powl-20240930

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

(Mark One)


☒			ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024


☐			TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to

Commission File Number 001-12488

Powell Industries, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)


Delaware						88-0106100
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)						(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
8550 Mosley Road
Houston
Texas						77075-1180
(Address of principal executive offices)						(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:

(713) 944-6900

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class

Trading Symbol

Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share

POWL

NASDAQ Global Market

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. ☐ Yes ☒ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer

☒

Accelerated filer

☐

Non-accelerated filer

☐

Smaller reporting company

☐

Emerging growth company

☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). ☐ Yes ☒ No

The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $1.1 billion as of March 31, 2024, based upon the closing price on the NASDAQ Global Market on that date. The registrant, solely for the purpose of the calculation above, had deemed its board of directors, executive officers, and beneficial owners of 10% or more of the voting shares of its common stock to be affiliates, and deducted their stockholdings in determining the aggregate market value.

At November 18, 2024, there were 12,018,448 outstanding shares of the registrant’s common stock, par value $0.01 per share.

Documents Incorporated By Reference

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders to be filed not later than 120 days after September 30, 2024, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.

POWELL INDUSTRIES, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS


		Page
	Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements	3

	PART I
Item 1.	Business	4
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	8
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	20
Item 1C.	Cybersecurity	20
Item 2.	Properties	21
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	21
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	21
	Information About Our Executive Officers	22

	PART II
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	23
Item 6.	[Reserved]	25
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	25
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk	32
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	33
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	62
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	62
Item 9B.	Other Information	62
Item 9C.	Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections	62

	PART III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	63
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	63
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	63
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	63
Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	63

	PART IV
Item 15.	Exhibits. Financial Statement Schedules	64
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	66
Signatures		67

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Unless otherwise indicated, all references to “we,” “us,” “our,” “Powell” or “the Company” include Powell Industries, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (Annual Report) contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in this report are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, projections and estimates of the timing and success of specific projects and our future backlog, revenues, income, acquisitions, liquidity and capital expenditures, as well as other statements that are not historical facts contained in or incorporated by reference into this report. Statements that contain words such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “estimates,” “continue,” “should,” “could,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “potential,” “possible,” “would,” “outlook,” “will” or similar expressions are forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report. We disclaim any obligation to update or revise these statements unless required by applicable law, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We caution you not to unduly rely on them. We have based these forward-looking statements on expectations and assumptions of management at the time the statements were made. While our management considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in this report, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. These risks, contingencies and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the potential failure to adequately predict costs (including in connection with our fixed-price contracts) and prevent cost overruns, including the impacts of inflation, potentially disruptive or unanticipated changes in suppliers, the availability of cash on hand and other sources of liquidity to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditures, the impacts of future legislative and regulatory initiatives, electronic, cyber or physical security breaches, and other factors detailed herein and in our other Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. Additional important risks, uncertainties and other factors are described in “Risk Factors” in Part I. Item 1A of this Annual Report. We can provide no assurance that the forward-looking statements contained in this report will occur as expected, and actual results may differ materially from those included in this report.

Investors should note that we announce material financial information in SEC filings, press releases and public conference calls. Based on guidance from the SEC, we may use the Investors section of our website to communicate with investors. It is possible that the financial and other information posted there could be deemed to be material information. The information on our website is not part of, and is not incorporated to, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

PART I

Item 1. Business

Overview

Powell Industries, Inc. is a Delaware corporation founded by William E. Powell in 1947. We develop, design, manufacture and service custom-engineered equipment and systems that distribute, control and monitor the flow of electrical energy and provide protection to motors, transformers and other electrically powered equipment. Our major subsidiaries, all of which are wholly owned, include Powell Electrical Systems, Inc.; Powell Canada, Inc.; Powell (UK) Limited; and Powell Industries International, B.V.

We are headquartered in Houston, Texas, and primarily serve the oil and gas and petrochemical markets, the electric utility market, and commercial and other industrial markets. Beyond these major markets, we also provide products and services to the light rail traction power market and other markets that include universities and government entities. We are continuously developing new channels to electrical markets through original equipment manufacturers and distribution market channels.

Our website is powellind.com. We make available, free of charge on or through our website, electronic copies of our 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 Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as soon as is reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Additionally, all of our reports filed with the SEC are available via their website at sec.gov.

References to Fiscal 2024, Fiscal 2023 and Fiscal 2022 used throughout this Annual Report relate to our fiscal years ended September 30, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Products and Services

Our principal products include integrated power control room substations (PCRs®), custom-engineered modules, electrical houses (E-Houses), traditional and arc-resistant distribution switchgear and control gear, medium-voltage circuit breakers, monitoring and control communications systems, motor control centers, switches and bus duct systems. These products are designed for application voltages ranging from 480 volts to 38,000 volts. Our product scope includes designs tested to meet both United States (U.S.) and international standards, under both the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). We also provide spare parts, retrofit and retrofill components for existing systems, and replacement circuit breakers for obsolete switchgear no longer produced by the original manufacturer. Our principal services include field service inspection, installation, commissioning, modification and repair services.

Products and services are principally sold directly to the end user or to an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm on behalf of the end user. Each project is specifically engineered and manufactured to meet the exact specifications and requirements of the individual customer. Powell’s expertise is in the design, engineering, manufacturing, project management and integration of assorted systems into a single, custom-engineered deliverable. We market and sell our products and services, which are typically awarded in competitive bid situations, to a wide variety of customers and governmental agencies spanning diverse markets and geographic regions.

Occasionally, our contracts may operate under a consortium or teaming arrangement. Typically, we enter into these arrangements with reputable companies with whom we have previously conducted business. These arrangements are generally made to leverage competitive positioning, or where scale or size dictates the use of such arrangement.

We seek to establish long-term relationships with the end users of our systems as well as EPC firms contracted by those end users. We believe that fostering a culture of safety and focusing on customer satisfaction, along with our strong balance sheet, allows us to capitalize on opportunities in the industries we serve.

SEC Form 10-K filed by Powell Industries Inc.