Risk Factors Summary (see Item 1A. Risk Factors, below): Other factors that may affect our future results of operations and financial condition include, but are not limited to, unanticipated developments in any one or more of the following areas, as well as other factors which may be detailed from time to time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which we summarize below:
• general economic conditions, such as customer inventory levels, consumer prices and inflation, interest rates, borrowing ability and economic conditions in the manufacturing and/or distribution industries generally, as well as government spending levels will continue to impact our business;
• global, political, economic and market conditions, including the impact of natural disasters, military actions, wars, international shipping disruptions, cyber-attacks, terrorism and global pandemics or other health crises;
• delays in the timely availability of products from our suppliers has in the past and could in the future delay receipt of needed product, resulting in delayed or lost sales;
• global supply chains and the timely availability of products, particularly products, or product components used in domestic manufacturing, imported from China and other Asian nations as well as from other countries, have been, and in the future could continue to be adversely affected by allocation restrictions of difficult to source products by our vendors;
• we are exposed to market risks from changes in tariff rates and import shipping costs particularly on goods from China and other Asia-based suppliers. These dynamic market conditions may result in fluctuations in our income and cash flows. Recently enacted tariffs on imports and exports with respect to a number of countries in our supply chain and/or our customer markets, have increased and may continue to increase our procurement costs,
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the impact of which will increase pressure on our margins as we sell through lower cost inventory. The imposition of these tariffs and other trade barriers, as well as reciprocal trade measures, have caused us to both raise the prices on certain of our products to mitigate increased procurement costs and to seek alternate sources of supply. Pricing actions we have taken and may continue to take to migrate these increased procurement costs could have a material adverse impact on our income, cash flows and overall financial results;
• our use of alternate sources of supply, such as utilizing new vendors in additional countries, entails various risks, such as identifying, vetting and managing new business relationships, reliance on new vendors and maintaining quality control over their products, and protecting our intellectual property rights;
• increases in freight and shipping costs, including fuel costs and other accessorial costs, could affect our margins to the extent the increases cannot be passed along to customers, as has occurred in the past;
• extreme weather conditions have delayed or disrupted global product supply chains and have affected our ability to timely receive and ship products, which have and could adversely impact sales;
• other critical factors affecting the shipping and distribution of products imported to the United States by us or our domestic vendors, such as a global shortage in availability of shipping containers, shipping port congestion, and pandemic related labor shortages, have in the past and could in the future adversely affect the timely availability of products, resulting in delayed or lost sales, as well as adversely affecting our margins;
• our reliance on common carrier delivery services for shipping merchandise to customers;
• our reliance on drop ship deliveries directly to customers by our product vendors for products we do not hold in inventory;
• our ability to maintain available capacity in our distribution operations for stocked inventory and to enable on time shipment and deliveries, such as by timely implementing additional temporary or permanent distribution resources, whether in the form of additional facilities we operate or by outsourcing certain functions to third-party distribution and logistics partners;
• we compete with other companies for recruiting, training, integrating and retaining talented and experienced employees, particularly in markets where we and they have central distribution facilities; and this aspect of competition is aggravated by the current tight labor market in the U.S. for such jobs;
• our ability to realize the expected benefits from acquisitions and other strategic transactions that we believe will either expand or complement our business in new or existing markets or further enhance the value and offerings we are able to provide to our existing or future potential customers;
• the maintenance, repair and operations ("MRO") and industrial equipment industry are consolidating as customers are increasingly aware of the total costs of fulfillment and the need to have consistent sources of supply at multiple locations. This consolidation has and will continue to cause the industry to become more competitive as greater economies of scale are achieved by competitors, or as competitors with new lower cost business models are able to operate with lower prices;
• risks involved with e-commerce, including possible loss of business and customer dissatisfaction if outages or other computer-related problems should preclude customer access to our products and services;
• our information systems and other technology platforms supporting our sales, procurement and other operations are critical to our operations and disruptions or delays have occurred and could occur in the future, and if not timely addressed could have a material adverse effect on us;
• a data security breach due to our e-commerce, data storage or other information systems being hacked by those seeking to steal Company, vendor, employee or customer information, or due to employee error, resulting in disruption to our operations, litigation and/or loss of reputation or business;
• our ability to remediate material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting and the identification of additional material weaknesses in the future or other failure to maintain an effective system of internal controls;
• managing various inventory risks, such as being unable to profitably resell excess or obsolete inventory and/or the loss of product return rights from our vendors;
• meeting credit card industry compliance standards in order to maintain our ability to accept credit cards;
• rising interest rates, increased borrowing costs or limited credit availability, could impact both our and our customers’ ability to fund purchases and conduct operations in the ordinary course;
• quarantines, factory slowdowns or shutdowns, border closings and travel restrictions resulting from pandemics have in the past and could in the future adversely affect the timely availability of products, resulting in delayed or lost sales;
• pending or threatened litigation and investigations, and other government actions, such as anti-dumping, unclaimed property, or trade and customs actions by U.S. or foreign governmental authorities, have occurred in the past and although had no material impact to our business, there can be no assurance that such events would not have such impact on our business and results of operation.
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Item 1. Business.
General
Global Industrial Company, through its operating subsidiaries, is a value-added distributor of industrial equipment and source for industrial equipment and supplies in North America going to market through a system of branded e-commerce websites and relationship marketers. The Company was incorporated in Delaware in 1995. Certain predecessor businesses which now constitute the Company's operations have been in business since 1949. Our headquarters office is located at 11 Harbor Park Drive, Port Washington, New York.
Continuing operations
The Company sells a wide array of industrial and maintenance, repair and operation ("MRO") products, including its own Global Industrial Exclusive Brands TM , which are marketed in North America. These industrial and MRO products are manufactured by other companies. Some products are manufactured for us and sold as a white label product, and some are manufactured to our own design and marketed as private brand products under the trademarks: Global™, GlobalIndustrial.com™, Nexel™, Paramount™, Interion™ and Absocold™.
On April 28, 2025, the Company completed the acquisition of an equipment service provider for approximately $4.3 million in cash. This acquisition broadens the Company's value-added offerings in certain key equipment categories.
On May 19, 2023 the Company acquired 100% of the outstanding equity interests of Indoff LLC ("Indoff"), a business-to-business direct marketer of material handling products, commercial interiors and business products with operations in North America, for approximately $72.6 million in cash. This acquisition expanded the Company's presence in the MRO market in North America.
See Note 4, Acquisitions, and Note 6, Revenue, of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 15 of this Form 10-K for additional financial information about our business, recent acquisitions as well as information about our geographic operations.
Customer Focused Strategy
The Company's evolving go to market strategy is focused on customer centricity and ensuring alignment of our actions with the specific needs of our customer base. In order to achieve this we have realigned our sales force to be targeted to specific customer end market verticals, and creating an enhanced collaboration within our Sales, Marketing, and Merchandising organizations to best service these customers. This renewed focus guides our actions across the business, and specifically in our customer end-to-end purchase, service, and delivery experience, has at its core building of customer loyalty and trust by addressing unique customer needs through a responsive and tailored sales, product, and service experience. We build customer loyalty and trust through personalized and high touch customer interactions that often feature strong one to one relationships. The Company's digital and multi-channel sales model drives customer acquisition and with rigorous vetting we are able to identify opportunities for product category expansion, with a renewed focus on Maintenance, Repair, and Consumable products. Category expansion with our customers drives repeat orders and increases their annual and average spend. We maximize customer and loyalty by coupling close customer relationships with product expertise, and competitive fulfillment and delivery and customer service.
WE CAN SUPPLY THAT ®
Products
Our broad product offering and focus on responsiveness to our customers is captured in our promise “ We Can Supply That ® ”. We offer our customers a competitive assortment of leading products and services, a sales force with deep product knowledge and expertise, and timely and relative industry and product content via The Knowledge Center . Our go to market strategy also focuses on leveraging our deep product knowledge and experience by offering our customers a broad and deep product selection from leading and specialty national brands, as well as, seeking to expand our higher margin private brand line of Global products by adding additional products and product categories. We offer hundreds of thousands of brand name and private brand products available through our e-commerce sites and have access to many more additional long tail products from
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our network of vendor partners. We endeavor to expand and keep current the breadth of our product offerings to fulfill the increasingly wide range of product needs of our customers, and periodically remove certain products from our offering to improve efficiencies or to address vendor or market changes. Sourcing hard to find or non-standard product helps to differentiate our business from our competitors and we believe provides us with a competitive advantage.
The Company has focused on offering competitive pricing, high service levels, broad and deep product offering, extensive product and sales expertise, and most importantly a private brand offering that provides high quality with an attractive price point. Products generally are categorized within the following categories: storage and shelving, safety and security, carts and trucks, HVAC and fans, furniture and decor, material handling, janitorial and facility maintenance, workbenches and shop desks, tools and instruments, plumbing and pumps, office and school supplies, packaging and shipping, lighting and electrical, foodservice and retail, medical and laboratory, motors and power transmission, building supplies, machining, fasteners and hardware, vehicle maintenance, and raw materials. We have become a destination and trusted supplier of these products and continue to evaluate expansion within key end markets.
Sales and Marketing
We market our products primarily to business customers, which includes both for-profit and not-for-profit businesses, state, local, and private educational organizations and government entities including federal, state, and local municipalities. We have an established multi-faceted direct marketing system and customer life cycle marketing program which drives customer acquisition via many channels including key word and digital marketing efforts, branding efforts through sports marketing partnerships, participation in group purchasing organizations, as well as, via a field sales organization. These efforts are supported by strategic account managers, leading e-commerce and account management tools, and deep pre and post sales product expertise which are intended to drive customer retention and penetration and to maximize sales. We continuously evaluate and adjust our marketing spend, as well as, the organization of our selling resources in order to best service our existing customers, as well as to optimize customer acquisition. In early 2026, we reorganized our account managers and other sales support resources to target specific customer end markets in order to for each resource to specialize and provide the best service for similar customer types.
Relationship Marketers
Our relationship marketers focus their efforts on our business customers by establishing a personal relationship between such customers and a Global Industrial account manager. Our sales force is made up of wide range of broad based and specialized account managers including dedicated Public Sector Account Managers focusing on government, education, and other municipal customers, Industrial Account Managers focusing on manufacturing and construction customers, Commercial Account Managers focusing on wholesale, transportation, and logistics, Retail Account Managers, Healthcare Account Managers, and Hospitality / Multi-Family Account Managers. The sales force is supported by National Account Managers, Business Development Representatives, Territory Sales Managers, and other Subject Matter Experts who support the end to end customer life cycle management. The goal of the relationship marketing sales force is to increase the purchasing productivity of current customers and to actively solicit newly targeted prospects to become customers. With access to the records we maintain, our relationship marketers are prompted with product suggestions to expand customer order values. We also have the ability to provide such customers with electronic data interchange (“EDI”) ordering and customized billing services, customer savings reports and stocking of specialty items specifically requested by these customers. Our relationship marketers’ efforts are supported by e-mail campaigns and periodic catalog mailings, both of which are designed to generate inbound telephone sales, and visits to our interactive websites, which allow customers to purchase products directly online. We believe that the integration of our multiple marketing methods us to more thoroughly penetrate our business, educational and government customer base. We believe increased internet exposure leads to more internet-related sales and also generates more inbound telephone sales; just as we believe email campaigns, and to a lesser extent catalog mailings, which feature our websites results in internet-related sales.
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E-commerce
We currently operate multiple e-commerce and informational sites, including:
www.absocold.com*
www.globalindustrial.com
www.globalindustrial.ca
www.indoff.com*
www.industrialsupplies.com
www.triadservice.com*
*informational sites
We are continually upgrading the capabilities and performance of these websites and investing in modern E-procurement tools that are imperative to the B2B buying experience. In 2022, we launched a completely new globalindustrial.com e-commerce site in the United States designed to drive personalization to further improve the digital shopping experience. Since launch our primary focus has been to optimize the shopability of the site via enhancements to search, including bringing to market a new List View approach, which allows users to easily find and compare products. In addition, we launched new capabilities allowing users to create repeat subscription purchases, as well as optimized options to identify related products that would enhance their product purchases. Ensuring seamless connectivity to customers via E-Procurement including EDI, CXML, and other punch out options, improves customer retention and overall lifetime value by removing key friction points in an ordering process.
Our internet sites feature hundreds of thousands of MRO and industrial and general business equipment and supplies . Our customers have around-the-clock, online access to purchase products and we have the ability to create targeted promotions for our customers’ interests.
In addition to our own e-commerce websites, we have partnering agreements with several of the largest internet shopping and search engine providers who feature our products on their websites or provide “click-throughs” from their sites directly to ours. These arrangements allow us to expand our customer base at an economical cost.
Catalogs
As the Company increased its focus on online and e-commerce advertising, marketing and sales activities over the years, the use of hard copy catalogs decreased as compared to earlier periods, but over the last several years, we have distributed a stable number of regular and specialty catalogs, postcards, and other physical mail and anticipate continuing to do so. The Company will continue to test different frequency and depth of mailing catalogs as it considers the impact on its total marketing mix. This will be completed in conjunction with a broader 360 degree view of our customers and a more tailored account based marketing approach for each of our key customers.
Customer Service, Order Fulfillment and Support
We have launched several initiatives, in the past, with our vendors and freight partners, and in our own distribution centers, to improve our customer’s experience and measure customer satisfaction on a regular basis to identify key pain points that must be improved. This initiative, involving phone and online surveys to obtain our customer’s input on their experiences with us and our products to ensure we deliver on the promise, to better focus our sales, service and marketing efforts on our customers' needs and to target areas of improvement to enhance the overall customer experience, led us to add additional improvements to the experience including offering 24 hour, seven days a week chat supported by both AI chatbots and live chats with our associates. As part of a culture of continuous improvement, our Customer Experience team is focusing on the idea of " Make It Right" t o ensure that when our customers experience a problem, we are able to solve if effectively and to their the first time. Upgraded training and technology solutions will play a large part in continuing to our customer scores.
A significant proportion of our orders are received electronically via internet, extranet, EDI, customer punch out catalog, online chat, or through broadly utilizing vendor and customer portals such as Ariba or Coupa. These e-orders continued to represent over 60% of our transaction count on our core Global Industrial business in the United States for the year ended December 31, 2025. The balance of our orders are received by telephone to our inbound call center, direct dial to our inside account
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management team, placement through one of our field sales representatives, and to a small extent via fax. We provide toll-free telephone number access for our customers nationwide which are linked automatically as a backup in the event of a disruption in phone service.
The Company utilizes a sourcing strategy encompassing sales of in stock items that are either national brand, private brand, and to a limited extent via brand licensing agreements, as well as supplementing its stocking strategy with product fulfilled directly by our vendor partners via a drop ship relationship. In stock items tend to be higher in velocity, higher in gross margin, and offer a higher service level to our customers. In stock items are distributed via a network of five primary distribution centers in the U.S. located in the Northeast, Midwest, West, Southeast and South Central regions, one large distribution facility in Canada and several smaller distribution facilities in the United States and Canada. Product deliveries to our customers are made through a network of common carriers that we contract with directly in order to establish and maintain high service levels and enhance operational efficiencies. We tend to stock items in our distribution center, and invest the requisite working capital in inventory position, after demonstrating sales volume success in the drop ship sales of that item effected through our suppliers. Orders are generally shipped by third-party delivery services and we maintain relationships with thousands of distributors and product vendors.
We maintain a database of commonly asked questions for our technical support representatives, enabling them to respond quickly to similar questions. We conduct regular on-site training seminars for our sales representatives to help ensure that they are well trained and informed regarding our latest product offerings.
Suppliers
We purchase substantially all of our products and components directly from both large and small manufacturers as well as large wholesale distributors. No supplier accounted for 10% or more of our product purchases in 2025, 2024 and 2023. Most private brand products are manufactured by third parties to our specifications.
Competition and Other Market Factors
Industrial Products
The market for the sale of industrial products in North America is highly fragmented and is characterized by multiple distribution channels such as small dealerships, direct mail distribution, internet-based resellers, large warehouse stores and retail outlets. We face competition from large diversified MRO distributors such as Uline Inc, Grainger Inc., MSC Industrial Direct Inc., Fastenal Inc., and other large retailers, including Amazon. We also face competition from manufacturers’ own sales representatives, who sell industrial equipment directly to customers, and from regional or local distributors. Many purchasers begin sourcing products via search engine or mobile application on desktops, laptops, or mobile devices. In the industrial products market, customer purchasing decisions are primarily based on price, product selection, product availability, level of service, access to open account terms, and convenience. We believe that direct marketing via sales representatives, the internet and catalogs are effective and convenient distribution methods to reach both our core small and mid-sized customer as well as large enterprises. Further we believe that our customer engagement approach allows for high levels of service to accounts that may purchase high volume capital or durable goods infrequently or that place many small orders for supplies and other consumables that require a wide selection of products. In addition, because the industrial products market is highly fragmented and generally less brand oriented, we believe it is well suited to private brand and white label products.
Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2025, we employed a total of approximately 1,980 associates, of whom 1,710 were in North America and 270 were in Asia. Approximately 36% of our associates are customer facing including customer service, quota bearing sales representatives, inbound call center representatives, and other pre and post sales management and support. Approximately 26% of our team members are employed within distribution, logistics, and fulfillment areas, while 37% of our associate base works within administrative functions including: IT, Merchandising, Accounting and Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Product Management, Legal and Risk Management and general administrative and management roles.
Our worldwide workforce is made up of a diverse group of associates. In our most recent U.S. EEO-1 data, the associate demographic breakdown for individuals reporting was 42% female and 58% male and minorities constituted 47% of our workforce. We believe our diversity of associates is one of the Company’s considerable strengths and that our demographics are consistent with our competitors in the sales and distribution space. Our employees are not subject to collective bargaining agreements. The Company has not experienced work stoppages and we believe relationships with our employees are good.
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Environment, Health and Safety: Government Regulation
Employee health and safety is a top priority for the Company. Our safety teams and local safety committees provide oversight, training, education and compliance guidance, as well as workers compensation remediation advice, to our management teams and directly to our workforce. Our Environmental Health and Safety group is responsible for overseeing product safety and compliance programs and initiatives including compliance with various EPA, FDA and hazmat regulations that apply to certain of the products we offer.
Under various national, state and local environmental laws and regulations in North America and Asia, a current or previous owner or operator (including the lessee) of real property may become liable for the costs of removal or remediation of hazardous substances at such real property. Such laws and regulations often impose liability without regard to fault. We lease all of our facilities. In connection with such leases, we could be held liable for the costs of removal or remedial actions with respect to hazardous substances that escape into the environment. Although we have not been notified of, and are not otherwise aware of, any material real property environmental liability, claims or non-compliance, there can be no assurance that we will not be required to incur remediation or other costs in connection with real property environmental matters in the future.
Seasonality
Seasonality does have some effect on the Company’s sales. Certain product lines are highly seasonal in nature, including HVAC products, snow removal products and outdoor furniture and equipment. In addition, certain customer segment buying cycles, including those of education and government, may tend to be more seasonal than others. Given these trends, financial results tend to vary quarter to quarter with sales and operating margin in the second and third quarters moderately higher than those in the first and fourth quarters respectively. Common carrier fulfillment costs also experience significant seasonality with parcel shipping costs often greatly increasing in the fourth quarter and into the early first quarter associated with peak season charges from our carriers.
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Available Information
We maintain an internet website at https://investors.globalindustrial.com . We file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and make available free of charge on or through this website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, including all amendments to those reports. These are available as soon as is reasonably practicable after they are filed with the SEC. All reports mentioned above are also available on the SEC’s website ( www.sec.gov ). Unless otherwise specified, the information on our website is not part of this or any other report we file with, or furnish to, the SEC.
Our Board of Directors has adopted the following corporate governance documents with respect to the Company (the “Corporate Governance Documents”), among others:
• Corporate Ethics Policy for officers, directors and employees
• Charter for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors
• Charter for the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors
• Charter for the Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors
• Corporate Governance Guidelines and Principles
• Conflict Minerals Disclosure
In accordance with the corporate governance rules of the New York Stock Exchange, each of the Corporate Governance Documents is available on our Company website, https://investors.globalindustrial.com.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
There are a number of factors and variables described below that may affect our future results of operations and financial condition. Other factors, of which we are currently not aware or that we currently deem immaterial, may also affect our results of operations and financial position.
Risks Related to the Economy and Our Industries
• General economic conditions, including those that can result in decreased customer confidence and spending, could result in our failure to achieve our historical sales growth rates and profit levels. Pandemics have disrupted and may in the future disrupt global supply chains, including those we rely on in China and elsewhere abroad, which could materially adversely affect our operations.
Both we and our customers are subject to global political, economic and market conditions, including trade and tariff uncertainties, customer inventory levels in the marketplace, borrowing ability, economic conditions in the manufacturing and/or distribution industries, increases in inflation, interest rates, freight costs and energy costs, as well as the impact of natural disasters, military actions, wars, cyber-attacks, the threat of terrorism and global pandemics or other health crises. Our consolidated results of operations are directly affected by economic conditions in North America, and our supply chain for imported product is affected by conditions in Asia (particularly China).
In this regard, global supply chains and the timely availability of products, particularly products, or product components used in domestic manufacturing, imported from China and other Asian nations have been and could again be materially disrupted by quarantines, factory slowdowns or shutdowns, border closings, and travel restrictions resulting from pandemics. These events have and may continue to result in imported products not being timely received and resultant delayed or lost sales. We depend to a significant extent on products imported from China for our private brand lines, and on domestic manufacturers who utilize components imported from Asia. We continue making efforts to secure satisfactory levels of inventory; however, there can be no assurance that our supply chain will not experience further disruptions significant enough to adversely affect our operations.
We have in the past experienced a decline in sales as a result of poor economic conditions and the lack of visibility relating to future orders (as well as due to the other risks discussed below). Our results of operations depend upon, among other things, our ability to maintain and increase sales volumes with existing customers, our ability to limit price reductions and manage price increases, our ability to manage freight and shipping costs and maintain our margins, our ability to attract new customers and increase our market share, and the financial condition of our customers. A decline in the economy that adversely affects our customers, causing them to limit or defer their spending or that hampers their ability to pay for
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products would likely adversely affect our sales, prices and profitability as well. We cannot predict with any certainty whether we will be able to maintain or improve upon historical sales volumes with existing customers, maintain or grow our historical margins, and whether we will be able to attract new customers.
In response to economic and market conditions, from time to time we have undertaken initiatives to reduce our cost structure where appropriate, including workforce reductions. However, these actions may not be sufficient to meet current and future changes in economic and market conditions and allow us to continue to achieve the growth rates and levels of profitability we experienced in the past.
• Geopolitical instability outside of the U.S. may adversely impact the U.S. and global economies.
Many economies have experienced, and continue to experience, geopolitical instability, financial turmoil, high unemployment, inflation and interest rates, and a significant depreciation of their local currencies. Policies of advanced economies have a profound effect on emerging markets, and ramifications of any trade war involving an advanced economy, like of that between the U.S. and China, could further contribute to the adverse economic and political conditions of emerging and developed economies.
Historically, we source a substantial portion of our products from manufacturers that are located in China. While China sourced products have been reduced in recent years since the expansion of Section 232 and 301 tariffs in 2019, China still represents the largest concentration of country of origin goods. Further, our exposure to other international sourcing has expanded. This concentration exposes us to risks associated with doing business globally, including changes in tariffs. The Office of the United States Trade Representative previously identified certain Chinese imported goods for additional tariffs to address China’s trade policies and practices. Throughout 2025, the current administration implemented a number of additional measures under trade policy, including the imposition of blanket tariffs against goods sourced in Mexico and Canada under the Authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA"), reciprocal tariffs on the import of goods from other countries that charge tariffs on imports of US produced goods and expanded tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, along with certain derivative products which contain these raw materials. These tariffs could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Additionally, the current administration has canceled tariff exclusions that provided tariff relief to certain products and has yet to signal whether it will reinstate such exclusions or further alter existing trade agreements and terms between China and the U.S., including limiting trade with China, adjusting the current tariffs on imports from China and potentially imposing other restrictions on exports from China to the U.S. Consequently, it is possible that tariffs may be imposed on products imported from foreign countries, including China, or that our business will be affected by trade measures taken by China or other countries in response to existing or future tariffs. This may cause us to raise prices or make changes to our operations, any of which could have a material effect on our business and results of operations.
In addition, geopolitical conflicts around the world, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, armed hostilities in the Middle East and past disruptions in international shipping resulting from attacks by armed groups on cargo ships in the Red Sea, have adversely affected international business and economic conditions. We have in the past experienced increases to our shipping costs from these conditions, and we may continue to experience elevated shipping costs in the future. The short and long-term implications of global security issues are difficult to predict at this time. The imposition of sanctions and counter sanctions may have an adverse effect on energy and economic markets generally and could result in an even greater impact related to global supply chain and energy prices. In addition, a prolonged war in Ukraine and the Middle East, and shipping disruptions in the Red Sea may have adverse impacts on cyber security, global supply chains, inflationary pressures and interest rates and engender volatility in commodities and other markets, any of which could affect our business. The to regional and global economies could have an enduring impact on regional and global economies, and consequently, a materially impact on our operations and . However, due to the highly uncertain and dynamic nature of these events, it is not currently possible to estimate with any reliable measure of certainty the impact on our business.
• Adverse weather events or natural disasters, as well as pandemics such as the coronavirus, could negatively affect or disrupt our operations. We may be affected by global climate changes or by legal, regulatory or market responses to such potential change.
Certain areas in which we operate are susceptible to severe weather events, such as hurricanes, winter storms, tornadoes and floods, whether from climate change or otherwise, which can impact any of our locations as well as shipping ports and distribution centers. These events, as well as pandemics, have in the past and may in the future disrupt our locations and the supply chains dependent on such shipping ports and distribution centers. In this regard, we experienced product delivery
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and shipping delays due to the disrupted global product supply chains which affected our ability to timely receive and ship products, which could adversely impact sales.
Our ability to provide efficient distribution of core business products from our third-party drop ship distribution centers is critical to our business strategy. Disruptions at distribution centers or shipping ports, or the unavailability of employees needed by us or third parties to operate key functions at such locations, has and in the future may affect our ability to both maintain core products in inventory and deliver products to our customers on a timely basis, which may in turn adversely affect our results of operations. We cannot predict whether or to what extent damage caused by these events will affect our operations or the economies in regions where we operate. These adverse events could result in disruption of our operations, our purchasing or distribution capabilities, interruption of our business that exceeds our insurance coverage, our inability to collect from customers and increased operating costs. Our business or results of operations may be adversely affected by these and other effects of these events.
• The imposition of tariffs and other trade barriers, as well as retaliatory trade measures, have caused us to raise the prices on certain of our products and seek alternate sources of supply, which could negatively impact our sales or disrupt our operations.
Our industry is subject to risks associated with U.S. and foreign laws relating to importing products, including quotas, duties, tariffs or taxes, as well as other charges or restrictions, which could adversely affect our ability to import products at desired cost or volume levels. Our US Operations have a diverse supply chain that relies upon both direct import from sourcing channels including China, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere abroad as well as domestic sourcing from partners who also rely on international supply chains. In addition, our Canadian operations rely heavily on sourcing product produced in the United States. Retaliatory trade measure from the Canadian government could adversely impact our ability to source competitively price goods for sale into the Canadian market.
The United States has enacted tariffs on a variety of foreign sourced goods which have impacted a number of the private brand products we source directly from China and other International trading partners, as well as third-party branded products our U.S. suppliers source from China and elsewhere abroad. Historically, we strategically increased prices, as well as negotiated cost reductions from supplies, in an effort to offset the incremental costs on certain products and shift certain products to alternative sources where available. Our use of alternate sources of supply, such as utilizing new vendors in additional countries, entails various risks, such as identifying, vetting and managing new business relationships, reliance on new vendors, maintaining quality control over their products, and protecting our intellectual property rights. There is no guarantee that the Company will be able to fully mitigate these cost increases in the future.
These tariffs have increased and will continue to increase our costs of procurement. If the Company is able to adequately review its supply chain and monitor sell prices in the market, and successfully work with suppliers to mitigate costs, the Company does not expect any material impact on its business from the tariff actions and continues to believe that any impact from the tariffs currently in effect will be gradual and not material to the business, although there can be no assurance that this will be the case.
There can also be no assurance that we will be able to effectively or expeditiously mitigate these trade challenges, which could disrupt our operations, negatively impact our sales and would have a material adverse effect on our financial results. However, we do not believe that we will be disproportionately impacted by these costs as compared to our competitors, and we will continue to evaluate marketplace conditions and implement other actions or strategies as the need arises.
Finally, we cannot predict whether additional U.S. and foreign customs quotas, duties (including anti-dumping or countervailing duties), tariffs, taxes or other charges or restrictions, requirements as to where raw materials must be purchased, additional workplace regulations or other restrictions on our imports will be imposed in the future and if so, what effect such actions would have on our costs of operations.
• There is a highly competitive labor market for certain employees we hire, which can impact our growth plans.
Many of our competitors also compete with us for recruiting and retaining talented and experienced employees, particularly in markets where we and they have significant distribution facilities. This aspect of competition is aggravated by the current tight labor market in the U.S. for such jobs. There can be no assurance the Company will be able to timely recruit, train and retain employees sufficient to support its growth strategies or will not have to incur increased compensation costs in order to do so. Our results of operations have been and in the future could be adversely affected by increased costs due to increased competition for employees, higher employee turnover or increased employee benefit costs. In the event of
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significant numbers of employees having to miss work due to a widespread health situation or pandemic such as the coronavirus, we may not be able to quickly source replacement or temporary workers, which could adversely affect our operations, particularly in our distribution centers.
• Our industry is evolving and consolidating, which could adversely affect our business and financial results.
The MRO and industrial equipment industry are consolidating as customers are increasingly aware of the total costs of fulfillment and of the need to have consistent sources of supply at multiple locations. This consolidation has and will continue to cause the industry to become more competitive as greater economies of scale are achieved by competitors, or as competitors with new lower cost business models are able to operate with lower prices.
• Volatility in commodity prices may adversely affect gross margins.
Some of our products contain significant amounts of commodity-priced materials, such as steel, copper, petroleum derivatives or rare earth minerals, and are subject to price changes based upon fluctuations in the commodities market. Fluctuations in the price of fuel could affect transportation costs. Our ability to pass on such increases in costs in a timely manner depends on market conditions. The inability to pass along cost increases could result in lower gross margins. In addition, higher prices could impact demand for these products, resulting in lower sales volumes. If commodity prices, including the price of oil, were to remain at elevated levels this could result in higher supply and transportation costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
• Events such as acts of war or terrorism, natural disasters, data security breaches, changes in law, or large losses could adversely affect our insurance coverage and insurance expense, resulting in an adverse effect on our profitability and financial condition.
We insure for certain property and casualty risks consisting primarily of physical loss to property, business interruptions resulting from property losses, worker’s compensation, comprehensive general liability, and auto liability. Insurance coverage is obtained for catastrophic property and casualty exposures as well as those risks required to be insured by law or contract. Although we believe that our insurance coverage is reasonable, significant events such as acts of war and terrorism, economic conditions, data security breaches, judicial decisions, legislation, natural disasters and large losses could materially affect our insurance obligations and future expense. Furthermore, the occurrence of an uninsured significant event could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.
• Environmental Matters
Under various national, state and local environmental laws and regulations in North America, a current or previous owner or operator (including the lessee) of real property may become liable for the costs of removal or remediation of hazardous substance at such real property. Such laws and regulation often impose liability without regard to fault. We lease all of our facilities. In connection with such leases, we could be held liable for the costs of removal or remedial actions with respect to hazardous substances. Although we have not been notified of, and are not otherwise aware of, any material real property environmental liability, claim or non-compliance, there can be no assurance that we will not be required to incur remediation or other costs in connection with real property environmental matters in the future. If such costs were to prove material, our operating results could be adversely affected.
Risks Related to Our Company and our Business
• Our ability to maintain capacity at and forecast the needs of our warehousing and distribution facilities can impact our business and results of operations.
Our ability to maintain available capacity in our distribution operations for stocked inventory and to enable on time shipment and deliveries, such as by timely implementing additional distribution resources, whether in the form of expanded or additional temporary and permanent facilities we operate or by outsourcing certain functions to third-party distribution and logistics partners, is critical to our ability to service our growing business. If we do not accurately forecast our future warehousing and distribution center needs, and then timely plan, fund on budget, launch and efficiently operate new distribution resources and facilities when needed, our operations and financial results could be materially adversely impacted. In addition, expanding and/or enhancing our distribution network would have an adverse impact on operating expenses as a percentage of sales, inventory turnover, and working capital requirements in the periods prior to and for some time following the commencement of operations for each such expansion or enhancement.
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• We rely on third-party suppliers for our products and services. The loss or interruption of these relationships could impact our sales volumes, the levels of inventory we must carry, and/or result in sales delays and/or higher inventory costs from new suppliers.
We purchase a portion of our products from major distributors and directly from large manufacturers who may deliver those products directly to our customers (“drop ship”), as well as from smaller more regional vendors. These drop ship delivery relationships enable us to make available to our customers a wide selection of products without having to maintain large amounts of inventory. The termination or interruption of our relationships with any of these drop ship suppliers could materially adversely affect our business.
We purchase a number of our products, particularly private brand and white label products, from vendors located outside of the United States. Raw material costs used in our vendors’ products (steel, tungsten, etc.) and energy costs have significantly increased and may continue to increase, which has resulted and may continue to result in increased production costs for our vendors, which they seek to pass along to us. Difficulties encountered by one or several of these suppliers could halt or disrupt production and delay completion or cause the cancellation of our orders. Delays or interruptions in the transportation network could result in loss or delay of timely receipt of product required to fulfill customer orders. Our ability to find qualified vendors who meet our standards and supply products in a timely and efficient manner is a significant challenge, especially with respect to goods sourced from outside the U.S. In this regard, in response to the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on goods imported from China, we have sought alternative sources of supply, such as utilizing new vendors in additional countries, which entails various risks, such as identifying, vetting and managing new business relationships, reliance on these new vendors maintaining quality control over their products, and protecting our intellectual property rights. However, there is no guarantee that the Company will be to identify, vet, and onboard alternative vendors that provide similar cost, and quality of existing suppliers.
Political or financial instability, merchandise quality issues, product safety concerns, trade restrictions, work stoppages, tariffs, foreign currency exchange rates, transportation capacity and costs, inflation, civil unrest, war or other conflicts, outbreaks of pandemics and other factors are beyond our control. These and other issues affecting our vendors could materially adversely affect our revenue and gross profit.
• We rely on third-party suppliers for shipping and delivery services and managing the logistics of a distribution business can impact our results of operations and margins.
We face certain risks due to our reliance on common carrier delivery services for shipping inventoried merchandise to customers and our reliance on drop ship deliveries directly to customers by our product vendors for products we do not hold in inventory (such as freight cost increases, timely delivery and customer service, delays due to work stoppages, etc.). We also must effectively manage our ability to maintain available capacity in our distribution operations for stocked inventory and to enable on time shipment and deliveries, such as by timely implementing additional or alternative distribution resources, whether in the form of additional facilities we operate or by outsourcing certain functions to third-party distribution and logistics partners.
Increases in freight and shipping costs charged to us by third parties could adversely affect our margins to the extent the increases cannot be passed along to customers, and factors affecting the shipping and distribution of products imported to the United States by us or our domestic vendors, such as a shortage in global availability of shipping containers, port congestion and global logistical delays and pandemic related labor shortages, have in the past and could in the future adversely affect the timely availability of products, resulting in delayed or lost sales, as well as adversely affecting our margins.
The fuel costs of our independent freight companies have been volatile. Our vendors and independent freight carriers typically look to pass increased costs along to us through price increases. When we are forced to accept these price increases, we may not be able to pass them along to our customers, resulting in lower margins.
• Changes in our customer, product, vendor, sourcing or channel sales mix, or failure to execute on competitive pricing programs designed to increase market share and/or customer velocity, including the use of free or reduced freight incentives, could cause our gross margin and ultimately operating margins to decline; failure to mitigate these pressures could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
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Our gross margins are dependent on variables such as customer, product and vendor mix, including sourcing and category, pricing strategies implemented to increase market share and customer velocity, including the use of free or other promotional freight plans and other variables, any or all of which could result in fluctuations or declines in our gross margins. D ecisions to drop ship rather than stock products in our distribution centers, decisions to offer private brand alternatives or branded offerings, price changes by manufacturers, and pricing actions taken in response to competitors, as well as a continuation of our customers’ shift to lower-priced products could also adversely affect our gross margins.
• We rely to a great extent on our information and telecommunications systems, and significant system failures or outages, or our failure to properly evaluate, upgrade or replace our systems, or the failure of our security/safety measures to protect our systems and websites, could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
We rely on a variety of information and telecommunications systems including internally developed software, third-party purchased software and third-party cloud-based software in order to manage our business, including our customer, vendor, employee, facilities, finance, management and corporate operations. Our success is dependent in large part on the accuracy and proper use of our information systems, including our telecommunications systems, which are utilized in all aspects of our business. To manage our growth, we need to continually evaluate the effectiveness and adequacy of our existing systems and procedures to ensure they are keeping pace with changes in our business. These systems, whether internally developed, purchased or cloud-based may need to be modified, upgraded or replaced from time to time. System modifications, upgrades or replacements involve costs as well as the risk of implementation delays and not operating as intended. We rely on third parties such as telecommunication carriers, internet service providers and our own employees to provide the technology services and expertise on which we depend. There are risks that third parties may incur outages or circumstances where they cannot provide the services we require as intended or that our employees do not have the expertise to remediate system outages or technical problems that may arise. We have experienced some and operational in implementing new IT systems in the past. We anticipate that we will regularly need to make capital expenditures to upgrade and modify our management information systems, including software and hardware, as we grow and the needs of our business change. We have recovery systems and system backups are routinely done for certain systems, but not for every system. The occurrence of a significant system , electrical or telecommunications or our to ensure our IT employees are properly trained and technically , or that our systems are adequate, and to our business, or our to expand or implement new systems could have a material effect on our results of operations.
• Use of Cloud-Based Systems and Infrastructure Provided by Third Parties Present Significant Risks to Our Business.
Certain of our operating systems and management information systems resources and storage reside on a leading cloud-based platform operated by a well-known third-party provider of technology services. This managed cloud-based platform is operated on a “infrastructure as a service” (“IAAS”) model. Accordingly, exposure to third-party service outages and data loss, or a failure of the network or loss of connectivity can adversely affect our business. In addition, since the data resides on the cloud, we and our customers are forced to rely on the physical and information security of the vendor to protect their valuable information. There can be no assurance that the cloud-based systems on which we rely will not experience such outages or failures or that data privacy/information security will not be breached.
• Data and security breaches, and other disruptions in our information technology systems, could compromise confidential or private information and expose us to liability, which could cause our business and reputation to suffer .
Our operations are dependent upon information technology that encompasses all of our major business functions. We use our information systems to, among other things, monitor our supply chain, make purchasing decisions, manage and replenish inventories, coordinate our sales and marketing activities, fill and ship customer orders on a timely basis and to monitor and record our financial transactions and results of operations. These systems also process, transmit and store sensitive electronic data, including employee personal information, supplier and customer records, allow vendors and customers to register on our portals and websites, as applicable, or otherwise allow third parties to communicate or interact with us. In addition, we depend on IT systems of third parties, to, among other things, market and distribute products, to operate our websites, host and manage our services, store data, and process transactions. We may share information with these third parties that participate in certain aspects of our business, and we obtain external auditor certification on the controls and security of any significant outsourced service provider according to the SSAE 18 standard. However, there is always a risk that the confidentiality of data held or accessed by them may be compromised.
In processing our sales orders, we often collect personal information and transmit credit card information of our customers. If there was a security breach resulting in unauthorized access to or use of such information, we could be subject to claims for identity theft, unauthorized purchases and claims alleging misrepresentation of our privacy and data security practices
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or other related claims. While the Company believes it conforms to appropriate Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) security standards, any breach involving the loss of credit card information may lead to significant PCI related fines. In the event of a severe breach, credit card providers may prevent our accepting of credit cards.
We measure our data security effectiveness through industry accepted methods and remediate significant findings. We maintain and routinely test backup systems and disaster recovery, along with external network security penetration testing by an independent third-party as part of our business continuity preparedness. We also have processes in place to prevent disruptions resulting from the implementation of new software and systems of the latest technology. We have implemented solutions, processes, and procedures to help mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks, such as conducting annual vulnerability testing, identifying remediation initiatives and establishing emergency response plans, but there can be no assurance these efforts will successfully deter future cyber-attacks. Our Audit Committee is responsible for oversight of the activities of our IT department (which reports to our Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer ("CIO")) and receives quarterly reports from our CIO that cover, among other things, cybersecurity threats, mitigation measures, and preventative procedures and software.
Although our IT systems are protected through various network security measures, our facilities and systems, and those of our third-party service providers with which we do business, may nevertheless be vulnerable to security breaches, cyber-attacks (any adverse event that threatens the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our information resources) vandalism, power outages, natural disasters, computer system failures, telecommunication or network failures, computer viruses, malware, misplaced or lost data, programming and/or human errors or other similar events. From time to time, we have experienced efforts by unknown persons, including “bots”, to access or breach our information systems, and these efforts can be expected to continue in the future. Furthermore, the ongoing military between Ukraine and Russia and in the Middle East and the potential for acts of cyberwarfare from Russia or other state or non-state actors U.S. companies could result in increased cyber-attacks us. While we have such efforts in the past, there can be no assurance we will be to protect sensitive data and/or the of the Company's information systems and to such efforts in the future.
Any security breach involving the misappropriation, loss or other unauthorized disclosure of our confidential information or confidential information of our customers, employees, or suppliers, whether by us or by our third-party service providers, could disrupt our business, expose us to risks of litigation (such as customer or third-party claims that their data has been compromised) and liability, result in a loss of assets or cause reputational damage, and otherwise have a material adverse effect on our operations and financial condition. Any substantial disruption of our systems could impair our ability to process orders, maintain proper levels of inventories, manage customer billings and collections, prepare and present accurate financial statements and related information, and otherwise materially affect our ability to manage our business.
We maintain cyber liability risk insurance, but this insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our losses from any future breaches of our systems, or to cover the cause of the future specific situation/loss at hand. In addition, as privacy and information security laws and standards evolve, we may need to incur significant additional investment in technology and other processes to meet new legal requirements.
• We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting associated with certain Information Technology General Controls ("ITGCs"). If we are unable to remediate this, or otherwise fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements could be impaired, which could adversely affect our operating results, our ability to operate our business, our stock price and access to the capital markets.
As a public company, we are required to establish and periodically evaluate and assess procedures with respect to our internal control over financial reporting. In connection with our year-end assessment as part of this Annual Report, we determined that, as of December 31, 2025, the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective for the core Global Industrial business and not effective for its subsidiary Indoff LLC. Indoff represents approximately 13% of Revenue. The conclusion regarding Indoff LLC reflects material weaknesses in the design and operation of certain key Information Technology General Controls (“ITGCs”), specifically related to change management, segregation of duties, and privileged access. These material weaknesses were initially identified during Management’s evaluation and assessment of Indoff LLC’s control environment in the second quarter of 2024. These material weaknesses did not result in any identified misstatements to the financial statements, and there were no changes to previously issued financial results. However, if we are unable to remediate this matter we cannot guarantee this will be the case in future periods.
While we are in the process of implementing changes to remediate the material weaknesses identified, we cannot be certain as to when remediation will be complete or if the remediation efforts will be successful. Further, remediation efforts may
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place a significant burden on management and add increased pressure to our financial and IT resources and processes. As a result, we may not be successful in making the improvements necessary to remediate the material weaknesses identified by management in a timely manner or in identifying and remediating additional control deficiencies, including material weaknesses, in the future. Any failure to remediate the material weaknesses identified, or the development of new material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, could result in material misstatements in our financial statements and cause us to fail to meet our reporting and financial obligations, which in turn could have a negative impact on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows and cause a decline in the market price of our stock.
• Our foreign product procurement operations are subject to risks such as foreign regulatory trade and customs requirements such as the tariffs and duties matters discussed above, and the political and economic conditions of the jurisdictions from which we procure products.
Because we sell products all across North America and procure product from abroad, including from China, we operate internationally and as a result, we are subject to risks associated with doing business globally, such as risks related to the differing legal, political and regulatory requirements and economic conditions of many jurisdictions. Risks inherent to operating internationally include:
• Changes in a country’s economic or political conditions;
• Tariff and trade uncertainties;
• Changes in foreign currency exchange rates;
• Difficulties with staffing and managing international relationships;
• Unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;
• Changes in transportation and shipping costs; and
• Enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The functional currencies of our businesses outside of the U.S. are the local currencies. Changes in exchange rates between these foreign currencies and the U.S. Dollar will affect the recorded levels of our assets, liabilities, net sales, cost of goods sold and operating margins and could result in exchange gains or losses. The primary currencies to which we have exposure are the Canadian Dollar and the Indian Rupee. Our operating results and profitability may be affected by any volatility in currency exchange rates and our ability to manage effectively our currency transaction and translation risks. For example, we currently have operations located in countries outside the United States, and non-U.S. sales accounted for approximately 5.2% of our net sales from continuing operations during 2025. To the extent the U.S. dollar strengthens against foreign currencies, our foreign revenues and profits will be reduced when translated into U.S. dollars.
• We are exposed to various inventory risks, such as being unable to profitably resell excess or obsolete inventory and/or the loss of product return from our vendors; such events could lower our gross margins or result in inventory write-downs that would reduce reported future earnings.
Our inventory is subject to risk due to changes in market demand for particular products. If we fail to manage our inventory of older products we may have excess or obsolete inventory. We may have limited rights to return purchases to certain suppliers. The elimination of purchase return privileges could lower our gross margin or result in inventory write-downs.
We also take advantage of attractive product pricing by making opportunistic bulk inventory purchases; any resulting excess and/or obsolete inventory that we are not able to re-sell could have an adverse impact on our results of operations. Any inability to make such bulk inventory purchases may significantly impact our sales and profitability.
• Concentration of Ownership and Control Limits Stockholders Ability to Influence Corporate Actions.
Richard Leeds, Robert Leeds, and Bruce Leeds (each are brothers and directors and executive officers of the Company), together with trusts for the benefit of certain members of their respective families and other entities controlled by them, control approximately 64.9% of the voting power of our outstanding common stock. Due to such holdings, the Leeds brothers together with these trusts and entities are able to determine the outcome of virtually all matters submitted to stockholders for approval, including the election of directors, the appointment of management, amendment of our articles of incorporation, significant corporate transactions (such as a merger or other sale of our company or our assets), the payments of dividends on our common stock and the entering into of extraordinary transactions. Under NYSE rules, as a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain NYSE corporate governance standards, including the requirements (1) that a majority of its board of directors consist of independent directors, (2) that its board of directors have a compensation
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committee that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee's purpose and responsibilities and (3) that its board of directors have a nominating and corporate governance committee that is comprised entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee's purpose and responsibilities. As a controlled company, we currently rely on the exemption from the requirement that the majority of our board of directors consist of independent directors, and although we currently have an independent Compensation Committee and Nominating/Corporate Governance Committee, as long as the we remain a “controlled company,” we may elect in the future to take advantage of any of these other exemptions. Accordingly, our common stock may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the NYSE corporate governance requirements.
• Risk of Thin Trading and Volatility of our Common Stock Could Impact Stockholder Value
Our common stock is currently listed on the NYSE and is thinly traded. Volatility of thinly traded stocks is typically higher than the volatility of more liquid stocks with higher trading volumes. The trading of relatively small quantities of shares of common stock by our stockholders may disproportionately influence the price of those shares in either direction. This may result in volatility in our stock price and could exacerbate the other volatility-inducing factors described below. The market price of our common stock could be subject to significant fluctuations as a result of being thinly traded.
• Goodwill and intangible assets may become impaired resulting in a charge to earnings.
The Company's acquisition of Indoff in May 2023 resulted in the recording of significant intangible assets and goodwill totaling approximately $64.3 million. We are required to test goodwill and intangible assets annually to determine if the carrying values of these assets are impaired or on a more frequent basis if indicators of impairment exist. If any of our goodwill or intangible assets are determined to be impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings in the period during which the impairment is discovered. The consolidated carrying amounts of goodwill and intangible assets are $64.3 million as of December 31, 2025.
• Our business is dependent on certain key personnel.
Our business depends largely on the efforts and abilities of certain key senior management employees. Recruiting and retaining qualified personnel is and will continue to be critical to our success. Furthermore, replacing executive officers and key employees may be difficult and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry with sufficient skills and experience required to successfully run our business. We may be unable to hire, train, retain, or motivate these key personnel on acceptable terms given the intense competition among numerous companies for similar personnel. Our inability to attract and retain such personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.
• We are subject to litigation risk due to the nature of our business, which may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and business.
From time to time, we are involved in lawsuits or other legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business. These include patent, trademark or other intellectual property matters, employment law matters, states sales tax claims on internet/e-commerce transactions, product liability, commercial disputes, consumer sales practices, or other matters. In addition, as a public company we could from time to time face claims relating to corporate or securities law matters. The defense and/or outcome of such lawsuits or proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our business. See “Legal Proceedings”.
• We exited our North American Technology Products Group ("NATG") business in 2015 and could incur costs in excess of our estimated exit expenses.
The Company has substantially completed the wind-down activities related to the NATG business, although certain NATG activities related to sublet facilities continue. The Company expects that total additional NATG exit costs incurred during 2026 will be immaterial and will be presented in discontinued operations. In 2023, we executed a sublease agreement for the full remaining term of a former warehouse lease. In the event, the sub lessee is unable to fulfill its obligations, we would be responsible for the remaining rents due under the lease.
• We may encounter difficulties with acquisitions and other strategic transactions which could harm our business.
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We expect to pursue acquisitions and other strategic transactions that we believe will either expand or complement our business in new or existing markets or further enhance the value and offerings we are able to provide to our existing or future potential customers.
Acquisitions and other strategic transactions involve numerous risks and challenges, including the following:
• diversion of management’s attention from the normal operation of our business;
• potential loss of key associates and customers of the acquired companies;
• difficulties managing and integrating operations in geographically dispersed locations;
• the potential for deficiencies in internal controls at acquired companies;
• increases in our expenses and working capital requirements, which reduce our return on invested capital;
• lack of experience operating in the geographic market or industry sector of the acquired business; and
• exposure to unanticipated liabilities of acquired companies.
On April 28, 2025, the Company completed the acquisition of an equipment service provider and, as previously reported, on May 19, 2023 the Company acquired 100% of the outstanding equity interests of Indoff. There can be no assurance that such integrations will occur on the expected timeframe or at all, or that we will realize the anticipated benefits and synergies from these or any other future acquisitions. Furthermore, our estimates regarding the earnings, operating cash flow, capital expenditures and liabilities resulting from these or any future acquisitions may prove to be incorrect.
To integrate acquired businesses, we must implement our management information systems, operating systems and internal controls, and assimilate and manage the personnel of the acquired operations. The difficulties of this integration may be further complicated by geographic distances. The integration of acquired businesses may not be successful, may take longer or be more difficult or time-consuming or costly to accomplish than anticipated and could result in disruption to other parts of our business. These and other factors could harm our ability to achieve anticipated levels of profitability at acquired operations or realize other anticipated benefits of an acquisition, and could adversely affect our consolidated business and operating results and could result in disruption to other parts of our business.
• Our operations are subject to the effects of a rising rate of inflation.
Inflationary pressures have increased our costs in the past and may again in the future. To the extent we are unable to offset these cost increases through higher prices or other measures, our operating results may be adversely affected.
• Changes in accounting standards or practices, as well as new accounting pronouncements or interpretations, may require us to account for and report our financial results in a different manner in the future, which may be less favorable than the manner used historically.
A change in accounting standards or practices can have a significant effect on our reported results of operations. New accounting pronouncements and interpretations of existing accounting rules and practices have occurred and may occur in the future. Changes to existing rules may adversely affect our reported financial results.
