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Background
Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (Benchmark), formerly named Electronics, Inc., began operations in 1979 and was incorporated under Texas law in 1981 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Intermedics, Inc., a medical implant manufacturer based in Angleton, Texas. In 1986, Intermedics sold 90% of the outstanding common shares of the Company to Electronic Investors Corp., a corporation formed by Donald E. Nigbor, Steven A. Barton and Cary T. Fu. Mr. Fu is currently serving as our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. In 1988, Electronic Investors Corp. was merged into Benchmark, and in 1990 we completed the initial public offering of our common shares.
General
We are a worldwide provider of integrated electronic manufacturing services. We provide our services to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of computers and related products for business enterprises, medical devices, industrial control equipment, which includes equipment for the aerospace and defense industry, testing and instrumentation products, and telecommunication equipment. The services that we provide are commonly referred to as electronics manufacturing services (EMS). We offer our customers comprehensive and integrated design and manufacturing services from initial product design to volume production including direct order fulfillment and post deployment services. Our manufacturing and assembly
operations include printed circuit boards and subsystem assembly, box build and systems integration, the process of integrating subsystems and, often, downloading and integrating software, to produce a fully configured product. Our recently added precision technology manufacturing capabilities complement our proven electronic manufacturing expertise by providing further vertical integration of critical mechanical components. These capabilities include precision machining, advanced metal joining, and functional testing for multiple industries including medical, instrumentation, aerospace and semiconductor capital equipment. We also are able to provide specialized engineering services, including product design, printed circuit board layout, prototyping, and test development. We believe that we have developed strengths in the manufacturing process for large, complex, high-density printed
circuit boards as well as the ability to manufacture high and low volume products in lower cost regions such as Brazil, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Romania and Thailand.
We believe that our global manufacturing presence increases our ability to be responsive to our customers’ needs by providing accelerated time-to-market and time-to-volume production of high quality products. These capabilities enable us to build stronger strategic relationships with our customers and to become a more integral part of their operations. Our customers face challenges in planning, procuring and managing their inventories efficiently due to fluctuations in customer demand, product design changes, short product life cycles and component price fluctuations. We employ production management systems to manage their procurement and manufacturing processes in an efficient and cost-effective manner so
that, where possible, components arrive on a just-in-time, as-and-when-needed basis. We are a significant purchaser of electronic components and other raw materials, and can capitalize on the economies of scale associated with our relationships with suppliers to negotiate price discounts, obtain components and other raw materials that are in short supply, and return excess components. Our expertise in supply chain management and our relationships with suppliers across the supply chain enable us to reduce our customers’ cost of goods sold and inventory exposure.
We currently operate a total of 51 surface mount production lines (where electrical components are placed and soldered directly onto printed circuit boards) at our domestic facilities and 73 surface mount production lines at our international facilities. Our worldwide facilities include 1.1 million square feet in our domestic facilities in Alabama, Arizona, California, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Texas; and 1.8 million square feet in our international facilities in Brazil, China, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Romania, Singapore and Thailand.
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Our capabilities have continued to grow through acquisitions and through internal expansion. In January 2011, we acquired facilities and certain other assets to expand our precision technology capabilities in Penang, Malaysia. In 2009, we added certain precision machining assets and capabilities in Arizona, California and Mexico through a business acquisition, and we leased a larger facility in Brasov, Romania that expanded our manufacturing capability in Eastern Europe. In 2008, we completed the construction of a new building in Suzhou, China and increased our China manufacturing capacity. In January 2007, we acquired Pemstar Inc. (Pemstar), a publicly traded EMS company headquartered in Rochester, Minnesota. This
acquisition expanded our customer base and added depth to our engineering and systems integration capabilities. Additionally, we expanded our relationships with certain customers during 2007 and added a new facility in Penang, Malaysia. Our global operations now include 21 facilities in ten countries.
We believe our primary competitive advantages are our design, manufacturing, testing and supply chain management capabilities. We offer our customers flexible manufacturing solutions throughout the life cycle of their products. These solutions provide accelerated time-to-market, time-to-volume production, and reduced production costs. As a result of working closely with our customers and responding promptly to their needs, we have become an integral part of their operations.
Our Industry
The EMS industry experienced rapid change and growth over most of the past decade as an increasing number of OEMs outsourced their manufacturing requirements. In mid-2001 and again in late 2008, the industry’s revenue declined as a result of significant cutbacks in its customers’ production requirements, which was consistent with overall global economic downturns. OEMs have continued to turn to outsourcing in order to reduce product cost, achieve accelerated time-to-market and time-to-volume production, access advanced design and manufacturing technologies, improve inventory management and purchasing power, and reduce their capital investment in manufacturing resources. Outsourcing enables OEMs to
concentrate on what they believe to be their core strengths, such as new product definition, marketing and sales. In addition, the number of industries serviced by EMS providers and these providers’ market penetration in certain industries has increased in recent years. We believe further growth opportunities exist for EMS providers to penetrate the worldwide electronics markets. However, the recent global economic downturn has had a negative effect on demand for our customers’ products and thus adversely affected our sales.
Our Strategy
Our goal is to be the EMS outsourcing provider of choice to leading OEMs in the electronics industry that we perceive from time to time to offer the greatest potential for growth. To meet this goal, we have implemented the following strategies:
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Maintain and Develop Close, Long-Term Relationships with Customers. Our core strategy is to maintain and establish long-term relationships with leading OEMs in expanding industries by becoming an integral part of our customers’ manufacturing operations. To accomplish this, we work closely with our customers throughout the design, manufacturing and distribution process, and we offer flexible and responsive services. We rely on our local management teams to respond to frequently changing customer design specifications and production requirements, which develops stronger customer relationships.
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Focus on High-End Products in Growth Industries. EMS providers produce products for a wide range of OEMs in different industries, such as consumer electronics, Internet-focused businesses and information technology equipment. The product scope ranges from easy to assemble, low-cost high-volume products targeted for the consumer market to complicated state-of-the-art, mission critical electronic hardware targeted for military, medical and other high-end computer use. Similarly, OEMs’ customers range from consumer-oriented companies that compete primarily on price and redesign their products every year to manufacturers of high-end telecommunications equipment and computer and related products for business enterprises that compete on
technology and quality. We currently offer state-of-the-art products for industry leaders who require specialized engineering design and production services, as well as high volume manufacturing capabilities to our customer base. Our ability to offer both of these types of services enables us to expand our business relationships.