PART I
Item 1. Business.
The Company was incorporated in the State of New York on July 22, 1955 and is engaged in the design, development, manufacture and marketing of shock absorption, rate control, and energy storage devices for use in various types of machinery, equipment and structures. In addition to manufacturing and selling existing product lines, the Company continues to develop new and advanced technology products.
Principal Products
The Company manufactures and sells a single group of very similar products that have many different applications for customers. These similar products are included in one of six categories; namely, Seismic Dampers, Fluidicshoks®, Crane and Industrial Buffers, Self-Adjusting Shock Absorbers, Liquid Die Springs, and Vibration Dampers. Management does not track or otherwise account for sales broken down by these categories. The following is a summary of the capabilities and applications for these products.
Seismic Dampers are designed to ameliorate the effects of earthquake tremors on structures, and represent a substantial part of the business of the Company. Fluidicshoks® are small, extremely compact shock absorbers with up to 19,200 inch-pound capacities, produced in 15 standard sizes for primary use in the defense, aerospace and commercial industry. Crane and industrial buffers are larger versions of the Fluidicshoks® with up to 60,000,000 inch-pound capacities, produced in more than 60 standard sizes for industrial application on cranes, ships, container ships, railroad cars, truck docks, ladle and ingot cars, ore trolleys and car stops. Self-adjusting shock absorbers, which include versions of Fluidicshoks® and crane and industrial buffers, automatically adjust to different impact conditions, and are designed for high cycle application primarily in heavy industry. Liquid die springs are used as component parts of machinery and equipment used in the manufacture of tools and dies. Vibration dampers are used primarily by the aerospace and defense industries to control the response of electronics and optical systems subjected to air, ship, or spacecraft vibration.
Distribution
The Company uses the services of more than 50 sales representatives and distributors in the United States and Canada. Specialized technical sales in aerospace and custom marketing activities are serviced by three sales agents, under the direction and with the assistance of Douglas P. Taylor, the Company's President. Sales representatives typically have non‑exclusive, yearly agreements with the Company, which, in most instances, provide for payment of commissions on sales at 10% of the product's net aggregate selling price. Distributors also have non‑exclusive, yearly agreements with the Company to purchase the Company's products for resale purposes.
Competition
The Company faces competition on mature aerospace and defense programs which may use more conventional products manufactured under less stringent government specifications. Two foreign companies are the Company's competitors in the production of crane buffers.
The Company's principal competitors for the manufacture of products in the aerospace and commercial aerospace industries field is Goodrich Landing Gear Division of Goodrich Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio, and Ft. Worth, Texas. While the Company is competitive with this company in the areas of pricing, warranty and product performance, due to limited financing and manufacturing facilities, the Company cannot compete in the area of volume production.
The Company competes directly against two other firms supplying seismic damping devices, as well as numerous other firms which supply alternative seismic protection technologies.
Raw Materials and Supplies
The principal raw materials and supplies used by the Company in the manufacture of its products are provided by numerous U.S. and foreign suppliers. The loss of any one of these would not materially affect the Company's operations.
Dependence Upon Major Customers
Sales to one customer, Sinodynamics Enterprise Co., Ltd., approximated 41% of net sales for 2012. The loss of this customer, unless the business is replaced by the Company, could result in an adverse effect on the results for the Company.
Patents, Trademarks and Licenses
The Company holds approximately 15 patents expiring at different times until the year 2031.
Terms of Sale
The Company does not carry significant inventory for rapid delivery to customers, and goods are not normally sold with return rights such as are available for consignment sales. The Company has no inventory out on consignment and no consignment sales for the years ended May 31, 2012 and 2011. No extended payment terms are offered. During the year ended May 31, 2012, delivery time after receipt of orders averaged 12 to 14 weeks for the Company's standard products. Due to the volatility of construction and aerospace/defense programs, progress payments are usually required for larger projects using custom designed components of the Company.
Need for any Government Approval of Principal Products or Services
Contracts between the Company and the federal government or its independent contractors are subject to termination at the election of the federal government. Contracts are generally entered into on a fixed price basis. If the federal government should limit defense spending, these contracts could be reduced or terminated, which management believes would have a materially adverse effect on the Company.
Research and Development
The Company does not generally engage in major product research and development activities in connection with the design of its products, except when funded by aerospace customers or the federal government. The Company, however, engages in research testing of its products. For the fiscal years ended May 31, 2012 and 2011, the Company expended $422,000 and $272,000, respectively, on manufacturing research. For the years ended May 31, 2012 and 2011, defense sponsored research and development totaled $119,000 and $67,000, respectively.
Government Regulation
Compliance with federal, state and local laws and regulations which have been enacted or adopted regulating the discharge of materials into the environment has had no material effect on the Company, and the Company believes that it is in substantial compliance with such provisions.
The Company is subject to the Occupational Safety and Health Act ("OSHA") and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, which establish strict standards for the protection of employees, and impose fines for violations of such standards. The Company believes that it is in substantial compliance with OSHA provisions and does not anticipate any material corrective expenditures in the near future. The Company is currently incurring only moderate costs with respect to disposal of hazardous waste and compliance with OSHA regulations.
The Company is also subject to regulations relating to production of products for the federal government. These regulations allow for frequent governmental audits of the Company's operations and fairly extensive testing of Company products. The Company believes that it is in substantial compliance with these regulations and does not anticipate corrective expenditures in the future.
Employees
Exclusive of Company sales representatives and distributors, as of May 31, 2012, the Company had 106 employees, including three executive officers, and five part time employees. The Company has good relations with its employees.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Smaller reporting companies are not required to provide the information required by this item.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
Not applicable.
Item 2. Properties
The Company's production facilities occupy approximately six acres on Tonawanda Island in North Tonawanda, New York and are comprised of four interconnected buildings and two adjacent buildings. The production facilities consist of a small parts plant (approximately 4,400 square feet), a large parts plant (approximately 13,500 square feet), and include a facility of approximately 7,000 square feet constructed in 1995 (see below), a test facility, storage area, pump area and the Company's general offices. One adjacent building is a 17,000 square foot seismic assembly test facility. Another adjacent building (approximately 2,000 square feet) is used as a training facility. These facilities total more than 45,000 square feet. Adjacent to these facilities, the Company has a remote test facility used for shock testing. This state-of-the-art test facility is 1,200 square feet. The small parts plant consists of a complete small machine shop and tool room that produces all of the Company's product items which are less than two inches in diameter. The large parts plant consists of a complete large machine shop and tool room. Both plants contain custom-built machinery for boring, deep-hole drilling and turning of parts.
The Company's real properties are subject to a negative pledge agreement with its lender, First Niagara Bank. The Company has agreed with the lender that, for so long as the credit facilities with the lender are outstanding, the Company will not sell, lease or mortgage any of its real properties. Additional information regarding the Company's agreement with First Niagara Bank is contained in Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, at "Capital Resources, Line of Credit and Long-Term Debt."
The Company leases a separate warehouse for storage from an unrelated third party, consisting of approximately 3,600 square feet at $975 per month. The warehouse is located approximately one-quarter mile from the above-referenced production facilities and office space. The total rental expense incurred by the Company for this facility in fiscal 2012 was $11,700. The Company also leases a separate facility for painting, packaging and shipping from an unrelated third party, consisting of approximately 12,600 square feet at $5,292 per month. The facility is located in the Town of Tonawanda, New York, approximately four miles from the above-referenced production facilities and office space. The total rental expense incurred by the Company for this facility in fiscal 2012 was $58,044.
In December 2011, the Company closed on its purchase of three industrial buildings in the City of North Tonawanda, NY. The location of the site is 1.4 miles from the Company’s existing facilities on Tonawanda Island. In February 2012, the Company closed on its purchase of vacant lots adjacent to the new facilities. The combined real estate of the new parcel totals 9+ acres.
The additional manufacturing space was acquired to address overcrowding of the Company’s large parts machining and assembly areas due to increased sales of large seismic protection products. Total area of the three buildings is 46,000 square feet, more than doubling the Company’s manufacturing space.
When the three buildings are fully renovated and modified, the Company’s production machinery will be relocated from the Company’s Tonawanda Island site, and large overhead cranes will be installed to move large parts from machine to machine. It is the Company’s intent to move all machining and metalworking operations to the new site. This will allow the former machining areas at the existing Tonawanda Island site to house greatly expanded assembly and product testing areas. All corporate and engineering offices will be unaffected by the change and will remain on Tonawanda Island.
The renovations and modifications to the buildings are extensive, with a total project cost (including the initial purchase price) of $2.5 million. The first of the three buildings is in service, with the remaining two buildings to be completed and in service by December 2013. The Company anticipates that its current cash and bank line of credit resources will be sufficient for that purpose.
The Company believes it is carrying adequate insurance coverage on its facilities and their contents.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
There are no legal proceedings except for routine litigation incidental to the business.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases Of Equity Securities.
Market Information
The Company's Common Stock trades on the NASDAQ Capital Market of the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation ("NASDAQ") stock market under the symbol TAYD. The high and low sales information noted below for the quarters of fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2011 were obtained from NASDAQ.
Holders
As of August 13, 2012, the number of issued and outstanding shares of Common Stock was 3,310,006 and the approximate number of record holders of the Company's Common Stock was 766. Due to a substantial number of shares of the Company's Common Stock held in street name, the Company believes that the total number of beneficial owners of its Common Stock exceeds 2,000.
Dividends
No cash or stock dividends have been declared during the last two fiscal years. The Company does not intend to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
As of September 15, 2008, the Company's Board of Directors adopted a shareholder rights plan designed to deter coercive or unfair takeover tactics and prevent an acquirer from gaining control of the Company without offering a fair price to shareholders. Under the plan, certain rights ("Rights") were distributed as a dividend on each share of Common Stock (one Right for each share of Common Stock) held as of the close of business on October 3, 2008. Each whole Right entitles the holder, under certain defined conditions, to buy one two-thousandths (1/2000) of a newly issued share of the Company's Series 2008 Junior Participating Preferred Stock ("Series 2008 Preferred Stock") at a purchase price of $5.00 per unit of one two-thousandths of a share. Rights attach to and trade with the shares of Common Stock, without being evidenced by a separate certificate. No separate Rights certificates will be issued unless and until the Rights detach from Common Stock and become exercisable for shares of the Series 2008 Preferred Stock.
The Rights become exercisable to purchase shares of Preferred Stock (or, in certain circumstances, Common Stock) only if (i) a person acquired 15% or more of the Company's Common Stock, or (ii) a person commenced a tender or exchange offer for 10% or more of the Company's Common Stock, or (iii) the Board of Directors determined that the beneficial owner of at least 10% of the Company's Common Stock intended to cause the Company to take certain actions adverse to it and its shareholders or that such ownership would have a material adverse effect on the Company. The Rights Plan will expire on October 5, 2018.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
During the year ended May 31, 2012, the Company repurchased 9,200 shares of its common stock for a total of $49,767, including brokerage fees, under a share repurchase agreement through open market purchases. Purchase prices ranged from $5.06 to $6.00 per share.
Equity Compensation Plan Information
The following table sets forth information regarding equity compensation plans of the Company as of May 31, 2012.
Item 6. Selected Financial Data
The Company qualifies as a smaller reporting company, as defined by 17 CFR §229.10(f)(1), and is not required to provide the information required by this Item.
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Cautionary Statement
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Information in this Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and elsewhere in this 10-K that does not consist of historical facts are "forward-looking statements." Statements accompanied or qualified by, or containing, words such as "may," "will," "should," "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "outlook," "forecast," "anticipates," "presume," "assume" and "optimistic" constitute forward-looking statements and, as such, are not a guarantee of future performance. The statements involve factors, risks and uncertainties, the impact or occurrence of which can cause actual results to differ materially from the expected results described in such statements. Risks and uncertainties can include, among others, fluctuations in general business cycles and changing economic conditions; changing product demand and industry capacity; increased competition and pricing pressures; advances in technology that can reduce the demand for the Company's products, as well as other factors, many or all of which may be beyond the Company's control. Consequently, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as predictive of future results. The Company disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to the forward-looking statements herein to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regard thereto, or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
Application of Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
The Company's consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The preparation of the Company's financial statements requires management to make estimates, assumptions and judgments that affect the amounts reported. These estimates, assumptions and judgments are affected by management's application of accounting policies, which are discussed in Note 1. "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" and elsewhere in the accompanying consolidated financial statements. As discussed below, our financial position or results of operations may be materially affected when reported under different conditions or when using different assumptions in the application of such policies. In the event estimates or assumptions prove to be different from actual amounts, adjustments are made in subsequent periods to reflect more current information. Management believes the following critical accounting policies affect the more significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of the Company's financial statements.