amount of raw materials used and reduce the direct labor required as well as harmonizing designs to meet the requirements of multiple global markets. The result is improved manufacturing throughput.
Products
The following is a description of our core product offerings:
Firefighting and Heat Protective Apparel
We manufacture an extensive line of UL certified, NFPA compliant, structural firefighter protective apparel (turnout gear) for domestic and foreign fire departments. Our turnout gear is available both in standard stock patterns and custom configurations.
We offer basic firefighter turnout gear in the Attack (A10) and Battalion (B1) styles. Introduced in 2013 are the Battalion (“B2”) style with advanced ergonomic features and the Stealth style, with innovative features new to the fire industry.
We also manufacture each of the above styles in our UL certified, NFPA compliant, Proximity line for Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (“ARFF”) with aluminized shells.
We manufacture full lines of Fire service extrication suits in FR cotton, UL certified, NFPA compliant Wildland firefighting apparel in multiple fabrics and Aluminized Kiln entry/Approach suits to protect industrial workers from extreme heat encountered in foundry’s, boiler rooms, and direct fired ovens.
We manufacture fire suits (turnout gear) at our facilities in China and Mexico. Our Lakeland Fire® brand of firefighting apparel continues to benefit from ongoing research and development investment, as we seek to address the ergonomic needs of stressful occupations.
High-End Chemical Protective Suits
We manufacture and sell heavy duty chemical protective suits and protective apparel from our proprietary CRFR, ChemMax® 3, 4, Interceptor and other fabrics. These suits are worn by individuals on hazardous material teams and within general industry to provide protection from powerful, highly concentrated, toxic and/or potentially lethal chemicals and biological toxins. These suits are useful against toxic wastes at Superfund sites, toxic chemical spills or biological discharges, chemical or biological warfare weapons (such as sarin, anthrax or ricin and mustard gas) and chemicals and petro-chemicals present during the cleaning of refineries and nuclear facilities, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in industrial applications, and protection from infectious diseases such as Avian Flu and Ebola.
We believe that we offer the most complete and cost-effective line of chemical protective garments available on the market today. Garments are certified to both NFPA, CE, ISO, as well as other international standards allowing us to offer products composed of these fabrics all over the world.
Our ChemMAX 3, 4 and Interceptor fabrics are supported by PermaSure®, an app based chemical database and permeation modeler that allows our customers to quickly determine the safe use time for supported Lakeland garments, under specific environmental conditions for over 4,000 chemicals. This powerful tool allows Lakeland customers to safely minimize the chemical protective clothing cost by not having to default to the most protective garments available because chemical data is not available, or because there is not time to consult with the manufacturer. PermaSure can be used to model response scenarios so that contingency plans for response can be put in place.
Limited Use/Disposable Protective Clothing
We manufacture a complete line of limited use/disposable protective garments, including coveralls, laboratory coats, shirts, pants, hoods, aprons, sleeves, arm guards, caps and smocks. Limited use garments can also be coated or laminated to increase splash protection against harmful inorganic acids, bases and other hazardous liquid and dry chemicals. Limited use garments are made from several different nonwoven fabrics. We use spunbonded polypropylene (SBPP), spunbonded meltblow spunbond (SMS), hydroentangled woodpulp/polyester, and needlepunched fabrics. These fabrics can be used alone or in combination with films of varying composition, and/or topical chemical treatments to make our own trademarked fabrics, like Pyrolon® Plus 2, XT, CRFR, CBFR MicroMax®, MicroMax NS, CleanMax, Safegard®, Zonegard®, and ChemMax® 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as our patented Interceptor fabric. We incorporate many sewing, heat sealing and taping techniques depending on the level of protection needed in the end use application.
Typical users of these garments include integrated oil/petrochemical refineries, chemical plants, automotive manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, construction companies, coal, gas and oil power generation utilities and telephone utility companies, laboratories, mortuaries and governmental entities. Numerous smaller industries use these garments for specific safety applications unique to their businesses. Additional applications include protection from viruses and bacteria, such as Ebola, AIDS, streptococcus, SARS, hepatitis, and COVID-19 at medical facilities, laboratories, and emergency rescue sites. Clean manufactured and sterilized versions of our MicroMAX NS product, trademarked CleanMax, is used in aseptic laboratories to protect both the wearer and the product from cross contamination.
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Durable Woven Garments
We manufacture and market a line of durable, launderable woven garments that complement our firefighting and heat protective offerings and provide alternatives to our limited use/disposable protective clothing lines. These products provide us access to the much larger woven industrial and health care-related markets. Woven garments are favored by customers for certain applications because of familiarity with and acceptance of these fabrics. These products allow us to supply and satisfy a wider range of our end users’ safety needs.
Our product lines include the following:
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Electrostatic dissipative apparel used in electronics clean rooms;
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Flame resistant (FR) meta aramid, para aramid and FR Cotton coveralls/pants/jackets used in petrochemical, refining operations, and electrical utilities;
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Cotton and Polycotton coveralls, lab coats, pants and shirts; and
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FR fabrics containing blends of cotton, Modacrylic, meta aramid, para aramid, and viscose.
We manufacture woven garments at our facilities in China, Mexico and Argentina. We are continuing to relocate our woven protective coveralls and flame-retardant coveralls to our facilities in China, Mexico, Vietnam and India where lower fabric and labor costs allow increased profit margins.
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High Visibility Clothing
Lakeland’s High-Visibility Division manufactures and markets a comprehensive line of reflective apparel meeting the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) requirements as well as multiple national standards around the world. The line includes vests, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, coats, raingear, jumpsuits, hats and gloves.
Fabrics available include solid and mesh fluorescent, polyester, both inherently FR and FR treated fabrics, and Modacrylic materials, which meet the arc flash protective requirements for use by electrical utilities. The mesh modacrylic fabric, with its inherent FR capability, has a strong appeal to utility workers in warmer climates during spring and summer months (heat prostration).
Our High Vis FR/ARC rated rainwear is light-weight, soft, flexible and breathable, providing for a cooler garment. This product is intended for the Gas and Electrical Utility markets. The Lakeland ARC-X FR/PU garment exceeds all of the required ASTM arc flash and flash fire ratings for the Electric and Gas Utility market.
Our vest production occurs in our facilities in Mexico and China. Much of this manufacturing is for custom products. Many corporations and agencies, such as State Departments of Transportation and large electric utilities, develop custom specifications which they feel are more efficient in meeting their specific needs than off-the-shelf product. We can also import significant quantities of product from China and Mexico to meet the demand for items in high volume commodity markets.
In addition to ANSI Reflective items, Lakeland Hi-Visibility manufactures Nomex and FR cotton garments which have reflective trim attached as a part of their design criteria. These garments typically are used in rescue or extrication operations, such as those encountered as a result of vehicular accidents. Garments in this group are not as price sensitive as those in other reflective categories.
Gloves and Sleeves
We manufacture and sell specially designed glove and sleeve products made from Kevlar®, a cut and heat resistant fiber produced by DuPont, Spectra®, a cut resistant fiber made by Honeywell, and our own patented engineered yarns. These gloves offer a better overall level of protection, lower worker injury rate, and are more cost effective than traditional leather, canvas or coated work gloves. These gloves allow workers to safely handle sharp or jagged unfinished sheet metal, are used primarily in the automotive, glass and metal fabrication industries.
We have patents for our Despro ® and Despro ® Plus products that provide greater cut and abrasion protection to the areas of a glove where injury is most likely to occur. For example, the areas of the thumb, thumb crotch and index fingers are made of heavier yarn than the balance of the glove, providing increased wear protection and longer glove life, reducing overall glove costs. This proprietary manufacturing process allows us to produce our gloves more economically and provide a greater value to the end user.
Quality
All of our manufacturing facilities are ISO 9001 or 9002 certified. ISO standards are internationally recognized manufacturing standards established by the International Organization for Standardization based in Geneva, Switzerland. To obtain ISO registration, our factories were independently audited to test our compliance with the applicable standards and norms. In order to maintain registration, our factories receive regular inspections by an independent certification organization. While ISO certification is advantageous in retaining CE certification of products, we believe that the ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 certifications help make us more competitive in the marketplace, as customers increasingly recognize the standard as an indication of conformity with industry best practices in manufacturing.
As we source more and more of our fabrics internationally and manufacture more products certified to various standards, we have installed laboratories in our China and U.S. facilities. These laboratories are critical for ensuring that our incoming raw materials meet our quality requirements, for research and development of new products or qualification of new fabrics, and evaluation of new products against international standards. We continue to add new capabilities to these facilities to meet the requirements of new products and new standards.
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Marketing and Sales
Domestically, we employ a field sales force, organized in four vertical sales groups (industrial sales, fire service, critical environment, and utilities), to better support customers and enhance marketing. We further leverage our in-house sales team with independent sales representatives to a global network of over 1,600 safety and industrial supply distributors who buy our products for resale and typically maintain inventory at the local level in order to assure quick response times and the ability to serve their customers properly.
Internationally, Lakeland has sales representatives in 21 countries outside of the U.S. and sells products into more than 50 countries. Our sustainable market advantages continue to be our knowledge of global standards, the diversity of our product offering and the fact that we manufacture our own products. We provide our customers with an exceptionally broad product selection, high quality, and excellent customer service.
Competition
We compete on the basis of our product quality, pricing, product availability, responsiveness to customers and manufacturing capability. Our business is highly competitive due to a few competitors who have monopolistic positions in the fabrics that are standards in the industry for disposable and high-end chemical suits. We believe that the barriers to entry in the disposable and reusable garments and gloves industries are relatively low as evidenced the by increasing availability of distributor private label product in the marketplace. We face competition in some of our other product markets from large established companies that have greater financial, research and development, sales and technical resources. Where larger competitors, such as DuPont, Kimberly Clark, Ansell, MSA and Honeywell, offer products that are directly competitive with our products, particularly as part of an established line of products, there can be no assurance that we can successfully compete for sales and customers. Larger competitors outside of our Disposable and Chemical Suit lines also may be able to benefit from economies of scale and technological innovation and may introduce new products that compete with our products.
We are continually seeking sources for our raw materials in or near the various countries where we have manufacturing operations. Not only does this reduce freight costs, but it makes for a more robust supply chain that allows us to respond quickly.
Patents and Trademarks
We own 20 patents and have one patent in the application and approval process with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. We own 56 trademarks and have six trademarks in the application and approval process. Our active U.S. patents expire between 2023 and 2037. Intellectual property rights that apply to our various products include patents, trade secrets, trademarks and, to a lesser extent, copyrights. We maintain an active program to protect our technology, filing for patent and trademark protection in multiple countries where our product may be “knocked off” or where there exist significant sales of our products. Information regarding risks associated with our proprietary technology and our intellectual property rights may be found in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the heading “Risk Factors.”
International and Domestic Standards
Globally, standards development continues to challenge Industrial protective clothing manufacturers. The pace of change and adoption of new standards continues to increase as standards for more hazards are added and deficiencies in existing standards are corrected. Complex and changing international standards play to Lakeland’s strengths when compared to most multinationals or smaller manufacturers. Lakeland currently sits on committees and/or works closely with groups involved in writing many international standards such as the American Society for Testing and Materials International (“ASTM”), the National Fire Protection Association (“NFPA”), International Safety Equipment Association (“ISEA”), the European Committee for Standardization (“CEN”), ISO, the China National Standards Board (“GB”) in China, and the Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand (“ASNZ”).
Globally, not only are the standards continuing to change, but the focus of standards activity is shifting. In response to increasing use of certification processes as a technical barrier to trade, standards writing bodies in the U.S. and Europe have both concluded efforts to update and define conformity assessment (ANSI/ISEA 125 and the PPE Regulation respectively) within their own spheres of influence. Unfortunately, these are not “international standards” and can be easily ignored by other countries who wish to impose their own conformity assessment systems on importers. The result is an increasingly dynamic standards environment where not only are the standards changing, but the minimum requirements for conformity with the certification process itself are changing.
A number of developing nations are now becoming active in their own standards development based on existing international standards. However, we believe that the primary goal of their standards writing activity is not focused on worker protection (that is provided for by the use of international standards), rather they are attempting to establish their own certification criteria that will protect their domestic markets or favor specific regional suppliers. This presents a new challenge in that not only are we faced with multiple test methods and standards, but we have the potential for multiple certification processes. While this adds to product development and sales expenses, the additional cost is only incremental. The real challenge is in navigating the certification process itself. This is a significant impediment to entry for companies seeking to expand sales distribution globally.
In many cases products preferred in one market are not acceptable in another and multiple conformity assessments are required for the same standard certification. This is both technically challenging and costly. Lakeland, by virtue of its international manufacturing and sales operations, is in a unique position to capitalize on this complex dynamic.
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Government Regulation
We are governed by regulations that affect the manufacture, distribution, marketing and sale of our products, including regulations relating to various environmental, health and safety matters. These regulations differ among and within every country in which we operate. We are not involved in any pending or, to our knowledge, threatened governmental proceedings, which would require curtailment of our operations because of such laws and regulations. Changes in regulations, guidelines, procedural precedents and enforcement take place frequently and can impact the size, growth potential and profitability of products sold in each market. See “- Environmental Matters” for additional discussion of environmental regulations.
Suppliers and Materials
It is our policy, whenever possible, to qualify multiple vendors for our fabrics and bindings. We frequently distribute our purchases among the top two or three suppliers, based on pricing and delivery schedules, in order to keep multiple suppliers qualified and proficient in the manufacture of the raw materials that we require. Materials, such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, spunlaced polyester, melt blown polypropylene and their derivatives and laminates, are available from 30 or more major mills. FR fabrics are also available from a number of both domestic and international mills. The accessories used in the production of our disposable garments, such as thread, boxes, snaps and elastics, are obtained from unaffiliated suppliers. We currently use 25 suppliers located in the U.S. and internationally to supply our key fabrics. We have not experienced difficulty in obtaining our requirements for these commodity component items.
Due to the high cost of freight for our nonwoven fabrics, we also seek to find multiple sources that are local to our manufacturing to emergency demand and shift manufacturing between our locations with greater ease.
Human Capital Management
As of January 31, 2023, the Company employed approximately 1,600 people worldwide of which approximately 1,550 were full-time and approximately 50 were part-time, of which approximately 90 were employed in the United States and 1,500 were employed outside of the United States. Approximately 1,300 or 80% of our global workforce is covered by collective bargaining agreements or works councils. Overall, we consider our employee relations to be good. Our culture is important to our success.
Health and Safety The health and safety of our employees is of utmost important to us. We conduct regular self-assessments and audits to ensure compliance with our health and safety guidelines and regulatory requirements. Our ultimate goal is to achieve a level of work-related injuries as close to zero as possible through continuous investment in our safety programs. We provide protective gear (e.g. eye protection, masks and gloves) as required by applicable standards and as appropriate given employee job duties. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we invested heavily to help ensure the health of our employees. Through the use of education and awareness, provision of necessary PPE, and changes to our manufacturing sites and screening, we strive to make our workplaces a safe place for employees during the workday.
Hiring Practices We recruit the best people for the job without regard to gender, ethnicity or other protected traits and it is our policy to comply fully with all domestic, foreign and local laws relating to discrimination in the workplace.
Diversity and Inclusion Recognizing and respecting our global presence, we strive to maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce everywhere we operate. Almost 50% of our employees worldwide are female and, in the U.S., non-Caucasian employees account for more than 50% of the employee base. Our diversity and inclusion principles are also reflected in our employee training, in particular with respect to our policies against harassment and bullying and the elimination of bias in the workplace.
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In addition, to support mental health and emotional well-being, all associates and their dependents worldwide have access to an Employee Assistance Program ("EAP"), at no cost to them. This includes access to visits with mental health care providers through the EAP.
Compensation. Lakeland’s compensation philosophy strives to provide total compensation for all employees at the market median, utilizing base salary, cash incentives and, in some cases, equity grants to achieve this goal. We further strive to provide above-market compensation opportunities for associates who exceed goals and expectations. This approach to compensation is designed to help Lakeland attract, retain and motivate high-performing individuals who foster an innovative culture and drive business results.
Additional information about how we value our associates' well-being, including our Global Human Rights Policy and our Global Workplace Health and Safety Policy, can be found in the Corporate Governance section of our corporate website. Nothing on our website, including our policies, or sections thereof, shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or incorporated by reference into any of our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Environmental Matters
We are subject to various foreign, federal, state and local environmental protection, chemical control, and health and safety laws and regulations, and we incur costs to comply with those laws. We own and lease real property, and certain environmental laws hold current or previous owners or operators of businesses and real property responsible for contamination on or originating from property, even if they did not know of, or were not responsible for the contamination. The presence of hazardous substances on any of our properties or the failure to meet environmental regulatory requirements could affect our ability to use or to sell the property, or to use the property as collateral for borrowing, and could result in substantial remediation or compliance costs.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products worldwide since the 1940s. PFAS have been widely used to make products more resistant to heat, oils, grease, chemicals, and water. Therefore, PFAS are found in everyday consumer goods such as food packaging, nonstick cookware, stain resistant fabrics and carpets, some cosmetics, water-repellent clothing, and some firefighting foams. PFAS are now the subject of increasing regulatory attention. Both the EPA and the European Union have proposed draft regulations regarding PFAS, which include restrictions, data gathering and/or phase-out requirements. In the United States, a number of states have also developed regulatory standards, product reporting, and/or phase-out requirements.
Certain fabric components of firefighter turnout gear manufactured by our suppliers contain PFAS to achieve water, oil, or chemical resistance. No manufacturer of firefighter turnout gear is able to meet the current NFPA safety standards without including some PFAS in certain components of turnout gear. Our suppliers have notified us that they add PFAS to their materials to achieve the NFPA performance requirements. Although the Company has not been named as a party in any lawsuits related to PFAS, firefighters in some states have filed lawsuits related to alleged exposures to PFAS in turnout gear. In addition, the International Association of Fire Fighters has filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts against the NFPA for imposing criteria that effectively requires the use of PFAS in turnout gear.
Although we have not in the past had any material costs or damages associated with environmental claims or compliance, and we do not currently anticipate any such costs or damages, we cannot guarantee that we will not incur material costs or damages in the future as a result of the discovery of new facts or conditions, acquisition of new properties, the release of hazardous substances, a change in interpretation of existing environmental laws or the adoption of new environmental laws.
Seasonality
Our operations have historically been moderately seasonal, with higher sales generally occurring in March, April and May when scheduled maintenance on nuclear, coal, oil and gas fired utilities, chemical, petrochemical and smelting facilities, and other heavy industrial manufacturing plants occurs, primarily due to moderate spring temperatures and low energy demands. Sales decline during the warmer summer vacation months and gradually increase from Labor Day through the fall with slight declines again during holidays, such as Christmas and the Chinese New Year. As a result of this seasonality in our sales, we have historically experienced a corresponding seasonality in our working capital, specifically inventories, with peak inventories occurring between December and May, coinciding with lead times required to accommodate the spring maintenance schedules. Certain of our large customers seek sole sourcing to avoid sourcing their requirements from multiple vendors whose prices, delivery times and quality standards differ.
In recent years, due to increased demand by first responders for our chemical suits and fire gear, our growing sales into the southern hemisphere, and our development of non-seasonal products like CleanMAX, our historical seasonal pattern has shifted. While we doubt that we will ever fully eliminate seasonality in our business, we continue our efforts to diminish its impact on revenues, operational results, working capital and cash flow, by focusing on sales into non-seasonal markets like clean rooms, electric utilities and the fire service markets.
Available Information
Our Internet address is www.Lakeland.com. We make the following filings available free of charge on the Investor Relations page on our website as soon as they have been electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"): our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as our proxy statement. Information contained on our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or our other filings with the SEC. The SEC maintains an Internet site at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers like us who file electronically with the SEC.
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Information about our Executive Officers
The following is a list of the names and ages of all of our executive officers indicating all positions and offices they hold with us as of April 17, 2023.
Name
Age
Position
Charles D. Roberson
60
Chief Executive Officer, President and Secretary
Roger D. Shannon
58
Chief Financial Officer
Steven L. Harvey
62
Executive Vice President for Global Sales and Marketing
Hui (Helena) An
49
Chief Operating Officer
Charles D. Roberson has served as our Chief Executive Officer, President and Secretary since February 2020. Previously he served as Chief Operating Officer from July 2018. From 2009 to July 2018, he was our Senior Vice President, International Sales. Mr. Roberson joined our Company in 2004 as Technical Marketing Manager; was instrumental in development of our ChemMAX and Interceptor fabrics and represented Lakeland to various standards writing bodies, and later served as International Sales Manager. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Roberson was employed by Precision Fabrics Group, Inc. as a Market Manager from 1995-2001 and as a Nonwovens Manufacturing Manager from 1991-1995. He began his career as a manufacturing manager for Burlington Industries, Inc. in its Menswear Division from 1985-1991.
Roger D. Shannon has served as our Chief Financial Officer since February 1, 2023. Mr. Shannon was Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Charah Solutions from June 2019 to October 2022. Mr. Shannon previously served in various roles, including Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President of Finance, Treasurer and Head of Corporate Development at ADTRAN, a publicly traded provider of next-generation networking solutions, from November 2015 to June 2019. Mr. Shannon also served as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for Steel Technologies and various senior finance roles at the Brown-Forman Corporation, British American Tobacco, and accounting positions at Vulcan Materials Company, Lexmark International and KPMG.
Steven L. Harvey has been our Executive Vice President for Global Sales and Marketing since January 2021. From 2007 to 2018, Mr. Harvey was Vice-President of Global Sales and Service of Digium, Inc., a provider of telecommunications solutions. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Harvey was employed by ADTRAN, Inc., a provider of networking and communications equipment as the Vice President of Sales, Enterprise and Competitive Service Providers, as the Vice President of Sales, Competitive Service Providers from 1998 to 2002 and as the Vice President of Sales, Enterprise from 1996 to 1998. Mr. Harvey was also an Executive Vice President of, and held various sales positions for, Data Processing Sciences, and began his career at The Procter & Gamble Company.
Helena An has served as our Chief Operating Officer since April 6, 2023. Ms. An previously served as our Vice President of Procurement and Asia Manufacturing since 2018. Ms. An has been with Lakeland for over 25 years in various procurement and manufacturing leadership positions.
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