BRADY CORP (BRC) Business

Item 1. Business

General Development of Business

Brady was incorporated under the laws of the state of Wisconsin in 1914. Brady is a global manufacturer and supplier of identification solutions and workplace safety products that identify and protect premises, products and people. The ability to provide customers with a broad range of proprietary, customized and diverse products for use in various applications across multiple industries and geographies, along with a commitment to quality and service, have made Brady a leader in many of its markets.

The Company is organized and managed on a geographic basis with two reportable segments: Americas & Asia and Europe & Australia. The Americas & Asia segment is comprised of our operations in North America, South America and Asia, while the Europe & Australia segment is comprised of our operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia. This regional operating structure provides a framework to align local execution with global scale and supports consistent integration of acquired businesses.

The Company’s primary objective is to build upon its market position and increase shareholder value by enabling a highly competent and experienced organization to focus on the following key competencies:

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•Innovative products — Technologically-advanced, proprietary products that drive revenue growth and sustain gross profit margins through continuous research and development (“R&D”) investment and close collaboration with customers on application-specific needs

•Customer experience — Understanding customer needs and providing a high level of service through dedicated account support, localized technical expertise, and integrated tools that enhance responsiveness and ease of doing business

•Global leadership position in niche markets — Leveraging strong distribution networks, application knowledge, and long-standing relationships to maintain leadership in specialized identification and safety markets, while expanding scale and reach through targeted investments and acquisitions

•Digital capabilities — Enhancing transactional websites, product content, and customer portals to provide easy-to-find solutions and seamless transactions, supported by digital tools that improve execution and reach

•Compliance expertise — Leveraging regulatory knowledge to provide innovative solutions that support customer compliance, enabling confidence and growth in regulated industries

•Operational excellence — Driving productivity through lean manufacturing, automation, and supply chain optimization, while expanding customization capabilities to deliver tailored solutions efficiently and at scale

The Company's strategy is to apply these core competencies to drive long-term growth, improve profitability, and strengthen its competitive position. Key initiatives in fiscal 2025 included:

•Investing in organic growth by enhancing our R&D process and utilizing customer feedback and observations to develop innovative new products that solve customer needs and improve environmental sustainability.

•Delivering a high-quality customer experience by aligning with customers' preferred communications channels and leveraging technology to strengthen engagement.

•Expanding and enhancing sales capabilities through an improved digital presence and the use of data-driven marketing automation tools.

•Maintaining profitability through pricing mechanisms to mitigate the impacts of ongoing supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures while ensuring prices remain competitive.

•Integrating recent acquisitions to enhance our strategic position and accelerate long-term sales growth.

•Advancing operational excellence by executing sustainable efficiency gains within our selling, general and administrative structures and within our global operations, including cost reduction initiatives, insourcing of critical products and manufacturing activities, and reducing the Company's environmental footprint.

•Continuing to build a high-performance culture, which rewards execution, fosters inclusion, and strengthens employee engagement, recruitment, and retention.

During the year ended July 31, 2025, Brady completed the acquisitions of three companies: Gravotech Holding (“Gravotech”), American Barcode and RFID Incorporated (“AB&R”), and the Microfluidic Solutions business unit of Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (“Microfluidic Solutions”). The acquired companies strengthen Brady's position in faster-growing markets, enabling us to accelerate growth while expanding our product offerings and research and development capabilities.

Narrative Description of Business

Overview

The Company is organized and managed on a geographic basis with two reportable segments: Americas & Asia and Europe & Australia. Below is a summary of sales by reportable segment during the years ended July 31:

Within each of the reportable segments, the Company markets, sells and distributes a broad range of identification and safety products and solutions across the following primary product categories:

•Safety and facility identification and protection, which includes safety signs, traffic signs and control products, floor-marking tape, pipe markers, labeling systems, spill control products, lockout/tagout devices, personal protection equipment, first aid products, and software and services for safety compliance auditing, procedures writing and training.

•Product identification, which includes materials, printing systems, radio frequency identification (“RFID”) and barcode scanners for product identification, direct part marking, engraving equipment, brand protection labeling, work

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in process labeling, finished product identification, asset tracking labels, asset tags and industrial track and trace applications.

•Wire identification, which includes handheld printers, wire markers, sleeves, and tags.

•Healthcare identification, which includes wristbands, labels, printing systems, and other products used in hospital, laboratory, and other healthcare settings for tracking and improving the safety of patients.

•People identification, which includes name tags, badges, lanyards, rigid card printing systems, and access control software.

The Company markets and sells its products through multiple channels, including distributors, a direct sales force, and digital channels. Brady has long-standing relationships with a broad range of electrical, safety, industrial and other domestic and international distributors. The direct sales force within each region partners with end-users and distributors by providing technical application and product expertise. The Company provides access to its products through brand-specific websites and catalogs.

The Company markets its products under a variety of brand names:

•Brady: product identification labels, wire identification products, printers, software, safety and facility identification products, lock-out/tag-out products, brand protection labels, people identification products, microfluidic solutions products, and specialty materials

•Seton, Emedco, Signals, Safety Signs Service, and Pervaco: Safety and facility identification products

•PDC, PDC Healthcare, MAGiCARD, and Promovision: People and healthcare identification products

•Gravotech: Laser and mechanical engraving machines

•SPC: Spill control products

•Code: Barcode scanners

•Securimed, Accidental Health and Safety and Trafalgar: First aid products

•Electromark: Identification products for the utility industry

•Nordic ID: RFID products

•Carroll: Wire identification products

The Company manufactures differentiated, proprietary products, most of which have been internally developed. These internally developed products include materials, printing and identification systems, tracking systems, and software. Materials manufactured by the Company generally require a high degree of precision and the application of adhesives with chemical and physical properties suited for specific uses. The Company’s manufacturing processes include compounding, coating, converting, printing, melt-blown operations, software development and printer design and assembly.

Competition is based upon several factors, including product innovation, customer service, breadth of product offering, product quality, price, expertise, production capabilities, and for multinational customers, our global footprint. Competition is highly fragmented, ranging from smaller companies offering minimal product variety, to some of the world's largest adhesive and electrical product companies offering competing products as part of their overall product lines.

These products serve customers in many industries within each reportable segment, of which those industries include industrial manufacturing, electronic manufacturing, healthcare, chemical, oil, gas, alternative energy, automotive, aerospace, governments, mass transit, mechanical contractors, construction, utilities, education, leisure and entertainment, retail and telecommunications, among others.

Research and Development

The Company focuses its R&D efforts on identification and printing systems, track and trace applications, pressure sensitive materials, software, and the development of other innovative workplace safety-related products. The Company incurred $79.9 million, $67.7 million, and $61.4 million of expense on its R&D activities during the years ended July 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively. The majority of R&D spend supports the Company's identification products. Material development involves the application of surface chemistry concepts for top coatings and adhesives applied to a variety of base materials. The design of our identification and printing systems integrates materials, embedded software, a variety of printing technologies and product scanning and identification technologies to form a complete solution for customer applications. In addition, R&D supports production and marketing efforts by providing application and technical expertise.

The Company owns patents and tradenames relating to certain products in the United States and internationally. Although the Company believes patents are a significant driver in maintaining its position for certain products, technology in the areas covered by many of the patents continues to evolve and may limit the value of such patents. The Company's business is not dependent on any single patent or group of patents. Patents applicable to specific products extend for up to 20 years according to the date of patent application filing or patent grant, depending upon the legal term of patents in the various countries where

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patent protection is obtained. The Company's tradenames are generally valid ten years from the date of registration, and are typically renewed on an ongoing basis.

Operations

The materials used in the products manufactured by the Company consist of a variety of plastic and synthetic films, paper, metal and metal foil, cloth, fiberglass, inks, dyes, adhesives, pigments, natural and synthetic rubber, organic chemicals, polymers, and solvents for consumable identification products in addition to molded parts, electronic components, chips, and sub-assemblies for identification and printing systems. The Company operates coating facilities that manufacture bulk rolls of label stock for internal and external customers. In addition, the Company purchases finished products for resale.

The Company purchases raw materials, components and finished products from many suppliers. Overall, we are not dependent upon any single supplier for our most critical base materials or components. However, we have chosen in certain situations to sole source, or limit the sources of materials, components, or finished items for design or cost reasons. As a result, disruptions in supply could have an impact on results for a period of time, but we believe most disruptions would simply require qualification of new suppliers and the disruption would be modest. In certain instances, the qualification process could be more costly or take a longer period of time and in certain situations, such as a global shortage of critical materials or components, the financial impact could be material.

The Company carries working capital mainly related to accounts receivable and inventory. Inventory consists of raw materials, work in process and finished goods. Generally, custom products are made to order while an on-hand quantity of stock product is maintained to provide customers with timely delivery. Average time to fulfill customer orders varies from same-day to one month, depending on the type of product, customer request, and whether the product is stock or custom-designed and manufactured. Normal and customary payment terms primarily range from net 10 to 90 days from date of invoice and vary by geography.

The Company has a broad customer base, and no individual customer represents 10% or more of total net sales.

Human Capital Management

As of July 31, 2025, the Company employed approximately 6,400 individuals worldwide, of which approximately 1,700 were employed in the United States and approximately 4,700 were employed outside the United States.

The Company’s Vice President of Human Resources is responsible for developing the Company’s human capital strategy, which includes the attraction, acquisition, development, engagement and retention of talent to deliver on the Company’s strategy as well as the design of employee compensation and benefits programs. Management is responsible for executing the Company's human capital strategy. The Vice President of Human Resources is also responsible for enhancing the Company’s high-performance culture, which rewards execution and fosters inclusion, to drive differential performance and execute our strategy for the organization. The Company’s Board of Directors and its committees receive regular updates on the operation and status of these initiatives and human capital trends and activities from the Vice President of Human Resources, the CEO and others within senior management.

Key areas of focus with respect to human capital include:

Health and Safety: The Company’s health and safety programs are designed around global standards with appropriate variations addressing the multiple jurisdictions and regulations, specific hazards and unique working environments of the Company’s manufacturing, distribution and headquarter operations. The Company requires each of its locations to perform regular safety audits to ensure proper safety policies, program procedures, analyses and trainings are in place. The Company utilizes a mixture of leading and lagging indicators to assess the health and safety performance of its operations. Lagging indicators include the OSHA Total Recordable Incident Rate (“TRIR”) and the Lost Time Case Rate (“LTCR”) based upon the number of incidents per 100 employees. Leading indicators include reporting and closure of all near miss events. The Company also utilizes trainings such as Environmental, Health and Safety (“EHS”) coaching and engagement conversations as preventative measures. During the year ended July 31, 2025, the Company had a TRIR of 0.43, a LTCR of 0.23 and no work-related fatalities.

Inclusive Workplace: The Company prioritizes fostering an inclusive workplace where employees feel valued and heard. This commitment is central to our ability to leverage the full strengths of our workforce, aiming to exceed customer expectations and achieve growth objectives. To support this, the Company engages employees through various employee resource groups. These groups bring together employees to share common interests in personal and professional development, while improving corporate culture and delivering business results. Senior leaders throughout the organization sponsor and support each employee resource group.

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The Company also strives to build a robust talent pipeline by partnering with its business units in their workforce planning to develop initiatives and goals to recruit talent from all backgrounds across defined organizational levels and skill areas. The Company trains its recruiting workforce in sourcing strategies aimed at broadening its talent pool and partners with external organizations that develop and supply a wide range of talent. As a commitment to an inclusive workplace, the Company supports the unique input of individuals at all levels within the organization. As of July 31, 2025, 45% of the members of the Company’s Board of Directors were women and 60% of Board committee chairs were women.

Training and Talent Development: The Company is committed to the continued development of its people. Strategic talent reviews and succession planning occur on a planned cadence annually. The CEO and the Vice President of Human Resources convene meetings with senior Company leadership and the Board of Directors to review top enterprise talent and discuss succession planning for key leadership roles. The Company also emphasizes career development planning to support employee growth and progression across a wide range of roles and functions.

The Company provides technical training to employees, customers and suppliers who work for or with the Company’s products. Training is provided in a variety of formats to accommodate the respective learner’s style, pace, location, technical knowledge and access.

Compensation and Benefits: The Company values its people and strives to deliver compensation and benefit programs and plans that are competitive with the external market. The Company provides subsidized health and welfare benefits, as well as postretirement, incentive and equity-based compensation plans and programs to eligible employees. Refer to the Compensation Discussion & Analysis for additional information regarding the Company’s compensation and benefits programs.

Information Available on the Internet

The Company’s Corporate Internet address is www.bradyid.com. The Company makes available, free of charge, on or through its website, copies of its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to all such reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. The Company is not including the information contained on or available through its website as part of, or incorporating such information by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.