ASCENT INDUSTRIES CO.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

The term “disclosure controls and procedures” is defined in Rule 13a-15(e) of the Exchange Act as “controls and other procedures of an issuer that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the issuer in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act are recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC rules and forms.” The Company’s disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that material information relating to the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries is accumulated and communicated to its management, including its Chief Executive Officer and its Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures. The Company’s management, with the participation of its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as of September 30, 2025. Based upon that evaluation, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of September 30, 2025, because of the previously reported material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, as described below.

Previously Reported Material Weaknesses in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15f-15(f). As reported in our 2024 Form 10-K, based upon the ongoing ineffectiveness of our IT general controls, we did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024 as a result of material weaknesses in the control environment. A material weakness (as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act) is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Refer to our 2024 Form 10-K for a description of our material weaknesses.

Ongoing Remediation Efforts to Address Material Weaknesses

Our Board of Directors and management are committed to the continued implementation of remediation efforts to address the material weaknesses. The material weaknesses were first identified in 2021 and 2022 and while the Company has significantly improved its internal control over financial reporting, the material weaknesses remain un-remediated as of September 30, 2025 due to the continued IT general control ineffectiveness. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025, management, with oversight from the Company's Audit Committee, continued executing a detailed plan for remediation which includes:

•Enhancing corporate oversight over process-level controls and structures to ensure that there is appropriate assignment of authority, responsibility and accountability as well as maintaining a sufficient number of qualified resources in key personnel areas over the performance and maintenance of the Company's control environment.

•Engaging an external advisor to assist with enhancing, designing, and implementing general information technology controls, including user access provisioning, cyber-security, and segregation of duties.

•Formalizing information technology policies and procedures to ensure that they are current and comprehensive and support the timely execution of information technology processes and control procedures.

•Enhancing review controls for inventory, revenue accounting, financial close processes and complex accounting to ensure accurate reporting and timely disclosures and ensuring evidence is appropriately retained.

•Improving and maintaining effective controls for communicating and sharing information between the operations, accounting, information technology, sales, finance and legal departments to ensure that the accounting department is consistently provided with complete and adequate support, documentation and information, and that matters are resolved in a timely and effective manner.

The Audit Committee of the Board of Directors is monitoring management's ongoing remediation efforts. With the Audit Committee's oversight, management has dedicated significant resources and efforts to improve our internal control environment to remedy the identified material weaknesses. As we continue to evaluate and implement improvements to our internal control over financial reporting, our management may decide to take additional measures to address our control deficiencies or to modify the remediation efforts undertaken. Because the reliability of the internal control process requires repeatable execution, our material weaknesses cannot be considered fully remediated until all remedial processes and procedures (including additional remediation efforts identified by our senior management as necessary) have been implemented, each applicable control has operated for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that the controls are operating effectively. Until all identified material weaknesses are remediated, we will not be able to assert that our internal controls are effective.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Other than the ongoing remediation efforts described above, there have been no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting during the three months ended September 30, 2025 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, its internal control over financial reporting.

Part II