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September 16, 2026 |
3333 West Good Hope Road Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53209 |
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Dear Fellow Shareholders,
It is a pleasure to report on Fiscal 2026 developments at Strattec in my annual Chairman’s Letter. Despite continued volatility in our end markets, we continued to grow sales and earnings and increase shareholder value.
Our CEO, Jen Slater, continues to build an outstanding management team in which the Board has tremendous confidence. We have strengthened the organization by adding talent across key functions to enhance alignment, execution and financial controls, and by advancing key transformation and growth initiatives. We also realigned our procurement team in furtherance of our goal of maintaining strong gross margins.
The Company also continued its efforts to make its plants in Milwaukee and Mexico more productive, deploying IT systems and tools and leveraging automation to improve utilization and efficiency, while remaining focused on providing a safe environment for our employees. In addition, we have been working with our joint venture partner, ADAC Automotive, to create a closer partnership that is more beneficial for both parties, and that the Board believes will better position Strattec competitively over the long term.
During the fiscal year, Strattec’s stock increased by approximately 33%, compared to a 22% increase for the S&P 500, extending our track record of strong results under the current leadership team, during whose tenure our stock price has more than tripled.
That said, our business is inherently cyclical and tied to the prospects of the “Big Three” domestic auto manufacturers, and our long-term success continues to depend on our ability to weather those inevitable fluctuations in demand and win new and replacement platform mandates in a competitive supplier landscape. We remain focused on those factors which we can control—talent, technology, innovation, quality and customer relationships—as we execute our strategy to deliver sustainable value for shareholders over the long term.
The Company continued to accumulate cash during the year, and the Board, with the assistance of independent advisors, has diligently considered how best to allocate that capital. In addition to investing in the business to support organic growth, the Board currently views strategic acquisitions and share repurchases, executed at appropriate valuations, as attractive alternatives for deploying capital. At the right price, we believe acquisitions that extend our geographic or product reach, increase our scale or diversify our customer base can be very attractive and, over the long term, can be accretive to earnings and shareholder value.
We view our strong balance sheet as a competitive advantage, particularly given the cyclical nature of our industry. In addition to exploring accretive acquisitions, our liquidity provides us with the flexibility to continue to invest in the business while also returning capital to shareholders when appropriate. During the fourth quarter, the Company repurchased 110,269 shares for $7.4 million. And, in May 2026, the Board approved a new $40 million share repurchase authorization. Members of the Board and management team also purchased stock in the open market during the fiscal year, demonstrating their confidence in the long-term future of the Company.
At this year’s Annual Meeting, you will be asked to elect seven directors, including two new nominees, R. Bruce McDonald and Tribby Warfield. Bruce is current Executive Chairman of Dana, Inc. and Tribby has substantial experience in the automotive industry as both an executive and director. We look forward to benefiting from their insights and perspectives. Tina Chang, a current director, will not be standing for reelection, and we appreciate her years of dedicated service to the Board. We plan to continue thoughtfully refreshing the Board over time, adding directors whose skills and experience complement and build upon those of our current Board members and support the evolution of Strattec’s business and strategy.