OPTICAL CABLE CORP - Annual Report: 2021 (Form 10-K)

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(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

 

 

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.    Yes   ☐    No  ☒

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. (1)    Yes  ☒    No   ☐ (2)    Yes  ☒    No   ☐

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes  ☒    No   ☐

 

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. (See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). (Check one):

 

Large Accelerated Filer ☐     Accelerated Filer ☐     Non-accelerated Filer ☐     Smaller Reporting Company ☒

Emerging Growth Company ☐

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934).    Yes   ☐    No  ☒

 

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s Common Stock, no par value, held by non-affiliates of the registrant (without admitting any person whose shares are not included in determining such value is an affiliate) as of April 30, 2021, the last business day of the Company’s most recent second quarter was $19,417,539 based upon the closing price of these shares as reported by the Nasdaq Global Market on April 30, 2021.

 

As of December 15, 2021, the Company had outstanding 7,872,164 common shares.

 

--10-31 FY 2021 

 

 

Portions of the Company’s Annual Report filed as Exhibit 13.1 to this report on Form 10-K are incorporated by reference in Part II of this Form 10-K Report: “Corporate Information,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Consolidated Financial Statements,” “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” and “Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm.” In addition, portions of the Company’s Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K Report: “Election of Directors,” “Beneficial Ownership of Securities”, “Compensation of Executive Officers,” “Compensation of Directors,” “Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” (if applicable), “Code of Ethics,” “Executive Compensation,” “Equity Compensation Plan Information,” “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions,” “Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm,” and “Audit Committee Pre-approval of Audit and Permissible Non-audit Services of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm.”

 

 

OPTICAL CABLE CORPORATION

FORM 10-K

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

PART I

 

 

 

 

Optical Cable Corporation was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1983. We are headquartered at 5290 Concourse Drive, Roanoke, Virginia 24019 and our telephone number is (540) 265-0690. Optical Cable Corporation, together with our wholly owned subsidiaries, Applied Optical Systems, Inc. (“AOS”) and Centric Solutions LLC (“Centric Solutions”), has offices, manufacturing and warehouse facilities located in Roanoke, Virginia, near Asheville, North Carolina and near Dallas, Texas.

 

Optical Cable Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company” or “OCC®”) is a leading manufacturer of a broad range of fiber optic and copper data communication cabling and connectivity solutions primarily for the enterprise market and various harsh environment and specialty markets (collectively, the non-carrier markets), and also the wireless carrier market, offering integrated suites of high quality products which operate as a system solution or seamlessly integrate with other providers’ offerings.

 

OCC’s product offerings include designs for uses ranging from enterprise networks, data centers, residential, campus and Passive Optical LAN (POL) installations to customized products for specialty applications and harsh environments, including military, industrial, mining, petrochemical and broadcast applications, and for the wireless carrier market.

 

OCC products include fiber optic and copper cabling, hybrid cabling (which includes fiber optic and copper elements in a single cable), fiber optic and copper connectors, specialty fiber optic, copper and hybrid connectors, fiber optic and copper patch cords, pre-terminated fiber optic and copper cable assemblies, racks, cabinets, datacom enclosures, patch panels, face plates, multimedia boxes, fiber optic reels and accessories and other cable and connectivity management accessories, and are designed to meet the most demanding needs of end-users, delivering a high degree of reliability and outstanding performance characteristics.

 

The OCC team seeks to provide top-tier integrated communication solutions by bundling all of our fiber optic and copper data communication product offerings into systems that are best suited for individual data communication needs and application requirements of our customers and the end-users of our systems.

 

OCC® is internationally recognized for pioneering the design and production of fiber optic cables for the most demanding military field applications, as well as of fiber optic cables suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and creating a broad product offering built on the evolution of these fundamental technologies. OCC® is also internationally recognized for pioneering the development of innovative copper connectivity technology and designs used to meet industry copper connectivity data communications standards.

 

OCC primarily manufactures its fiber optic cables at its ISO 9001:2015 registered and MIL-STD-790G certified facility located in Roanoke, Virginia, primarily manufactures its enterprise connectivity products at its ISO 9001:2015 registered facility located near Asheville, North Carolina, and primarily manufactures its harsh environment and specialty connectivity products at its ISO 9001:2015 registered and MIL-STD-790G certified facility located near Dallas, Texas.

 

OCC designs, develops and manufactures fiber optic and hybrid cables for a broad range of enterprise, harsh environment, wireless carrier and other specialty markets and applications. We refer to these products as our fiber optic cable offering. OCC designs, develops and manufactures fiber and copper connectivity products for the enterprise market, including a broad range of enterprise and residential applications. We refer to these products as our enterprise connectivity product offering. OCC designs, develops and manufactures a broad range of specialty fiber optic connectors and connectivity solutions principally for use in military, harsh environment and other specialty applications. We refer to these products as our harsh environment and specialty connectivity product offering.

 

OCC markets and sells our harsh environment and specialty connectivity product offering through AOS under the names Optical Cable Corporation and OCC® by the efforts of our integrated OCC sales team.

 

OCC’s wholly owned subsidiary Centric Solutions LLC (“Centric Solutions”) provides cabling and connectivity solutions for the data center market. Centric Solutions’ business is located at OCC’s facility near Dallas, Texas.

 

 

Optical Cable Corporation, OCC®, Procyon®, Superior Modular Products™, SMP Data Communications™, Applied Optical Systems™, Centric Solutions™, and associated logos are trademarks of Optical Cable Corporation.

 

 

OCC® is a leading manufacturer of a broad range of fiber optic and copper data communication cabling and connectivity solutions primarily for the enterprise market and various harsh environment and specialty markets (the non-carrier markets), offering an integrated suite of high quality, warranted products which operate as a system solution or seamlessly integrate with other providers’ offerings. OCC also manufactures and sells products in the wireless carrier market. OCC’s product offerings include designs for uses ranging from enterprise networks, data centers, residential, campus and Passive Optical LAN (“POL”) installations to customized products for harsh environments and specialty applications, including military, industrial, mining, petrochemical and broadcast applications, as well as the wireless carrier market.

 

OCC products include fiber optic and copper cabling, hybrid cabling (which includes fiber optic and copper elements in a single cable), fiber optic and copper connectors, specialty fiber optic, copper and hybrid connectors, fiber optic and copper patch cords, pre-terminated fiber optic and copper cable assemblies, racks, cabinets, datacom enclosures, fiber optic and copper patch panels, face plates, multimedia boxes, fiber optic reels and accessories and other cable and connectivity management accessories. Our products are designed to meet the most demanding needs of end-users, delivering a high degree of reliability and outstanding performance characteristics. During the past five years, OCC has been granted 38 patents for innovative designs of fiber optic and copper connectivity and fiber optic cable.

 

Our fiber optic and copper cabling and connectivity products and solutions (predominantly passive, rather than active systems) are used for transmission of data, video, radio frequency and voice communications primarily over short- to moderate-distances.

 

 

We design, manufacture, market and sell a broad array of top-tier fiber optic and hybrid cables that provide high bandwidth transmission of data, video and voice communications primarily over short- to moderate-distances.

 

OCC is internationally recognized for pioneering the design and production of fiber optic cables for the most demanding military field applications, as well as fiber optic cables suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and for creating a broad product offering built on the evolution of these fundamental technologies.

 

Our product line is diverse and versatile, in keeping with evolving application needs of customers within our markets. Our tight-buffered fiber optic cables address a wide range of needs, primarily for the enterprise market and various harsh environment and specialty markets (the non-carrier markets), ranging from enterprise networks, data centers, residential, campus and Passive Optical LAN (POL) installations, as well as the needs for the harsh environment and specialty markets including military, industrial, mining, petrochemical, and broadcast applications, and to a lesser extent the access market. OCC also manufactures and sells fiber optic cable and hybrid cable (fiber and copper) products in the wireless carrier market. Our patented tight-buffered fiber unit cables have both high fiber-count and rugged performance in a compact and lightweight design. We believe that we offer one of the most comprehensive tight-buffered fiber optic cable product offerings for our markets.

 

We produce fiber optic cables for specialized installations, including various hybrid cables (fiber and copper), and cables with specialty fibers. We offer certain of our tight-buffered fiber optic cables pre-installed in conduit (“FIC”), for installation time reduction. We can armor fiber optic cables for additional protection in certain installations, providing both steel tape and interlocking armor options. We offer cables suitable for underground or overhead installations. For overhead installations, we offer several self-supporting fiber optic cables including both Figure-8 and round messenger construction. We have fiber optic cables available in various flammability ratings. We offer cables combining different types of optical fiber and/or copper wires, with copper wires being used as power feeds or to facilitate the transition from copper wire to optical fiber-based systems without further installation of fiber optic cables. Our hybrid cables include a line of security cables which combine copper power feeds with optical fiber in the cables making them particularly well suited for surveillance cameras and other specialty applications. We also design and manufacture specialty fiber optic cables, such as for use in Fiber-to-the-Antenna (“FTTA”) products for cell tower build-outs, military ground tactical, industrial (including tray cables), mining, deployable broadcast, oil and gas, festoon, pierside and high-density data center applications. Our product offering further includes fiber optic cables complying with or certified to various standards for specialty applications, such as: U.S. Department of Defense MIL-PRF-85045/8B; Det Norske Veritas (DNV) type approval certificate for marine shipboard and offshore platform applications; U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) approval for use in mines; and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) type approved cables. We also offer our customers a variety of customized constructions to meet their specific communication needs.

 

 

 

We market and sell a wide range of high quality copper datacom cables, including unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and shielded twisted pair (F/UTP) constructions, in Category 5e, Category 6 and Category 6A performance ratings, in riser and plenum configurations, and in various colors. The addition of copper datacom cables enables OCC to offer our customers an end-to-end solution for copper network installations.

 

 

We design, manufacture, market and sell innovative top-tier fiber optic and copper connectivity components for use in a broad range of enterprise, residential, military and harsh environment applications. We are internationally recognized for our role in establishing copper connectivity data communication standards, through our innovative technologies.

 

The following summarizes the major types of fiber optic and copper enterprise connectivity products and their attributes; however, we produce many other types of connectivity products as well:

 

Fiber Optic Connectivity Products. Our fiber optic connectivity products provide customers a comprehensive line of fiber optic system solutions for equipment rooms, telecommunications closets, data centers and workstations, including unique infrastructure and cabling solutions for Passive Optical LAN (POL) installations. Our product offering includes fiber optic wall mount, cabinet mount and rack mount enclosures, pre-terminated fiber optic enclosures, fiber optic connectors, splice trays, fiber optic jumpers, plug and play cassette modules, pre-terminated fiber optic cable assemblies, adapters, and accessories.

 

Copper Connectivity Products. OCC’s copper enterprise connectivity products offer customers a comprehensive line of copper system solutions and a line of component compliant products necessary for high speed data and voice applications in equipment rooms, telecommunications closets, data centers and workstations. Our product offering includes: category compliant patch panels, jacks (standard keystone or proprietary bezel configuration), plugs, patch cords, faceplates, surface mounted boxes, distribution and multimedia boxes, copper rack mount and wall mount enclosures, cable assemblies, cable organizers, and other wiring products. OCC provides products compliant with Category 5e, Category 6 and Category 6A standards in both shielded and unshielded offerings and industry recognized Category 8 test qualification fixtures and Category 8 plugs. OCC pioneered the required technology for high performance RJ45 connectivity applications to Ethernet, holding multiple patents for electrical performance and usability features.

 

Cabinets, Racks and Enclosures. We offer a wide array of high-performance network, data storage and telecommunications management systems for enterprise and residential use. Our product line includes data cabinets, wall mount enclosures, horizontal and vertical cable management systems and open frame relay racks. These products meet the demands of various network segments. Our products serve the equipment, cross-connect and termination needs for copper and fiber optic multimedia applications as well as wall mount and space saving UL listed ceiling mount enclosures for Passive Optical LANs.

 

Residential Products. Our product offering includes a comprehensive line of datacom wiring products comprised of various enclosures, modules and modular outlets designed for single dwelling and multiple dwelling residential use. By utilizing our products, customers obtain a convenient method for networking, customizing, distributing and managing services in the home including voice, data, video, audio and security.

 

 

 

In addition to our fiber optic and copper enterprise connectivity products described above, we design, manufacture, market and sell specialty fiber optic connectors and connectivity components, certain ruggedized copper datacom connectors, and related deployable systems and solutions for military, other harsh environment and specialty applications. For deployable applications, we manufacture a full range of tactical fiber optic connectors that conform to U.S. Department of Defense standards, such as MIL-PRF-29504, MIL-DTL-83522, MIL-DTL-83526, NAVSEA 7379171, and NAVSEA 7379172. In addition to military specified products, we also manufacture commercial grade versions of cylindrical connector products including EZ-MATE™, MHC®-T2, MHC®-T3 and F-LINK™. Many of our products utilize a hermaphroditic design that allows for concatenation of assemblies without regard to connector gender. This design allows for quick and easy deployment and retrieval. To provide more comprehensive interconnect solutions, we designed and developed a complete family of lightweight reels, lightweight reel stands and accessories. Our patented lightweight reels and lightweight reel stands are approved for use by the United States military. We manufacture cylindrical connector product for fixed fiber optic or applications requiring optical fiber and copper connections in the same connector. We fabricate a wide variety of simplex, duplex and multi-channel fiber optic assemblies for uses as varied as mining, oil & gas, petrochemical, broadcast, industrial and military applications. Our product offering also includes ruggedized RJ45 connectors.

 

 

Our products are sold to major distributors, regional distributors, various specialty and smaller distributors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, and, in certain cases, end-users. Generally, our products are purchased from our customers by contractors, system integrators and end-users.

 

 

The fiber optic and copper data communications cables and connectivity enterprise markets and other short- to moderate-distance markets are highly competitive. Our fiber optic cable product lines compete with products of large fiber optic cable manufacturers such as Corning Incorporated, Berk-Tek Cable (part of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.), CommScope Holding Company, Inc., OFS Fitel, LLC (part of the Furukawa Electric Company), AFL (a subsidiary of Fujikura Ltd.), Hitachi Cable America Inc., Belden Inc., Prysmian Group (including General Cable), and others, some of which manufacture optical fiber. Our copper cable product lines compete with products of large copper cable manufacturers such as Prysmian Group (including General Cable), Belden Inc., Berk-Tek Cable (part of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.), CommScope Holding Company, Inc., Hitachi Cable America Inc., Superior Essex (part of LS Cable & System) and others. Our fiber optic and copper connectivity product lines compete with products of large fiber optic and copper connectivity manufacturers such as CommScope Holding Company, Inc., Corning Incorporated, Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc., Legrand S.A. (including Ortronics), Panduit Corp. and others. Our harsh environment and specialty connectivity product lines compete with products of Corning Incorporated, Amphenol Corporation (including AFSI), Aptiv PLC (formerly Delphi Connection Systems), and others.

 

Some of our competitors are more established, benefit from greater market recognition and have much greater financial, research and development, production and marketing resources than we do. Competition could increase if new companies enter the market or if existing competitors expand their product lines.

 

 

We are not aware of any material violations at our facilities of any local, state or federal government laws and regulations. We have not incurred any material expenditures related to compliance with government laws and regulations during our 2021 fiscal year, other than those in the ordinary course of business. We believe that we have materially complied with all applicable government laws and regulations.

 

 

We have a global customer base, selling in approximately 50 countries in fiscal year 2021.

 

 

Our products are sold to major distributors, regional distributors, various specialty and smaller distributors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, and, in certain cases, end-users. Generally, our products are purchased from our customers by contractors, system integrators and end-users.

 

The following is a partial list of representative types of end-users of our fiber optic and copper connectivity and cable products:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our extensive technology base and versatile manufacturing processes enable us to respond to diverse customer needs.

 

 

As of October 31, 2021, we employed a total of 322 persons (excluding independent sales representatives and firms). Our employees are all located in the United States and are not represented by unions. We have experienced no work stoppages and we continue to take steps we believe appropriate to ensure our employee relations are good.

 

 

We continue to monitor our demand for skilled and unskilled labor and provide training and competitive compensation packages in an effort to attract and retain skilled employees. We believe our employees are key to achieving our business goals and growth strategy. Our human capital measures and objectives focus on safety of our employees, employee benefits and employee development and training. All of our employees are at-will employees, which means that each employee can terminate his or her relationship with us and we can terminate our relationship with him or her at any time.

 

We have experienced, and could continue to experience, some difficulty in identifying and hiring skilled labor, particularly in manufacturing, as a result of COVID-19 concerns and other related factors. These concerns have decreased the pool of available qualified talent for certain functions. As a result, we have made and continue to make strong efforts to recruit qualified talent. While we believe our compensation and benefits offerings position us for success against a limited labor pool, we continue to be mindful of the labor shortages and are committed to being competitive to retain the best talent possible.

 

During fiscal year 2021, there have been periods during which we have asked groups or individual employees at each of our facilities to quarantine at home as a precautionary measure (per guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) against the possible transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus during the pandemic. We have taken, and continue to take, measures to protect the health and safety of our employees during the pandemic—including requirements regarding wearing masks, social distancing, sanitation procedures, and symptom checks. We are not aware of any COVID-19 illnesses resulting from possible virus exposure at any of our facilities.

 

 

We typically expect net sales to be relatively lower in the first half of each fiscal year and relatively higher in the second half of each fiscal year, and excluding other volatility, we would normally expect 48% of total net sales to occur during the first half of a fiscal year and 52% of total net sales to occur during the second half of a fiscal year. We believe this historical seasonality pattern is generally indicative of an overall trend and reflective of the buying patterns and budgetary cycles of our customers. However, this pattern may be substantially altered during any quarter or year, as was the case in fiscal years 2020 and 2019, by the quarterly and annual volatility of orders received for the wireless carrier market, the timing of larger projects, timing of orders from larger customers, other economic factors impacting our industry or impacting the industries of our customers and end-users, and macroeconomic conditions. Along these same lines, we believe our seasonality pattern in fiscal year 2021 was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in lower net sales at the start of the fiscal year and higher net sales beginning in the second quarter of the fiscal year as some restrictions were lifted and certain markets reopened. Consequently, while we believe seasonality may be a factor that impacts our quarterly net sales results, we are not able to reliably predict net sales based on seasonality because these other factors can also substantially impact our net sales patterns and volatility during the year. Our trend for the last three fiscal years has been that an average of approximately 47%, 50% and 50% of our total net sales occurred during the first half of fiscal years 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and an average of approximately 53%, 50% and 50% of our total net sales occurred during the second half of fiscal years 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

 

 

Item 1A. Risk Factors is not required for a “smaller reporting company” as defined in Rule 12b-2 promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

 

Certain risk factors that may adversely affect the Company, the Company’s future results of operations and future financial condition, and future market valuation of the Company are mentioned under “Forward-Looking Information” included in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in the Company’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021 (filed as Exhibit 13.1 to this report on Form 10-K), and in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

 

 

None.

 

 

We own our facility located in Roanoke County, Virginia, and the land on which our Roanoke facility is located. Our Roanoke facility primarily houses our corporate headquarters, our administrative offices, our fiber optic cable manufacturing operations, our fiber optic cable product development function and our fiber optic cable warehouse. Our Roanoke facility is situated on approximately 23 acres of land near the Roanoke, Virginia airport and major trucking company facilities. Our Roanoke facility building is approximately 146,000 square feet.

 

 

We own our facility near Asheville, North Carolina (in Swannanoa, North Carolina) and the land on which our Asheville facility is located. Our Asheville facility primarily houses administrative offices, our enterprise connectivity manufacturing operations, our enterprise connectivity product development function and our enterprise connectivity warehouse. Our Asheville facility is situated on approximately 13 acres of land located east of Asheville, North Carolina. The Asheville facility includes two buildings totaling approximately 64,000 square feet.

 

We lease our facility near Dallas, Texas (in Plano, Texas). Our Dallas facility primarily houses administrative offices, our harsh environment and specialty connectivity manufacturing operations, our harsh environment and specialty connectivity product development function, our harsh environment and specialty connectivity warehouse, and our Centric Solutions’ business. Our Dallas facility is located in an industrial complex of suites. The space leased is approximately 34,000 square feet.

 

We lease a warehouse facility in Roanoke, Virginia. The space leased is approximately 36,000 square feet and is used primarily to store raw materials related to our fiber optic cable products.

 

We believe that we are currently operating at approximately 40% to 45% of our production equipment capacity on average at our collective manufacturing facilities during fiscal year 2021. This determination is based on a capacity calculation that assumes we would be fully staffed to run production at all of our locations twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, all year. Since various production equipment is specialized and our product mix varies, individual manufacturing equipment may operate at higher or lower production capacity during any given period of time. Additionally, we can experience capacity constraints based on the types of products that are being manufactured at any given time and related inherent limitations in the manufacturing process as well as the time it takes to hire and train new employees.

 

Additional personnel would need to be hired and trained, additional warehousing space may be needed, and, depending on product mix, certain additional production equipment may need to be acquired, to fully utilize our available production equipment capacity at all of our facilities. We can provide no assurance as to the time required to complete the process of hiring and training personnel or to acquire and install certain additional production equipment or our ability to secure additional warehousing space, necessary to fully utilize our available production capacity.

 

 

From time to time, we are involved in various claims, legal actions and regulatory reviews arising in the ordinary course of business. In the opinion of management, the ultimate disposition of these matters will not have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or liquidity.

 

 

Not applicable.

 

PART II

 

 

The information pertaining to shareholders beneficially owning more than five percent of the Company’s common stock and the security ownership of management, which is set forth under the caption “Beneficial Ownership of Securities” in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The Company had 7,897,477 shares of common stock issued and outstanding at October 31, 2021. Employees of the Company and members of the Board of Directors owned at least 37.2% of the shares issued and outstanding at October 31, 2021, including shares still subject to potential forfeiture based on vesting requirements.

 

 

 

On July 14, 2015, our Board of Directors approved a plan to purchase and retire up to 400,000 shares of our common stock, or approximately 6.0% of the shares then outstanding (the “Repurchase Plan”). When the Repurchase Plan was approved, we had anticipated that the purchases would be made over a 24- to 36-month period, but there was no definite time period for repurchase or plan expiration. As of October 31, 2021, we had 398,400 shares remaining to purchase under this Repurchase Plan, and we have made no specific determination whether and over what period these shares may or may not be purchased. Until future notice, we have no current plans to repurchase and retire our common stock and have suspended the Repurchase Plan.

 

The information contained under the caption “Corporate Information” of our Annual Report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021, filed as Exhibit 13.1 to this report on Form 10-K, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

 

 

The information contained under the caption “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021, filed as Exhibit 13.1 to this report on Form 10-K, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

 

The Company did not engage in transactions in derivative financial instruments or derivative commodity instruments. As of October 31, 2021, the Company’s financial instruments were not exposed to significant market risk due to interest rate risk, foreign currency exchange risk, commodity price risk or equity price risk.

 

 

The information contained under the captions “Consolidated Financial Statements,” “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” and “Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” of our Annual Report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021, filed as Exhibit 13.1 to this report on Form 10-K, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

 

There were no changes in our accountants and the Company did not have any disagreements with its accountants on any accounting matter or financial disclosure made during our fiscal year ended October 31, 2021.

 

 

 

The Company maintains disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)) that are designed to be effective in providing reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act are recorded, processed and summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and that such information is accumulated and communicated to management to allow for timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

 

In designing and evaluating disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, will be detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision making can be faulty and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. The design of any system of controls is based, in part, upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions.

 

 

As of October 31, 2021, the Company completed an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of management, including the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer (principal accounting officer and principal financial officer), of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures. Based upon that evaluation, the chief executive officer and chief financial officer concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of October 31, 2021.

 

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting.

 

Management of the Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act). Internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that: (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the Company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors of the Company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the Company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

 

Because of the inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Accordingly, even effective internal control over financial reporting can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation. Further, the evaluation of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting was made as of a specific date, and continued effectiveness in future periods is subject to the risks that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the degree of compliance with the policies and procedures may decline. Management conducted an evaluation of the design and effectiveness of the Company’s system of internal control over financial reporting as of October 31, 2021, based on the framework set forth in “Internal Control - Integrated Framework” issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in 2013. Based on its evaluation, management concluded that, as of October 31, 2021, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective.

 

 

There were no changes in the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year covered by this report that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 

 

None.

 

PART III

 

 

For information with respect to the Directors of the registrant, see “Election of Directors,” and “Executive Officers” in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, which information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

For information with respect to the executive officers of the registrant, see “Executive Officers” in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, which information is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information with respect to compliance with Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which is set forth under the caption “Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” (if applicable) in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

 

The information concerning the Company’s code of ethics that applies to the Company’s principal executive officer and the Company’s senior financial officers required by this Item is incorporated by reference to the Company’s Proxy Statement under the heading “Code of Ethics.”

 

 

The information set forth under the captions “Executive Compensation,” and “Director Compensation” in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company is incorporated herein by reference.

 

 

 

 

(1) Includes restricted shares that are issued and outstanding, but have not yet vested and are subject to forfeiture.

 

The term “shares” in the table above means our common shares.

 

The information concerning stock ownership by directors, executive officers and shareholders beneficially owning more than five percent of the Company’s common stock, which is set forth under the caption “Beneficial Ownership of Securities” in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information concerning securities authorized for issuance under equity compensation plans required by this Item, pursuant to Item 201(d) of Regulation S-K, is incorporated by reference to the Company’s Proxy Statement under the heading “Equity Compensation Plan Information.”

 

 

The information with respect to certain transactions with management of the Company, which is set forth under the caption “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions” in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

 

The information with respect to certain principal accountant fees and services, which is set forth under the caption “Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm” in the Proxy Statement for the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Company, is incorporated herein by reference.

 

The information concerning pre-approval policies for audit and non-audit services required by this Item is incorporated by reference to the Company’s Proxy Statement under the heading “Audit Committee Pre-Approval of Audit and Permissible Non-Audit Services of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm.”

 

 

PART IV

 

 

(a) List of documents filed as part of this report:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_________________________

 

 

 

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

 

 

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities indicated as of December 20, 2021.