Company: KEQU
Filing Date: 2025-07-02
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000055529-25-000026
Chunk: 1

Company: KEWAUNEE SCIENTIFIC CORP /DE/
Filing Date: 2025-07-02
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 1
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6, incorporated in Michigan in 1941, became publicly-held in 1968, and was reincorporated in Delaware in 1970. Our principal business is the design, manufacture, and installation of laboratory, healthcare, and technical furniture and infrastructure products. Our products include steel and wood casework, fume hoods, adaptable modular systems, moveable workstations, stand-alone benches, biological safety cabinets, and epoxy resin work surfaces and sinks. Our acquisition, discussed below, of Nu Aire, Inc. ("Nu Aire") complements Kewaunee Scientific's existing portfolio through Nu Aire's biological safety cabinets, CO2 incubators, ultralow freezers, and other essential laboratory products. Our International subsidiaries, as identified in Note 1, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on 10-K, provide products and services, including facility design, detailed engineering construction, and project management from the planning stage through testing and commissioning of laboratories.

Our products are sold primarily through purchase orders and contracts submitted by customers directly or through our dealers, our subsidiaries in Singapore and India, and a national distributor. Products are sold principally to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, industrial, chemical and commercial research laboratories, educational institutions, healthcare institutions, governmental entities, and manufacturing facilities. We consider the markets in which we compete to be highly competitive, with a significant amount of the business involving competitive public bidding.

It is common in the laboratory and healthcare furniture industries for customer orders to require delivery at extended future dates, as products are frequently installed in buildings yet to be constructed. Changes or delays in building construction may cause delays in delivery of the orders and our recognition of the sale. Since prices are normally quoted on a firm basis in the industry, we bear the burden of possible increases in labor and material costs between quotation of an order and delivery of the product. The impact of such possible increases is considered when determining the sales price. The primary raw materials and products manufactured by others and used by us in our products are cold-rolled carbon and stainless steel, hardwood lumber and plywood, paint, chemicals, resins, hardware, plumbing and electrical fittings. Such materials and products are purchased from multiple suppliers and are typically readily available.

Our need for working capital and our credit practices are comparable to those of other companies manufacturing, selling and installing similar products in similar markets. Since our products are used in building construction projects, in many cases payments for our products are received over longer