CROWN CRAFTS INC

Description of Business

The Company was incorporated as a Georgia corporation in 1957 and was reincorporated as a Delaware corporation in 2003. The Company’s executive offices are located at 916 South Burnside Avenue, Suite 300, Gonzales, Louisiana 70737, its telephone number is (225) 647-9100 and its internet address iswww.crowncrafts.com.

The Company operates indirectly through three of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, NoJo Baby & Kids, Inc. (“NoJo”), Sassy Baby, Inc. (“Sassy”) and Manhattan Toy Europe Limited (“MTE”) in the infant, toddler and juvenile products segment within the consumer products industry. The infant, toddler and juvenile products segment consists of infant and toddler bedding and blankets, bibs, soft bath products, disposable products, developmental toys and accessories. Most sales of the Company’s products are generally made directly to retailers, such as mass merchants, large chain stores, mid-tier retailers, juvenile specialty stores, value channel stores, grocery and drug stores, restaurants, wholesale clubs and internet-based retailers. The Company’s products are marketed under a variety of Company-owned trademarks, under trademarks licensed from others and as private label goods.

The Company's fiscal year ends on the Sunday nearest to or on March 31. References herein to “fiscal year 2024” or “2024” represent the 52-week period ended March 31, 2024, and references herein to “fiscal year 2023” or “2023” represent the 52-week period ended April 2, 2023.

On March 17, 2023 (the “Closing Date”), the Company acquired Manhattan Group, LLC (“Manhattan”) and MTE, Manhattan’s then wholly-owned subsidiary (the “Manhattan Acquisition”), for a purchase price of $17.0 million, subject to adjustments for cash as of the Closing Date and to the extent that actual net working capital as of the Closing Date differed from target net working capital of $13.75 million. The Manhattan Acquisition was funded with available cash and borrowings under the Company’s revolving line of credit with The CIT Group/Commercial Services (“CIT”). From the Closing Date through the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, the Company operated Manhattan as a wholly-owned subsidiary that manufactured and marketed developmental toys. On April 1, 2024, the Company merged Manhattan into Sassy.

The Company makes its annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act available free of charge on its website atwww.crowncrafts.com as soon as reasonably practicable after such material has been electronically filed with the SEC. These reports are also available without charge on the SEC’s website atwww.sec.gov.

International Sales

Sales to customers in countries other than the U.S. represented 8% and 5% of the Company’s total gross sales during fiscal years 2024 and 2023, respectively. International sales are based upon the location that predominately represents what the Company believes to be the final destination of the products delivered to the Company’s customers.

Competition

The infant, toddler and juvenile consumer products industry is highly competitive. The Company competes with a variety of distributors and manufacturers (both branded and private label), including large infant, toddler and juvenile product companies and specialty infant, toddler and juvenile product manufacturers, on the basis of quality, design, price, brand name recognition, service and packaging. The Company’s ability to compete depends principally on styling, price, service to the retailer and continued high regard for the Company’s products and trade names.

Human Capital Resources

As of May 31, 2024, the Company had 162 employees, all of whom are full-time and none of whom is represented by a labor union or is otherwise a party to a collective bargaining agreement. The Company attracts and maintains qualified personnel by paying competitive salaries and benefits and offering opportunities for advancement. The Company considers its relationship with its employees to be good.

Trademarks, Copyrights and Patents

The Company considers its intellectual property to be of material importance to its business. Sales of products marketed under the Company’s trademarks, including Sassy®, Manhattan Toy®, NoJo® and Neat Solutions® accounted for 38% and 35% of the Company’s total gross sales during fiscal years 2024 and 2023, respectively. Protection for these trademarks is obtained through domestic and foreign registrations. The Company also markets designs that are subject to copyrights and design patents owned by the Company.

Product Sourcing

Foreign and domestic contract manufacturers produce most of the Company’s products, with the largest concentration being in China. The Company makes sourcing decisions on the basis of quality, timeliness of delivery and price, including the impact of ocean freight and duties. Although the Company maintains relationships with a limited number of suppliers, the Company believes that its products may be readily manufactured by several alternative sources in quantities sufficient to meet the Company’s requirements. The Company’s management and quality assurance personnel visit the third-party facilities regularly to monitor and audit product quality and to ensure compliance with labor requirements and social and environmental standards. In addition, the Company closely monitors the currency exchange rate. The impact of future fluctuations in the exchange rate or changes in safeguards cannot be predicted with certainty.

The Company maintains a foreign representative office located in Shanghai, China, which is responsible for the coordination of production, purchases and shipments, seeking out new vendors and overseeing inspections for social compliance and quality.

The Company’s products are warehoused and distributed domestically from leased facilities located in Compton, California and Eden Valley, Minnesota and internationally from third-party logistics warehouses in Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Licensed Products

Certain products are manufactured and sold pursuant to licensing agreements for trademarks. Also, many of the designs used by the Company are copyrighted by other parties, including trademark licensors, and are available to the Company through copyright license agreements. The licensing agreements are generally for an initial term of one to three years and may or may not be subject to renewal or extension. Sales of licensed products represented 40% of the Company’s gross sales in fiscal year 2024, which included 24% of sales under the Company’s license agreements with affiliated companies of The Walt Disney Company (“Disney”), which expire as set forth below:

Customers

The Company’s customers consist principally of mass merchants, large chain stores, mid-tier retailers, juvenile specialty stores, value channel stores, grocery and drug stores, restaurants, internet accounts and wholesale clubs. The Company does not enter into long-term or other purchase agreements with its customers. The table below sets forth those customers that represented at least 10% of the Company’s gross sales in fiscal years 2024 and 2023.

Products

The Company’s primary focus is on infant, toddler and juvenile products, including the following:

Seasonality and Inventory Management

Approximately 20% of the Company’s annual gross sales typically occur during the first fiscal quarter (April through June). There are otherwise no significant variations in the seasonal demand for the Company’s products from year to year. Sales are generally higher in periods when customers take initial shipments of new products, as these orders typically include enough products for initial sets for each store and additional quantities for the customer’s distribution centers. The timing of these initial shipments varies by customer and depends on when the customer finalizes store layouts for the upcoming year and whether the customer has any mid-year introductions of products. Sales may also be higher or lower, as the case may be, in periods when customers are restricting internal inventory levels. Customer returns of merchandise shipped are historically less than 1% of gross sales.

Consistent with the expected introduction of specific product offerings, the Company carries necessary levels of inventory to meet the anticipated delivery requirements of its customers. The Company will also typically increase the purchases and inventory levels of its products in the months prior to the Lunar New Year, a celebration beginning in late January to mid-February during which the Company’s contract manufacturers in China cease operations for 2-4 weeks.

Government Regulation and Environmental Control

The Company is subject to various federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations, which regulate, among other things, product safety and the discharge, storage, handling and disposal of a variety of substances and wastes, and to laws and regulations relating to employee safety and health, principally the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act and regulations thereunder. The Company believes that it currently complies in all material respects with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and that future compliance with such existing laws or regulations will not have a material adverse effect on its capital expenditures, earnings or competitive position. However, there is no assurance that such requirements will not become more stringent in the future or that the Company will not have to incur significant costs to comply with such requirements.

Product Design and Styling

The Company believes that its creative team is one of its key strengths. The Company’s product designs are primarily created internally and are supplemented by numerous additional sources, including independent artists, decorative fabric manufacturers and apparel designers. Ideas for product design creations are drawn from various sources and are reviewed and modified by the design staff to ensure consistency within the Company’s existing product offerings and the themes and images associated with such existing products. In order to respond effectively to changing consumer preferences, the Company’s designers and stylists attempt to stay abreast of emerging lifestyle trends in color, fashion and design. When designing products under the Company’s various licensed brands, the Company’s designers coordinate their efforts with the licensors’ design teams to provide for a more fluid design approval process and to effectively incorporate the image of the licensed brand into the product. The Company’s designs include traditional, contemporary, textured and whimsical patterns across a broad spectrum of retail price points.

Utilizing state of the art computer technology, the Company continually develops new designs throughout the year for all of its product groups. This continual development cycle affords the Company design flexibility, multiple opportunities to present new products to customers and the ability to provide timely responses to customer demands and changing market trends. The Company also creates designs for exclusive sale by certain of its customers under the Company’s brands, as well as the customers’ private label brands.

Sales and Marketing

The Company’s products are marketed through a national sales force consisting of salaried sales executives and employees located in Gonzales, Louisiana; Compton, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Bentonville, Arkansas; and London, United Kingdom; and by independent commissioned sales representatives located throughout the United States.