Company: ALGN
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001097149-25-000012
Chunk: 29

Company: ALIGN TECHNOLOGY INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 29
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, Mexico is located in an area classified as high-water stress and our operations could be impacted by water shortages, rationing and droughts. Our California, Costa Rica, Mexico and North Carolina operations are located in areas that have historically been impacted by extreme weather events such as hurricanes, tornados, wildfires or flooding. 

In part to help mitigate risks to our manufacturing operations, we have strategically located our clear aligner production facilities in three facilities on different continents. This allows us to both respond more quickly to customer demand while also offering redundancy in the event natural disasters or climate-related events affect operations at one or more facilities. Moreover, each of our three key clear aligner manufacturing facilities are located at elevations less likely to be impacted by rising sea levels and at least two hundred miles inland.

Moreover, we are highly dependent on manufacturers of specialized scanning equipment, rapid prototyping machines, resin and other advanced materials for our clear aligners, as well as the optics, electronic and other mechanical components of our intraoral scanners. We maintain single or sole source supplier relationships for many of these machines and materials technologies. In particular, our CT scanning and stereolithography equipment used in our clear aligner manufacturing and many of the critical components for the optics of our intraoral scanners are provided by single or sole source suppliers. We also currently purchase our resin and polymer, the primary raw materials used in our manufacturing process for clear aligners, from a single source. A discussion of the risks of our supply and manufacturing operations, including foreign operations, may be found in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the heading “Risk Factors.”

Sales and Marketing

Our sales and marketing efforts are focused on increasing adoption and utilization of the Invisalign System and Vivera retainers by orthodontists and GPs worldwide and integrating the iTero scanner and services and exocad CAD/CAM products into dental labs and practices. The iTero scanner is an important component to the customer experience and is central to a digital approach as well as overall customer utilization of Invisalign clear aligners. In each region, we have direct sales, marketing and support organizations, which include quota carrying sales representatives, sales management and sales administration. We also have distribution partners in certain markets. Our sales and marketing personnel are organized primarily to support orthodontists and GPs separately, allowing highly trained and specialized personnel to serve each customer channel, thereby increasing our focus and effectiveness on both. We continue to expand in existing markets through targeted investments in sales resources,