NOTE D – BUSINESS SEGMENTS 

The Company operates in three business segments. The Company identifies its segments based on the Company's organization structure, which is primarily by principal products and is the way in which the Company’s Chief Operating Decision Maker (CODM), the Company’s CEO, makes operating decisions, assesses financial performance, and allocates resources. The principal product groups are Housewares/Small Appliances, Defense, and Safety. Sales for all segments are primarily to customers in North America.

The Housewares/Small Appliances segment designs, markets, and distributes housewares and small appliances. The housewares/small appliance products are sold primarily in the United States and Canada directly to retail outlets and also through independent distributors. The Company primarily sources its Housewares/Small Appliances products from non-affiliated suppliers located in the Orient. Sales are seasonal, with the normal peak sales period occurring in the fourth quarter of the year prior to and during the holiday season.

The Defense segment was started in 2001 with the acquisition of AMTEC Corporation, which manufactures precision mechanical and electromechanical assemblies for the U.S. Government and prime contractors. During 2005, and again during 2010, AMTEC Corporation was one of two prime contractors selected by the Army to supply all requirements for the 40mm family of practice and tactical ammunition cartridges for a period of five years. In 2016, AMTEC was awarded a one-year contract, and in 2017 and 2022, it was awarded third and fourth five-year contracts, respectively as the sole prime contractor. AMTEC's manufacturing plant is located in Janesville, Wisconsin. Since the inception of the Defense segment in 2001, the Company has expanded the segment by making several strategic business acquisitions, and has additional facilities located in East Camden, Arkansas; Antigo, Wisconsin; Clear Lake, South Dakota, and Marshall, Texas. During 2003, the segment was expanded with the acquisition of Spectra Technologies, LLC of East Camden, Arkansas. This facility performs Load, Assemble, and Pack (LAP) operations on ordnance-related products for the U.S. Government and prime contractors. During 2006, the segment was expanded again with the acquisition of certain assets of Amron, LLC of Antigo, Wisconsin, which primarily manufactures cartridge cases used in medium caliber (20-50mm) ammunition. During 2014, the Company continued the expansion of the Defense segment with the purchase of substantially all of the assets of Chemring Energetic Devices, Inc. located in Clear Lake, South Dakota, and all of the real property owned by Technical Ordnance Realty, LLC. The Clear Lake facility manufactures detonators, booster pellets, release cartridges, lead azide, and other military energetic devices and materials. During 2022, the Company again expanded the Defense segment by acquiring the equity interests of Woodlawn Manufacturing, Ltd. Woodlawn Manufacturing, Ltd, is a high volume manufacturer of precision metal parts and assemblies primarily for the defense and aerospace industry. The Defense segment’s collection of facilities enables the Company to deliver in virtually all aspects of the manufacture of medium caliber training and tactical rounds. Those aspects include the fuze, the detonator, the metal parts (including the cartridge case), and load, assemble and pack of the final round.

The Safety segment was started in 2019 with the acquisition of the assets of OneEvent Technologies, Inc., a business located in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin which focused on protection for buildings, homes, assets, and occupants using a cloud-based learning and an analytics engine that utilizes data from a series of sensing devices to predict, alert, and prevent. Upon purchase, it was combined with Rusoh, Inc. which designed and marketed fire extinguishers. Prior to 2019, Rusoh Inc. had been included in the Company’s Housewares/Small Appliances segment.  On July 29, 2022, certain assets were acquired and liabilities were assumed of Knox Safety, Inc., a startup business formed in 2019 with operations in Illinois and North Carolina. Knox Safety designed and sold carbon monoxide detectors for residential use. Subsequent to the acquisition, the acquiring entity legally adopted the corporate name Rely Innovations, Inc. and was added to the segment. Since its acquisition, the Company has introduced smoke detectors and fire extinguishers under the Rely name.  To focus the direction of the segment’s business, the Company divested the stock of Rusoh, Inc. on November 14, 2023 and certain assets of OneEvent related to its refrigeration monitoring business on July 31, 2025. The OneEvent intellectual property, however, has been retained. 

The Company manages and assesses the performance of its reportable segments by their gross profit and operating profit. As part of the CODM’s review of segment level performance, the CODM reviews these measures of income of each reportable segment, which drives the evaluation of the performance of the Company’s reportable segments and allocation of resources to those segments. The significant segment expense categories included in the table below augment the Company’s understanding of operating results.

In the following summary, operating profit represents earnings before other income and income taxes. The Company's segments operate discretely from each other with no shared owned or leased manufacturing facilities. Costs associated with corporate activities (such as cash and marketable securities management) and the assets associated with such activities are included within the Housewares/Small Appliances segment for all periods presented.