Company: ACCO
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-024931
Chunk: 110

Company: ACCO BRANDS Corp
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 110
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 carrier capacity, port delays and closures, the cost and availability of international and domestic freight carriers, labor shortages and geopolitical unrest. These events as well as further supply chain disruptions could adversely affect our operations, sales, profitability and cash flow.

Our operating results have been, and continue to be, adversely affected by inflation and changes in the cost or availability of raw materials, transportation, labor and other necessary supplies and services, including the cost of finished goods.

The price and availability of raw materials, transportation, labor, and other necessary supplies and services used in our business, as well as the cost of finished goods, can be volatile due to numerous factors beyond our control, including general economic and competitive conditions, inflation, tariffs and changes in foreign trade policies, supply chain disruptions, supplier business strategies, and political instability, war and other geopolitical tensions. 

During periods of inflation and rising costs, we manage this volatility through a variety of actions, including targeted advance or periodic purchases, future delivery purchases, long-term contracts, sales price increases and the use of certain derivative instruments. We have implemented, and may implement in the future, additional price increases if necessary to offset future inflationary and supply-chain related cost increases. Historically, we have not been able to raise prices fast enough to effectively mitigate the adverse impact of these cost increases on our margins and there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so in the future. Additionally, we have lost, and may continue to lose, sales due to increasing our selling prices to our customers. We have also seen customers and consumers purchase lower priced products which generate lower margins due to our price increases and we expect this trend to continue.

12

Outsourcing the development and production of certain of our products, our information technology systems and other administrative and finance functions could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We outsource certain product development and manufacturing functions, such as product design and production, to third-party suppliers. This creates a number of risks, including decreased control over the engineering and manufacturing processes which can result in cost overruns, delayed deliveries or shortages, inferior product quality, and loss or misappropriation of trade secrets and intellectual property. Additionally, we rely on our suppliers to ensure that our products meet our design and product content specifications, and all applicable laws, including product safety, product compliance, security, labor, sustainability and environmental laws. We also expect our suppliers to conform to our and our customers’ and licensors' codes of conduct and expectations with respect to product safety, product