NPK International Inc. (NPKI) Business

ITEM 1. Business

General

NPK International Inc. is a temporary worksite access solutions company that manufactures, sells, and rents recyclable composite matting products, along with a full suite of services, including planning, logistics, and site restoration. In 2025, 66% of our revenues were generated from the rental of our recyclable composite matting systems, along with related site construction and services to customers in various markets including power transmission, oil and natural gas exploration and production, pipeline, renewable energy, petrochemical, construction and other industries within the United States and United Kingdom. The remaining 34% of our 2025 revenues were generated from the sale of our manufactured recyclable composite mats to customers around the world, with power transmission being the primary end market.

NPK International Inc., formerly known as Newpark Resources, Inc., was organized in 1932 as a Nevada corporation. In 1991, we changed our state of incorporation to Delaware. On December 9, 2024, we changed our name to NPK International Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 9320 Lakeside Boulevard, Suite 100, The Woodlands, Texas 77381. Our telephone number is (281) 362-6800. You can find more information about us on our website located at www.npki.com. We file or furnish annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports are available free of charge through our website. These reports are available as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file these materials with, or furnish them to, the SEC. Our Code of Ethics, our Corporate Governance Guidelines, our Audit Committee Charter, our Compensation Committee Charter, and our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Charter are also posted to the governance section of our website. We make our website content available for informational purposes only. It should not be relied upon for investment purposes, nor is any information contained on our website incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K. The SEC also maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, including us.

When referring to NPK International Inc. (“NPK,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us”), the intent is to refer to NPK International Inc. and its subsidiaries as a whole. The reference to a “Note” herein refers to the accompanying Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in Item 8 “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.”

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Strategy

Our long-term strategy includes key foundational elements that are intended to enhance long-term shareholder value creation:

•Accelerate Organic Growth – We seek to accelerate revenue growth through the expansion of our rental business, which includes a combination of geographic expansion to new growth territories, primarily within the U.S., while also expanding customer market share within currently-served markets.

•Pursue Inorganic Growth – We seek to accelerate our growth and enhance shareholder value through strategically-aligned inorganic actions, leveraging our scale to increase our value and relevance to customers.

•Drive Operational Efficiency – We are focused on efficiency improvements and operating cost optimization across every aspect of our business.

•Enhance Return on Invested Capital – We are committed to maintaining a strong balance sheet, prioritizing organic investment to expand our rental business while evaluating accretive inorganic growth opportunities to accelerate growth and returning excess cash generation via programmatic share repurchases.

See Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - 2025 Strategic Actions” for a discussion of our execution against this strategy during 2025.

Industry Fundamentals and Customers

The demand for temporary worksite access from customers in the industries we serve is driven, in part, by infrastructure construction and maintenance activity levels within the United States and United Kingdom. Approximately 60% of our 2025 rental and service revenues were derived from customers in the power transmission sector and we expect customer activity in this sector will grow over the next several years, driven in part by the impacts of increasing energy demand and required investments in grid reliance initiatives, due to the aging grid infrastructure. Product sales largely reflect sales to utility companies as well as service companies supporting the power transmission market, with product sales levels and customer mix typically fluctuating based on the timing of customer projects and orders. For 2025, 66% of our revenues were derived from rental and service activities while 34% of our revenues were derived from the sale of our manufactured worksite access products.

We generated 93% of our revenues domestically during 2025. Typically, we perform services either under short-term contracts or rental service agreements. As most agreements with our customers are cancellable upon short notice, our backlog is not significant. We do not derive a significant portion of our revenues from government contracts.

During 2025, approximately 74% of our revenues were derived from our 20 largest customers, of which our three largest customers represented 19%, 15%, and 10%, respectively, of our revenues. Revenues from our largest customer were attributable to the rental of our recyclable composite matting systems, along with related services. Revenues from our second and third largest customers were primarily driven by product sales, which vary from year to year, as discussed above.

Raw Materials

The resins, chemicals, and other materials used to manufacture our recyclable composite mats are widely available. High Density Polyethylene (“HDPE”) is the largest material component in the manufacturing of our recyclable composite mat products. We believe that our sources of supply for materials used in our business are adequate for our needs. We are not dependent upon any one supplier, and we have not encountered significant shortages or delays in obtaining any raw materials. In recent years, we have also expanded the use of alternative materials, including recycled materials in our manufacturing process, which we believe provides further protection against potential shortages of virgin raw materials.

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Technology

We have certain patents related to the design and manufacturing of our recyclable DURA-BASE® mats and several of the components, as well as other products and systems related to these mats (including the connecting pins and the EPZ Grounding System™). In recent years, we have launched newer generation matting systems that offer a reduction in weight. Using proprietary technology and systems is an important aspect of our business strategy. We believe the design of our recyclable matting system provides a distinct environmental benefit for our customers as compared to alternative wood mat products in the market, by avoiding deforestation required to produce wood mat products and also reducing CO2 emissions associated with product transportation. While we continue to enhance the performance, environmental, and safety benefits of our products and add to our patent portfolio, we believe that our scale, responsiveness to customers, reputation in the industry with respect to our technical development and know-how, understanding of regulatory requirements, and our ability to deliver superior worksite access solutions also have competitive significance in the markets we serve.

Competition

The rental and services market is fragmented and competitive, with many competitors providing various forms of worksite access products and services. Wood mats and stone continue to be the primary solutions utilized for temporary worksite access across industries, though composite matting solutions continue to gain market share. United Rentals is the largest competitor in the rental market, primarily using wood mats. We believe that our recyclable composite mats provide superior work surface and economics relative to timber-based products, providing a meaningful opportunity to expand our market share within the temporary worksite access market. The competitive landscape for composite mat sales is less fragmented than rental and services, with only a few competitors providing various alternatives to our DURA-BASE® composite mat products, including Signature Systems (Myers Industries) and Spartan Mat (Exchange Income Corporation). This is due to many factors, including large capital start-up costs and proprietary technology associated with these products. We believe that the principal competitive factors in our business include quality of service, reliability, price, product capabilities, and innovation through research and development, and that our competitive position is enhanced by our proprietary products, scale of rental and manufacturing operations, and experience.

Human Capital

We believe our greatest assets are our people, and our long-term success depends on our ability to attract, motivate, and retain the highly talented individuals that make up the NPK team. We appreciate our people and their achievements as we recognize they are integral to fully implementing our business strategy, which directly translates to improving our long-term profitability and increasing shareholder value.

We make a commitment to our people through training and development, employee engagement, and community outreach, with competitive pay aligned with pay-for-performance along with various benefits programs.

At December 31, 2025, we employed approximately 510 full and part-time personnel, including 410 in the United States and 100 in the United Kingdom. None of our employees are represented by labor unions. We consider our relations with our employees to be satisfactory and through various company-culture initiatives, strive to reinforce our commitment to our Core Values of safety, integrity, respect, excellence, and accountability.

•Safety: Protecting each other like family while sustaining the environment in which we work.

•Integrity: Acting honestly, ethically, and responsibly in all aspects of our business.

•Respect: Dealing fairly and openly with employees, customers, suppliers and community.

•Excellence: Delivering value through performance, innovation and service quality.

•Accountability: Using good judgment and taking responsibility for our actions.

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Governmental Regulations

Our business exposes us to regulatory risks associated with the various industries that we serve, including governmental regulations relating to the utilities and oil and natural gas industries in general, as well as environmental, health, and safety regulations that have specific application to our business. Our activities are impacted by various federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations, and policies related to pollution control, health, and safety programs that are administered and enforced by regulatory agencies.

We have implemented various procedures designed to promote compliance with applicable regulations and reduce the risk of damage or loss. These include specified handling procedures and guidelines for waste, ongoing employee training, and monitoring, as well as maintaining insurance coverage. We also utilize company-wide health, safety, and environmental management systems (“HSEMS”). The HSEMS is designed to capture information related to the planning, decision-making, and general operations of environmental regulatory activities within our operations. We also use the HSEMS to capture the information generated by regularly scheduled independent audits that are performed to validate the findings of our internal monitoring and auditing procedures.