METHODE ELECTRONICS INC (MEI) Business

Item 1. Business

Description of Business

We are a leading global supplier of custom engineered solutions with sales, engineering and manufacturing locations in North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. We design, engineer and produce mechatronic products for Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEMs”) utilizing our broad range of technologies for user interface, light-emitting diode (“LED”) lighting system, power distribution and sensor applications.

Our solutions are found in the end markets of transportation (including automotive, commercial vehicle, e-bike, aerospace, bus and rail), cloud computing infrastructure, construction equipment and consumer appliance.

Fiscal Year

Our fiscal year ends on the Saturday closest to April 30 of the following year, typically resulting in a 52-week year, but occasionally giving rise to an additional week, resulting in a 53-week year. The fiscal year ended May 3, 2025 was a 53-week fiscal year. Fiscal 2024 ended on April 27, 2024 and fiscal 2023 ended on April 29, 2023, and each represented 52 weeks of results.

Operating Segments

Our business is managed, and our financial results are reported, based on the following three segments: Automotive, Industrial and Interface. We reported a fourth segment, Medical, through fiscal 2024. See Note 15, “Segment Information and Geographic Area Information” to the consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report for further information.

The Automotive segment supplies electronic and electro-mechanical devices and related products to automobile OEMs, either directly or through their tiered suppliers. Products include integrated overhead and center consoles, hidden and ergonomic switches, transmission lead-frames, insert molded components, LED-based lighting and sensors, which incorporate magneto-elastic sensing and other sensing technologies that monitor the operation or status of a component or system.

The Industrial segment manufactures exterior and interior lighting solutions, industrial safety radio remote controls, braided flexible cables, current-carrying laminated busbars and devices, custom power-product assemblies, such as our PowerRail® solution, high-current high-voltage flexible power cabling systems and powder-coated busbars that are used in various markets and applications, including aerospace, commercial vehicles, data centers, industrial equipment, military, power conversion, telecommunications and transportation.

The Interface segment provides a variety of high-speed digital communication over copper media solutions for the data center and broadband markets, and interface panel solutions for the appliance market. Solutions include copper transceivers, distribution point units, and solid-state field-effect consumer touch panels.

The Medical segment was made up of our former medical device business, Dabir Surfaces, with its surface support technology aimed at pressure injury prevention. In the first quarter of fiscal 2024, we made the decision to initiate the discontinuation of Dabir Surfaces. In October 2023, we sold certain assets of the Dabir Surfaces business. See Note 3, “Acquisition and Disposition” to the consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report for more information.

The following table reflects the percentage of net sales by segment for the last three fiscal years.

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Sales and Marketing

The majority of our sales activities are directed by sales managers who are supported by field application engineers and other technical personnel who work with customers to design our products into their systems. Our field application engineers also help us identify emerging markets and new products. Our products are sold through either our in-house sales staff, or through independent sales representatives with offices throughout the world. Information about our sales and operations in different geographic regions is summarized in Note 15, “Segment Information and Geographic Area Information” to the consolidated financial statements in this Annual Report. Sales are made primarily to OEMs, either directly or through their tiered suppliers, as well as to selling partners and distributors.

Sources and Availability of Materials

The principal materials that we purchase include application-specific integrated circuits, capacitors and resistors, coil and bar stock, ferrous and copper alloy sheets, glass, LED displays, plastic molding resins, precious metals, and silicon die castings. All of these items are available from several suppliers, and we generally rely on more than one supplier for each item.

Refer to Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report for risks related to our supply chain.

Intellectual Property

We generally rely on patents, trade secrets, trademarks, licenses, and non-disclosure agreements to protect our intellectual property and proprietary products. We have been granted a number of patents in the U.S., Europe and Asia and have additional domestic and international patent applications pending related to our products. Our existing patents expire on various dates between 2025 and 2045. We seek patents in order to protect our interest in unique and critical products and technologies, including our magneto-elastic torque/force sensing, current sensing, lighting and radio-type products. We do not believe any single patent is material to our business, nor would the expiration or invalidity of any patent have a material adverse effect on our business or our ability to compete.

Seasonality

A significant portion of our business is dependent upon the automotive and commercial vehicle industries. Consequently, our Automotive and Industrial segments may experience seasonal fluctuations based on the sales and the production schedules of our customers.

Customers

During fiscal 2025, our five largest customers accounted for approximately 36% of our consolidated net sales. No customers represented more than 10% of our consolidated net sales. Generally, our supply arrangement for each component part we sell includes a blanket purchase order and production releases. In general, a blanket purchase order is issued for each part as identified by the customer part number. Each blanket purchase order includes standard terms and conditions, including price. Our customers order parts using production releases approved under the relevant blanket purchase order. The production releases include information regarding part quantities and delivery specifications.

Backlog

We manufacture products based on a combination of specific order requirements and forecasts of our customers’ demand. For many of our OEM customers, especially in the automotive and commercial vehicle markets, we have long-term supply arrangements where there is an expectation that we will supply products in future periods. However, these arrangements do not necessarily constitute firm orders and these OEM customers are not required to purchase any minimum amount of products from us and can sunset a program at any time. Firm orders are generally limited to authorized customer purchase orders which are typically based on customer release schedules. We fulfill these purchase orders as promptly as possible. We do not consider the dollar amount of such purchase order releases on hand and not processed at any point in time to be significant based upon the time frame involved. Accordingly, backlog at any given time might not be a meaningful indicator of future revenue.

Competition

The markets in which we operate are highly competitive and characterized by rapid changes due to technological improvements and developments. We compete with a large number of other manufacturers in each of our product areas and many of these competitors have greater resources and sales. Price, service and product performance are significant elements of competition in the sale of our products.

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Research and Development

We maintain a research and development program involving a number of professional employees who devote a majority of their time to the enhancement of existing products and to the development of new products and processes. Research and development costs primarily relate to product engineering and design and development expenses and are classified as a component of costs of products sold on our consolidated statements of operations. Expenditures for such activities amounted to $41.8 million for fiscal 2025, $49.1 million for fiscal 2024 and $35.0 million for fiscal 2023.

Government Regulations

Our worldwide business activities are subject to various laws, rules, and regulations of the United States as well as of foreign governments. Compliance with these laws, rules, and regulations has not had a material effect upon our capital expenditures, results of operations, or competitive position, and we do not currently anticipate material capital expenditures for environmental control facilities. Nevertheless, compliance with existing or future governmental regulations, including, but not limited to, those pertaining to international operations, environmental matters, export controls, business acquisitions, consumer and data protection, and employee health and safety, could have a material impact on our business in subsequent periods. Refer to Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report for a discussion of these potential impacts.

Human Capital

At Methode, we truly believe that people are our greatest asset. Our human capital focus will continue to drive an organization dedicated to placing the right talent, with the right capabilities in the right roles to allow us the opportunity to achieve the performance expectations of our shareholders. This philosophy has been reinforced with the appointment of our new President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan DeGaynor.

As of May 3, 2025, our global workforce totaled approximately 6,500 employees and 800 contractors. Substantially all of our global workforce is employed full time and approximately 95% of these employees and contractors are located outside the U.S. Our U.S. employees are not subject to any collective bargaining agreements although certain international employees are covered by national or local labor agreements.

We are committed to doing business with integrity, teamwork, and performance excellence. Our management team and all our employees are expected to exhibit the principles of fairness, honesty, and integrity in the actions we undertake. Our employees must adhere to our Code of Business Conduct that addresses topics such as anti-corruption, discrimination, harassment, privacy, appropriate use of company assets and protecting confidential information. Our employees participate in annual training on preventing, identifying, reporting, and stopping any type of unlawful discrimination or unethical actions.

Talent Acquisition, Development and Succession Planning

We strive to build an inclusive workforce through investments in talent development and retention strategies. Methode is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees. We focus significant attention on attracting and retaining talented and experienced individuals to manage and support our operations. When we hire new employees, we focus not just on the skills required for current positions, but the ever-changing complex skills and competencies that will be required as we move forward.

We are revising our global talent review and succession planning process to align our talent plans with the current and future strategies of the business. This will include the identification of key positions, assessment of internal talent and potential successors and plans for talent development.

Inclusivity

At Methode, we strive to maintain an inclusive workforce. We value every member of our workforce and want everyone to feel safe voicing their opinions and concerns.

As highlighted in our Diversity & Inclusion Statement (available on our corporate website), diversity and inclusion are business imperatives that will enable us to build and empower our future global workforce. We embrace the diversity of our employees worldwide, including their unique backgrounds, experiences, thoughts, and talents. We also strive for diversity in leadership, which has the power to drive innovation and to encompass a wide variety of perspectives in company decision-making. In addition to our focus on merit-based hiring and promotional opportunities, we believe that attracting and retaining a diverse workforce through an inclusive environment will make us a more desirable workplace and will lead to improved business performance.

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Health and Safety

The success of our business is connected to the well-being of our employees. We strive to maintain a work environment with a safety culture grounded on the premise of eliminating workplace incidents, risks, and hazards. We have processes to help eliminate safety events and to reduce their frequency and severity. The safety of our employees is a top priority and vital to our success.

As a global business, the communication on Environmental, Health and Safety (“EHS”) matters is conducted at the local level and in the local language. All our manufacturing locations structure compliance initiatives to adhere to their local environmental health and safety requirements. Site personnel provide new employee orientation and typically contractor induction training where relevant. Thereafter, relevant job-specific training is provided. Our site EHS personnel are also involved in the development of global EHS procedures and standards.

Benefits and Compensation

As part of our efforts to attract and motivate our employees, we offer competitive compensation and benefits that may vary by region and employee-type. We provide compensation packages that include base salary/wages, short and long-term incentives and other benefits that we believe are competitive within our industry.

Available Information

Through our internet website at www.methode.com, we make available, free of charge, copies of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, amendments to those reports, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed or furnished to the SEC. Our filings are also available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Also posted on our website, among other documents, are our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Code of Business Conduct, Anti-Corruption Policy, Insider Trading Policy, Conflict Minerals Policy, Supplier Code of Conduct and other governance policies, and the charters of the Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Executive Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee. Copies of these documents are also available free of charge by sending a request to Methode Electronics, Inc., 8750 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, Suite 1000, Chicago, Illinois 60631, Attention: Investor Relations Department. The references in this Annual Report to our website address or any third party’s website address, including but not limited to the SEC’s website, do not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained in those websites and should not be considered part of this document unless otherwise expressly stated.