Company: BHE
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-025644
Chunk: 22

Company: BENCHMARK ELECTRONICS INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 22
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 have historically experienced higher sales during the fourth quarter of the calendar year aligned to the fiscal year end for many of our customers. In addition, we typically experience our lowest sales volume in the first quarter of each year.

8

Suppliers

We maintain a network of suppliers of components and other materials used in our operations. We procure components when a purchase order or forecast is received from a customer and occasionally utilize components or other materials for which a supplier is the single source of supply. If any of these single-source suppliers were unable to provide these materials, a shortage of components could temporarily interrupt our operations and lower our profits until an alternate component could be identified and qualified for use. For additional information, see “Risk Factors—Shortages or price increases of components specified by our customers have in the past delayed and could adversely affect our profitability” in Part I, Item 1A of this Report. Although in the past we have experienced component shortages and longer lead times for various components, we continually strive to reduce the impact of component shortages by working with customers to reschedule deliveries and with suppliers to provide the needed components using just-in-time inventory programs, or by working with OEMs on qualifying alternative components or completing redesigns to eliminate the constrained part, or purchasing components at higher prices from distributors rather than directly from manufacturers. In addition, by developing long-term relationships with suppliers, we endeavor to minimize the effects of component shortages compared to manufacturers without such relationships. The goal of these procedures is to reduce our inventory risk. Our efforts to reduce inventory risk could prove difficult, exposing us to inventory risk related to obsolete or unsold inventory. For additional information, see “Risk Factors—Our customers may cancel their orders, change production quantities, delay production or change their sourcing strategies” in Part I, Item 1A of this Report.

Competition

The services we provide are available from many independent sources as well as from the in-house manufacturing capabilities of current and potential customers. Our competitors include Celestica Inc., Flex Ltd., Jabil Inc., Plexus Corp, Sanmina Corporation and Kimball Electronics Inc. We believe that the principal competitive factors in our focus end-markets are our engineering and technology building block capabilities, product quality, flexibility, cost and timeliness in responding to design and schedule changes, reliability in meeting product delivery schedules, pricing, access to senior management, technological sophistication and geographic location.

In addition, original design manufacturers (ODMs) providing basic design and manufacturing services to OEMs have significantly increased their share of the outsourced manufacturing market over the