Business description of Gates-Industrial-Corporation-plc from last 10-k form
Forward-looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2021 (this “annual report” or “report”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) that reflect our current estimates and expectations with respect to, among other things, our future operations and financial performance. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “outlook,” “believes,” “expects,” “potential,” “continues,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “seeks,” “predicts,” “intends,” “trends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “anticipates” or the negative version of these words or other comparable words. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Although such statements are based on management’s current estimates and expectations and/or currently available competitive, financial, and economic data, forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what may be inferred from such statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those described under “Part I - Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this annual report. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements included in this annual report and in our other periodic filings. Gates Industrial Corporation plc undertakes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
ABOUT THIS ANNUAL REPORT
Financial Statement Presentation
Gates Industrial Corporation plc is a public limited company that was incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 on September 25, 2017 and is registered in England and Wales.
Certain monetary amounts, percentages and other figures included elsewhere in this annual report have been subject to rounding adjustments. Accordingly, figures shown as totals in certain tables or charts may not be the arithmetic aggregation of the figures that precede them, and figures expressed as percentages in the text may not total 100% or, as applicable, when aggregated may not be the arithmetic aggregation of the percentages that precede them.
All amounts in this annual report are expressed in United States of America (the “U.S.”) dollars, unless indicated otherwise.
Certain Definitions
As used in this annual report, unless otherwise noted or the context requires otherwise:
• “Gates,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Gates Industrial Corporation plc and its consolidated subsidiaries;
• “Fiscal 2020” refers to the fiscal year ended January 2, 2021, “Fiscal 2019” refers to the fiscal year ended December 28, 2019, “Fiscal 2018” refers to the fiscal year ended December 29, 2018; and
• “Blackstone” or “our Sponsor” refer to investment funds affiliated with The Blackstone Group Inc., which, although no individual fund owns a controlling interest in us, together represent our current majority owners.
PART I
Item 1. Business
We are a global manufacturer of innovative, highly engineered power transmission and fluid power solutions. We offer a broad portfolio of products to diverse replacement channel customers, and to original equipment (“first-fit”) manufacturers as specified components, with the majority of our revenue coming from replacement channels. Our products are used in applications across numerous end markets, including off-highway end markets such as construction and agriculture, on-highway end markets such as transportation, diversified industrial, energy, automotive, consumer products and many others. Our net sales have historically been, and remain, highly correlated with industrial activity and utilization, and not with any single end market given the diversification of our business and high exposure to replacement markets. Key indicators of our performance include industrial production, industrial sales and manufacturer shipments. We sell our products globally under the Gates brand, which is recognized by distributors, equipment manufacturers, installers and end users as a premium brand for quality and technological innovation; this reputation has been built over 110 years since Gates’ founding in 1911.
Within the diverse end markets we serve, our highly engineered products are often critical components in applications for which the cost of downtime is high relative to the cost of our products, resulting in the willingness of end users to pay a premium for superior performance and availability. These applications subject our products to normal wear and tear, resulting in natural, and often preventive, replacement cycles that drive high-margin, recurring revenue. Our product portfolio represents one of the broadest ranges of power transmission and fluid power products in the markets we serve, and we maintain long-standing relationships with a diversified group of blue-chip customers throughout the world. As a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered, mission-critical products, we have become an industry leader across most of the regions and end markets in which we operate.
Gates’ business is well-balanced and diversified across products, channels and geographies, as highlighted in the following charts showing breakdowns of our Fiscal 2020 net sales of $2,793.0 million.
Our History and Recent Developments
On October 1, 1911, Charles Gates, Sr. purchased the Colorado Tire and Leather Company, a manufacturer of steel-studded bands of leather that attached to tires to extend their mileage. In 1917, the Company commercialized the V-belt, which used rubber and woven threading instead of rope belts, which were more commonly used at that time. In 1963, we built the first of many international facilities in Erembodegem, Belgium, followed by Jacarei, Brazil, in 1973. In 1986, we acquired the Uniroyal Power Transmission Company, which included an interest in the Unitta joint venture that lay the groundwork for Gates’ growth in the Asia-Pacific region. We have financial and operational control over the joint venture, and as such, consolidate it in our financial statements.
In 1996, Gates was acquired by a publicly held engineering firm based in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”), Tomkins plc, which was itself acquired by Onex Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, who proceeded to divest certain of
Tomkins plc’s businesses under a new parent entity, Pinafore Holdings B.V. Gates was acquired by Blackstone in July 2014 and in 2015 established a new executive leadership team with Ivo Jurek as Chief Executive Officer.
We maintain an active acquisition pipeline. In 2018, we acquired Rapro, based in Turkey, and in 2017 we closed two transactions, Techflow Flexibles in the U.K. and Atlas Hydraulics in North America. All three of these acquisitions have been focused on expanding our presence in industrial markets with new products, capabilities, capacity and geographic reach. In addition, we continue to invest organically in new production capacity. During Fiscal 2018, we opened two new facilities located in Poland and in Mexico, and we also expanded our Changzhou facility in China.
Our Solutions
We operate our business on a product-line basis through our two reporting segments - Power Transmission and Fluid Power. See note 4 of our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report for additional information.
We sell our products under the Gates brand in all of the geographies and end markets we serve. Our power transmission segment includes elastomer drive belts and related components used to efficiently transfer motion in a broad range of applications. Power transmission products represented approximately 64% of our total net sales for Fiscal 2020. Our fluid power segment includes hoses, tubing and fittings designed to convey hydraulic fluid at high pressures in both mobile and stationary applications, and other high-pressure and fluid transfer hoses used to convey various fluids. Our fluid power products represented approximately 36% of our net sales for Fiscal 2020.
Our power transmission and fluid power products are often critical to the functioning of the equipment, process or system in which they are components, such that the cost of downtime or potential equipment damage is high relative to the cost of our products. Our products are therefore replaced not only as a result of normal wear and tear, but also preemptively as part of ongoing maintenance to the broader system.
We have a broad portfolio of both power transmission and fluid power products in the end markets we serve. We have a long history of focusing on customer engagement and training, driving product innovation and providing best-in-class order fulfilment services.
Power Transmission. Our Power Transmission solutions enable and control motion. They are used in applications in which belts, chains, cables, geared transmissions or direct drives transfer power from an engine or motor to another part or system. Belt-based power transmission drives typically consist of either a synchronous belt or an asynchronous belt (V-belt, CVT belt or Micro-V® belt) and related components (sprockets, pulleys, water pumps, tensioners or other accessories). Within our Power Transmission segment, we offer solutions across the following key application platforms:
•Stationary drives: fixed drive systems such as those used in a factory driving a machine or pump, on a grain elevator driving the lift auger or in a distribution center driving a conveyor belt or robotic picking machine;
•Mobile drives: drives on a piece of mobile machinery such as a combine harvester or a road compactor, or in applications such as the brush head of a vacuum cleaner;
•Engine systems: synchronous drives and related components for cam shafts and auxiliary drives and asynchronous accessory drives for air conditioning (“A/C”) compressors, power steering, alternators and starter/generator systems;
•Personal mobility: drives on motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, both traditional and electric, as well as on snowmobiles and other power sports vehicles that are used to transfer power between the power source and the drive wheel(s) or track; and
•Vertical lift: elevators, cargo lifts and other applications in which a belt, cable, chain or other lifting mechanism is used to carry load.
Customers choose power transmission solutions based on a number of factors, including application requirements such as load, speed, gear ratio, temperature, operating environment, ease of maintenance, noise, efficiency and reliability, as well as the support they receive from their suppliers, including application-specific engineering. Belt-based drive systems have many advantages over other alternatives, as they are typically clean, low-maintenance, lubrication-free, quiet with low-vibration, lightweight, compact, energy-efficient, durable and reliable. In applications where these advantages are valued, customers typically choose belts over other forms of power transmission solutions.
Our belts are classified by their general design into asynchronous and synchronous belts; in addition, we also manufacture metal drive components and assemble certain product kits for the automotive replacement channel.
Asynchronous Belts. Asynchronous belts are our highest-volume products and are used in a broad range of applications. Asynchronous belts are made of proprietary rubber formulations, textiles and embedded cords for reinforcement. We were a pioneer in the design and manufacturing of V-belts, which draw their name from the shape of their profile. We also manufacture “ribbed” V-belts, which are belts with lengthwise V-shaped grooves, which we market under the Micro-V® name. This design results in a thinner belt for the same drive surface, making it more flexible and offering improved efficiency through lower friction losses.