Jewett-Cameron Trading Company (JCTC) Risk Factors

Our revenue depends in part on maintaining and growing the sales of our current products in both existing and new markets, but also by improving existing products and developing new products. There is substantial competition among companies in each of our market sectors, and a number of companies market products that compete directly with our products. Current and potential customers may consider these products from our competitors to be superior to or less expensive than our products. Some of these competitors may also have greater financial, manufacturing, and sales and market resources than us. If we are unable to effectively compete with these other products and companies, we would likely lose market share which would result in a decrease in revenue and profitability.

We rely on our intellectual property rights, including patents, patent applications, and trademarks, to provide us with competitive advantages and protect us from theft of our intellectual property.  We believe that our patents are valid, enforceable, and valuable. If third parties infringe on our intellectual property, we may be forced to pursue litigation which would consume significant amounts of our management and financial resources. There is no guarantee that we will have the financial resources necessary to engage in litigation, or that any litigation we do pursue will result in a favorable outcome. Such infringements or unfavorable outcomes of litigation would have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Our operations involve information technology systems that process, transmit and store information about our suppliers, customers, employees, and financial information. These systems face threats including telecommunication failures, natural disasters, and cyber security threats, including computer viruses, unauthorized access to our systems, and other security issues. While we have taken aggressive steps to implement security measures to protect our systems and initiated an ongoing training program to address many of the primary causes of cyber threat with all our employees, such threats change and morph almost daily. There is no guarantee our actions will secure our information systems against all threats and vulnerabilities. The compromise or failure of our information systems could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Since the bulk of our products are supplied from other countries, political actions by either our trading country or our own domestic policy could impact both availability and cost of our products. Currently, we see this in regard to tariffs being levied on foreign sourced products entering into the United States, including from China. The continuing tariffs by the United States on certain Chinese goods include some of our products that we purchase from suppliers in China. The possibility of new tariffs being levied on manufactured goods imported into the United States from other countries in addition to China also currently exists. We cannot control the duration or depth of such actions which may increase our product costs which would in turn reduce our margins and potentially decrease the competitiveness of our products. These actions could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

The products we manufacture and distribute exposes us to potential product liability risks. Although we seek to insure against such risks, there can be no assurance that such insurance coverage will be sufficient to cover any claims or adverse legal judgements, and our costs to defend any litigation could be significant. A successful product liability claim in excess of our insurance coverage could have a material negative effect on our business and financial condition. In addition, it could significantly increase our costs of this insurance on commercially reasonable terms or make it unavailable to us altogether.

We purchase our products from other vendors and a delay in shipment from these vendors to us could cause significant delays in our delivery to our customers. Such disruptions may include adjustments to ocean shipping schedules, labor strikes or other job-related actions by workers within the supply chain, geopolitical unrest, longshoreman or rail strikes, geopolitical unrest, or government actions. This could result in a decrease in sales orders to us and we would experience a loss in profitability.

We do not have any manufacturing capabilities and rely on a limited number of contract manufacturers located outside the United States for the majority of our products. Our reliance on contract manufacturers involves certain risks, including: - Production disruptions or delays at the factory as a result of political instability, labor unrest, mechanical issues, natural disasters, or pandemic outbreaks;- Capacity constraints;- Inability to control the quality of the finished products;- Inability to control manufacturing and delivery schedules; If our products are delayed or cannot be supplied in a timely manner, we risk losing revenue and customers. Developing alternate sources of supply for our products that meet our requirements may be time-consuming, difficult, and costly, and we may not be able to source our products on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which will have a negative effect on our revenue and financial condition.

Inflation has many impacts on our business, including increasing our direct costs for raw materials, manufacturing, shipping and logistics, labor, and energy. Our ability to pass on these higher costs to our customers is limited. When we are able to increase our selling prices, it may be delayed several months after we first incur the higher costs and we may not be able to fully recoup the difference. In addition, high rates of inflation can reduce consumer's discretionary spending and reduce demand for our products. These actions could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Our business could be negatively affected by an outbreak of an infectious disease due to the consequences of the actions taken by companies and governments to contain and control such an outbreak. These consequences include: - The inability of our third-party manufacturers to manufacture or deliver products to us in a timely manner, if it all. - Isolation requirements may prevent our employees from being able to report to work or being required to work from home or other off-site location which may prevent us from accomplishing certain functions, including receiving products from our suppliers and fulfilling orders for our customers, which may result in an inability to meet our obligations. - Our new product launches may be delayed or require unexpected changes to be made to our new or existing products. - The effect of the outbreak on the economy may be severe, including an economic downturn and decrease in employment levels which could result in a decrease in consumer demand for our products. The financial impact of such an outbreak are outside our control and are not reasonable to estimate but may be significant. The costs associated with any outbreak may have an adverse impact on our operations and financial condition and not be fully recoverable or adequately covered by insurance.