Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company (HBB) Risk Analysis

The small electric household, specialty housewares appliances and commercial appliance industry is highly competitive and does not have substantial entry barriers. As a result, we compete with many manufacturers and distributors of housewares products. Additional competitors may also enter this market and cause competition to intensify. For example, some of our customers have expressed interest in sourcing, or expanding the extent of sourcing, small electric household and commercial appliances directly from manufacturers in Asia. We believe competition is based upon several factors, including product design and innovation, quality, price, product features, merchandising, promotion and warranty. If we fail to compete effectively with these manufacturers and distributors, we could lose market share and experience a decrease in revenue, which would adversely affect our results of operations. We also compete with established companies, a number of which have substantially greater facilities, personnel, financial and other resources. In addition, we compete with our retail customers, who use their own private label brands, and importers and foreign manufacturers of unbranded products. Some competitors may be willing to reduce prices and accept lower profit margins to compete. As a result of this competition, we could lose market share and revenue.

The Company has a strong reputation within our portfolio of trusted and well-known brands. Our customers' and consumers' perceptions of the Company and our brands as safe, reliable and of high quality are key to our continued success. This reputation depends on maintaining high standards in product quality, ethical business practices, environmental and social responsibility, regulatory compliance, and effective management of public communications including social media. Additionally, we have strategic alliances and licensing agreements with third-party brands, and our success also relies upon the reputation of these third-party brands. Failure to maintain our reputation and brand image through any of these factors, including product quality issues, recalls, or negative public perception, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

The products that we sell are subject to various mandatory and voluntary standards. As a marketer and distributor of consumer products, we are subject to the Consumer Products Safety Act and the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, which empower the CPSC to seek to exclude from the market those products that are found to be unsafe or hazardous. In addition, the FDA and other governmental authorities regulate the development, manufacture, sale and distribution of certain of our products. Under certain circumstances, the CPSC, the FDA or other government agencies could require us to repair, replace or refund the purchase price of one or more of our products, or we may voluntarily do so. Any repurchases or recalls of our products could be costly to us and could damage our reputation or the value of our brands. If we are required to remove, or we voluntarily remove our products from the market, our reputation or brands could be tarnished, and we might have large quantities of finished products that could not be sold. Furthermore, failure to timely notify the CPSC, the FDA or other applicable government agencies of a potential safety hazard can result in fines being assessed against us. Additionally, laws regulating certain of our products exist in some states, as well as in other countries in which we sell our products, and more restrictive laws and regulations may be adopted in the future. Our results of operations are also susceptible to adverse publicity regarding the quality and safety of our products. In particular, product recalls may result in a decline in sales for a particular product.

Employment and retention of qualified personnel, particularly senior management and skilled professionals with experience in our business, operations, engineering, technology and industry, is important to the successful conduct of our business. Our success depends upon our ability to recruit, hire, train and retain current and additional skilled and experienced personnel in a challenging labor market that may require increased wage costs. Our inability to hire and retain personnel with the requisite skills, or to effectively transfer knowledge when key employees depart, could impair our ability to develop new products, protect our proprietary information, manage and operate our consolidated business effectively and could significantly reduce our consolidated profitability. Labor market conditions may impact our ability to attract and retain qualified talent for key roles, which could impede our ability to execute certain strategic initiatives.

Hamilton Beach Holding has two classes of common stock: Company Class A common stock ("Class A Common") and Class B common stock ("Class B Common"). Holders of Class A Common are entitled to cast one vote per share and, as of December 31, 2024, accounted for approximately 21.6% of the voting power of the Company. Holders of Class B Common are entitled to cast ten votes per share and, as of December 31, 2024, accounted for the remaining voting power of the Company. As of December 31, 2024, certain members of the Company's extended founding family held approximately 33.8% of Class A Common and 93.3% of Class B Common. On the basis of this common stock ownership, certain members of the Company's extended founding family could exercise 80.5% of the Company's total voting power. Although there is no voting agreement among such family members, in writing or otherwise, if they were to act in concert, they would exert significant control over the outcome of director elections and other stockholder votes on significant actions, such as certain amendments to the Company's amended and restated certificate of incorporation and sale of the Company or substantially all of its assets. Because such family members could prevent other stockholders from exercising significant influence over significant corporate actions, the Company may be a less attractive takeover target, which could adversely affect the market price of its common stock.

The Company's Board of Directors ("Board") has the authority to determine the amount and frequency of the payment of dividends. Decisions regarding whether or not to pay dividends and the amount of any dividends are based on earnings, capital, future expense requirements, financial conditions, contractual limitations, credit instruments and other factors our Board may consider. In addition, as a holding company, substantially all of our assets are held by our consolidated subsidiaries, and we primarily rely on dividends and other payments or distributions from our consolidated subsidiaries to meet our debt service and other obligations and to enable us to pay dividends. The ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends or make other payments or distributions to us will depend on their respective operating results and may be restricted by, among other things, the laws of their jurisdiction of organization, which may limit our ability to pay dividends or make other payments. Accordingly, holders of our common stock should not rely on past payment of dividends in a particular amount as an indication of the amount of dividends, if any, that will be paid in the future.

Our credit facility contains covenants and other restrictions that, among other things, require us to satisfy certain financial tests, maintain certain financial ratios and restrict our ability to incur additional indebtedness. The restrictions and covenants in our credit facility, and other future financing arrangements may limit our ability to respond to market conditions, provide for capital investment needs, pay dividends or take advantage of business opportunities by limiting the amount of additional borrowings we may incur. Additionally, our exposure to rising interest rates subjects us to increased debt obligations with respect to existing floating rate debt during periods where such rates are in effect.

We may not be able to compete as effectively with competitors, and ultimately satisfy the needs and preferences of consumers, unless we can continue to enhance existing products and develop new innovative products for the markets in which we compete. Product development requires significant financial, technological and other resources. Product improvements and new product introductions also require significant research, planning, design, development, engineering and testing at the technological and product process levels, and we may not be able to timely develop and introduce product improvements or new products. In addition, the development of new products in our Hamilton Beach Health business may require significant lead times for research and development, clinical investigations and product approvals, as well as significant capital investments. Competitors' new products may beat our products to market, be higher quality or more reliable, be more effective with more features, obtain better market acceptance or render our products obsolete. Any new products that we develop may not receive market acceptance or otherwise generate any meaningful revenue or profit relative to our expectations based on, among other things, commitments to fund advertising, marketing, promotional programs and development.

We possess intellectual property that is important to our business. This intellectual property includes trademarks, copyrights, patents, business processes and other trade secrets. We cannot be certain that the legal steps taken to protect our rights will be sufficient or that others will not infringe or misappropriate our rights. If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, or if changes in laws diminish or remove the current legal protections available to them, the competitiveness of our products may be eroded and our business could suffer. We and third parties, including competitors, could come into conflict over intellectual property rights, resulting in disruptive and expensive litigation. If we are unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, our competitors may bring to market identical or similar products. We also license intellectual property to and from third parties, and in some countries, third parties own rights that we own elsewhere. Adverse events affecting those third parties or their products could also negatively impact our brands.

We rely on information technology systems to operate websites, record and process transactions, respond to customer inquiries, manage inventory, purchase, sell and ship merchandise on a timely basis, maintain cost-efficient operations, and to comply with regulatory, legal, and tax requirements. Given the significant number of transactions that are completed annually, it is vital to maintain constant operation of computer hardware and software systems and maintain cybersecurity measures. In addition, we collect, store, have access to and otherwise process a variety of types of data, including personal data and certain confidential or sensitive data. Our information technology systems, and the systems of our third-party business partners, may be vulnerable to damage, interruption or shutdown due to any number of causes outside of our control such as catastrophic events, natural disasters, fires, power outages, systems failures, telecommunications failures, employee error or malfeasance, fraud, security breaches, computer viruses or other malicious codes, ransomware, unauthorized access attempts, denial of service attacks, phishing or other social engineering attempts, hacking and other cybersecurity incidents. Cybersecurity threat bad actors also may attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in software that is commonly used by companies in cloud-based services and bundled software. Additionally, the increase in hybrid working where employees, including third-party employees, access technology infrastructure remotely may create additional information technology and data security risks. If our systems are damaged, or fail to function properly, we may have to make monetary investments to repair or replace the systems and could endure delays in operations. Any material disruption or slowdown of our systems, or the systems of our third-party business partners, including failure to successfully upgrade systems, could cause information, including data related to customer orders, to be lost, corrupted, altered or delayed. Such a loss or delay could reduce demand and cause our sales and/or profitability to decline. Cybersecurity attacks include computer viruses or other malicious codes, attacks to gain unauthorized access to data and other security breaches that could lead to the loss of valuable business data, misappropriation of our consumers' or employees' personal information or a disruption of our critical systems. Although we attempt to monitor and mitigate against cybersecurity threats and risks, including through investing in new technologies and developing third-party cybersecurity risk management capabilities, we may incur significant costs in protecting against threats or remediating cybersecurity attacks or other cybersecurity incidents. While we maintain a cyber insurance policy that provides coverage for security incidents, we cannot be certain that our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on financially reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. Further, if a cybersecurity threat or cybersecurity incident has a material adverse effect on our systems, or the systems of our third-party business partners, we could become the subject of regulatory action, sanctions or fines, or litigation from our customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders, administrative, civil or criminal investigations or actions and remediation costs, which could damage our reputation, require significant expenditures of capital and cause us to lose business and revenue. Additionally, a cybersecurity incident could also cause interruptions in our operations and might require us to spend significant management time and other resources investigating the event and dealing with local and federal law enforcement. There is no assurance that the measures we have taken to protect our information systems will prevent or limit the impact of cybersecurity threats or incidents. While we are not aware of any cybersecurity incidents that have occurred since the beginning of 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our results of operations or financial condition, any one or more future cybersecurity incidents could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations. We are in the process of implementing the enterprise resource planning ("ERP") system which was previously installed in the U.S. at our Canada subsidiary. Any significant disruption, delay or deficiency in the design and implementation of the ERP system could adversely affect our ability to process orders, ship products, send invoices and track payments, fulfill contractual obligations or otherwise operate our business.