About Griffon

Griffon Corporation (Griffon), through its subsidiaries, engages in the consumer and professional products, and home and building products businesses. Segments The company operates through two segments, Home and Building Products (HBP), and Consumer and Professional Products (CPP). Home and Building Products segment HBP conducts its operations through Clopay Corporation (Clopay). Clopay is the largest manufacturer and marketer of garage doors and rolling steel doors in North America. Residential and commercial sectional garage doors are sold through professional dealers and leading home center retail chains throughout North America under the brands Clopay, Ideal, and Holmes. Rolling steel door and grille products designed for commercial, industrial, institutional, and retail use are sold under the Cornell and Cookson brands. Clopay has grown organically and through acquisitions to become the largest manufacturer and marketer of residential and commercial garage doors and rolling steel doors in North America. The majority of Clopay's sales come from home remodeling and renovation projects, with the balance from commercial construction and new residential housing construction. Sales into the home remodeling market are driven by the aging of the housing stock, existing home sales activity, and the trends of improving both home appearance and energy efficiency. Sales into the commercial market are driven by commercial construction and repair and replacement, including the aging of nonresidential buildings, warehouses and institutional and industrial facilities, as well as increased business activity, changes to building codes, security of facilities, and trends of improving function and performance. Brands Residential and commercial sectional products are sold under market-leading brands, including Clopay, America's Favorite Garage Doors, Holmes Garage Door Company and IDEAL Door. Clopay commercial rolling steel door brands include Cornell, Cookson and Clopay. Products and Service Clopay manufactures a broad line of residential sectional garage doors with a variety of options, at varying prices. Clopay offers garage doors made primarily from steel, plastic composite and wood, and also sells related products, such as garage door openers manufactured by third parties. Commercial door products manufactured and marketed by Clopay include rolling steel service doors, fire doors, shutters, steel security grilles, and room dividers. Clopay also manufactures and markets commercial sectional doors, which are similar to residential garage doors, but are designed to meet the more demanding performance specifications of a commercial application. Customers Clopay supports a diversity of customers ranging from local rural dealerships to national retail chains. Clopay's customers include over 3,000 independent professional installing dealers and major home center retail chains, including Home Depot and Menards. Clopay maintains strong relationships with its installing dealers and it is the largest supplier of sectional garage doors to the retail and professional installing channels in North America and the largest supplier of rolling steel door products in North America. Clopay distributes its garage doors directly to customers from its manufacturing facilities and through its distribution centers located throughout the U.S. and Canada. These distribution centers allow Clopay to maintain an inventory of garage doors near installing dealers and provide quick-ship service to retail and professional dealer customers. Clopay is the exclusive supplier of residential and commercial garage doors to Home Depot and Menards locations throughout North America, and has relationships with each of more than 25 years. Sales and Marketing The Clopay sales and marketing organization supports the company's customers, consults on new product development and aggressively markets door solutions, with a primary focus on the North American market. Clopay maintains a strong promotional presence, in both traditional and digital media. Clopay provides a unique customer experience platform called MyClopay which delivers an array of sales, order management, analytical, instructional, and informational applications. These applications empower Clopay's customers to provide the best solutions to their end customers, and MyClopay has been widely adopted by Clopay's customers due to its feature rich, intuitive, and device-agnostic software. Within the MyClopay application suite, Clopay customers use a proprietary residential door web application, the MyDoor mobile enabled app, that guides consumers through an easy to use door visualization and pricing process, allowing them to select the optimal door for their home. For Clopay's commercial products, Clopay's Commercial Door Quoter (CDQ) and WebGen applications deliver a streamlined quoting and bid submittal process to the company's professional dealers, providing improved close rates, productivity, and back office efficiency. Manufacturing and Distribution Clopay distributes its products through a wide range of distribution channels, including a national network of 54 distribution centers with a total of approximately 1,100,000 square feet. This network of manufacturing facilities and distribution centers is capable of providing just in time and prepositioned inventory across the U.S. and Canada, and provides flexibility regarding how and where doors are delivered to customers in their local markets. Consumer and Professional Products segment Consumer and Professional Products (CPP) is a leading global provider of branded consumer and professional tools; residential, industrial and commercial fans; home storage and organization products; and products that enhance indoor and outdoor lifestyles. CPP sells products globally through a portfolio of leading brands, including AMES, Hunter, True Temper, and ClosetMaid. Consumer and Professional Products (CPP) is a leading global provider of branded consumer and professional tools; residential, industrial and commercial fans; home storage and organization products; and products that enhance indoor and outdoor lifestyles. CPP sells products globally through a portfolio of leading brands, including AMES, Hunter and ClosetMaid. AMES, has the distinction of being one of the oldest companies in continuous operation in the United States. Over its long life, AMES has grown organically and through the acquisition of other leading and historic tool businesses, such as True Temper, Union Tools, and Garant. AMES is a leading manufacturer of long-handled tools and landscaping products for homeowners and professionals in North America, and also provides these products in key global markets, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and Ireland. Under the ClosetMaid brand, CPP is the leading provider of wood and wire closet organization, general living storage, and wire garage storage products in the United States. Under the Hunter brand, CPP is a leading provider of residential, industrial and commercial fans in the United States. Brands CPP's brands are among the most recognized across its primary product categories in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom. Its brand portfolio for long-handled tools, outdoor decor, and landscaping product includes AMES, True Temper, Garant, Harper, UnionTools, Westmix, Cyclone, Southern Patio, Northcote Pottery, Nylex, Hills, Kelkay, Tuscan Path, La Hacienda, Kelso, Dynamic Design, Apta and Quatro Design. Contractor-oriented tool brands include Razor-Back Professional Tools and Jackson Professional Tools. CPP's home organization, general living storage, and garage storage products are sold primarily under the ClosetMaid brand. CPP's residential, industrial and commercial fan products are sold under the Hunter Fan, Hunter Industrial and Casablanca brands. This strong portfolio of brands enables CPP to build and maintain long-standing relationships with leading retailers and distributors. In addition, given the breadth of its brand portfolio and product category depth, CPP is able to offer specific, differentiated branding strategies for key retail customers. These strategies focus on enhancement of brand value, with the goal of de-commoditizing CPP products through identity and functionality elements that makes each top brand unique, attractive and visually recognizable by the consumer. Products CPP manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of long-handled tools, landscaping products, home organization products and residential, industrial and commercial fans. This portfolio contains many iconic brands and is anchored by six core product categories: seasonal outdoor tools, project tools, outdoor decor and watering, home organization, fans and cleaning products. As a result of brand portfolio recognition, outstanding product quality, industry leading service and strong customer relationships, CPP has earned market-leading positions in its six core product categories. The following is a brief description of CPP's primary product lines: Seasonal Outdoor Tools Long-Handled Tools: An extensive line of engineered tools, including shovels, spades, scoops, rakes, hoes, cultivators, weeders, post hole diggers, scrapers, edgers and forks, marketed under leading brand names, including AMES, True Temper, UnionTools, Garant, Cyclone and Kelso, as well as contractor-oriented brands, including Razor-Back Jackson and Darby. Wheelbarrows: AMES designs, develops and manufactures a full line of wheelbarrows and lawn carts, primarily under the AMES, True Temper, Jackson Professional Tools, UnionTools, Garant and Westmix brand names. The products range in size, material (poly and steel), tray form, tire type, handle length and color based on the needs of homeowners, landscapers and contractors. Snow Tools: A complete line of snow tools is marketed under the True Temper, Garant and Union Tools brand names. The snow tool line includes shovels, pushers, roof rakes, sled sleigh shovels, scoops and ice scrapers. Pruning: The pruning line is made up of pruners, loppers, shears, and other tools sold primarily under the True Temper, Cyclone and Garant brand names. Project Tools Striking Tools: Axes, picks, mattocks, mauls, wood splitters, sledgehammers, pry bars and repair handles make up the striking tools product line. These products are marketed under the True Temper, AMES, Cyclone, Garant, Jackson Professional Tools and Razor-Back Professional Tools brand names. Hand Tools: Hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, adjustable wrenches, handsaws, tape measures, levels, clamps, and other traditional hand tools make up this product line. These products are marketed under the Trojan, Cyclone and Supercraft brand names. In addition, gardening hand tools, such as trowels, cultivators, weeders and other specialty garden hand tools, are marketed under the AMES brand name. Outdoor Decor and Watering Planters and Lawn Accessories: AMES is a designer, manufacturer and distributor of indoor and outdoor planters and accessories, sold under the Southern Patio, Northcote Pottery, Tuscan Path, La Hacienda, Hills, Kelkay, Quatro Design and Dynamic Design brand names, as well as various private label brands. The range of planter sizes (from 6 to 32 inches) is available in various designs, colors and materials. Garden Hose and Storage: AMES offers a wide range of manufactured and sourced garden hoses and hose reels under the AMES, NeverLeak and Nylex brand names. Home Organization: AMES designs, manufactures and sells a comprehensive portfolio of wire and wood shelving, containers, storage cabinets and other closet and home organization accessories primarily under the highly recognized ClosetMaid brand name. Wire products include wire shelving and hardware, wire accessories and kitchen storage products. Wire product brands include Maximum Load, SuperSlide and ShelfTrack. Wood solutions include closet systems, cube storage, storage furniture and cabinets. Selected wood product brands include MasterSuite, Suite Symphony, ExpressShelf, Style+, and SpaceCreations. Fans: CPP designs and sells residential, industrial and commercial fans under the Hunter Fan, Hunter Industrial and Casablanca brand names. Cleaning Products: CPP offers a line of cleaning products for professional, home, and industrial use, including brooms, brushes, squeegees, and other cleaning products, primarily under the Harper brand. Customers CPP sells products throughout North America, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and Ireland through home centers, such as The Home Depot, Inc. (Home Depot), Lowe's Companies Inc. (Lowe's), Rona Inc., Bunnings Warehouse (Bunnings) and Woodies (with the average length of the relationship with these customers being approximately 30 years); mass market, specialty, and hardware retailers, including Tractor Supply Corporation (Tractor Supply), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (Walmart), Target Corporation (Target), Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (Canadian Tire), Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco), Ace, Do-It-Best and True Value Company; industrial distributors, such as W.W. Grainger, Inc. and ORS Nasco; homebuilders, such as D.R. Horton, KB Home, Lennar and NVR, Inc.; and E-commerce platforms, such as Amazon Inc. (Amazon), Wayfair Inc., (Wayfair), Hayneedle Inc. (Hayneedle), Overstock Inc. (Overstock), and Spreetail LLC. (Spreetail). Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards and Bunnings are significant customers of CPP. Sales and Marketing CPP's sales organization is structured by product line and distribution channel in the U.S., and by country internationally. In the U.S., a dedicated team of sales professionals is provided for each of the large retail customers. Offices are maintained adjacent to each of the two largest customers' headquarters, supported by a shared in-house sales analyst. In addition, sales professionals are assigned to domestic, wholesale and industrial distribution channels. Sales teams located in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Ireland handle sales in each of their respective regions. In Australia, a dedicated team of sales professionals is provided for the largest retail customer. CPP has made significant investments in automation, facilities expansion and fulfillment operations to support e-commerce growth. Competition CPP's principal competitors in the consumer ceiling fan market are retailer house brands, such as Hampton Bay in The Home Depot and Harbor Breeze in Lowe's, followed by Minka Air. Business Strategy The company owns and operates, and seeks to acquire, businesses in multiple industries and geographic markets. The company places emphasis on its iconic and well-respected brands, which helps to differentiate the company and its offerings from its competitors and strengthens its relationship with its customers and those who ultimately use its products. As long-term investors, having substantial experience in a variety of industries, the company's intent is to continue the growth and strengthening of its existing businesses, and to diversify further through investments in its businesses and through acquisitions. On May 3, 2023, in response to changing market conditions, Griffon announced that its CPP segment will expand its global sourcing strategy to include long handled tools, material handling, and wood storage and organization product lines for the U.S. market. Customers In 2023, Home Depot represented 12% of Griffon's consolidated revenue, 9% of HBP's revenue and 15% of CPP's revenue. Seasonality Griffon's revenue and earnings are generally lowest in the company's first and fourth quarters ending December 31, and September 30, respectively, and highest in the second and third quarters ending March 31, and June 30, respectively, primarily due to the seasonality within the HBP and CPP businesses. HBP's business is driven by renovation and construction during warm weather, which is historically at reduced levels during the winter months, generally in the company's second quarter (year ended September 30, 2023). Intellectual Property Trademarks are of significant importance to Griffon's HBP and CPP businesses. HBP has a significant level of goodwill in its strong family of brands, including Clopay, America's Favorite Doors; Holmes Garage Door Company; IDEAL Door; and the Cornell and Cookson commercial door brands. Principal global and regional trademarks used by CPP for its tool and landscape products include AMES, True Temper, Garant, Harper, UnionTools, Westmix, Cyclone, Southern Patio, Northcote Pottery, Nylex, Hills, Kelkay, Tuscan Path, La Hacienda, Kelso, Apta, and Dynamic Design, as well as contractor-oriented brands, including Razor-Back Professional Tools and Jackson Professional Tools. Storage and home organization brands within CPP include ClosetMaid, MasterSuite, Suite Symphony, Cubeicals, ExpressShelf, SpaceCreations, Maximum Load, SuperSlide and ShelfTrack. CPP's Hunter Fan Company has over 135 years of experience in the ceiling fan industry with well-recognized brands, including Hunter, Casablanca, Hunter Industrial, and Jan Fan. The HBP and CPP businesses have approximately 1,647 registered trademarks and approximately 139 pending trademark applications around the world. Griffon's rights in these trademarks endure for as long as they are used and registered. Patents are also important to the HBP and CPP businesses. HBP holds approximately 45 issued patents and 24 pending patent applications in the U.S., as well as approximately 20 and 98 corresponding foreign patents and patent applications, primarily related to garage door system components and operation. CPP protects its designs and product innovation through the use of patents, and has approximately 674 issued patents and approximately 247 pending patent applications in the U.S., as well as approximately 275 and 97 corresponding foreign patents and patent applications, respectively. Design patents are generally valid for fourteen years, and utility patents are generally valid for twenty years, from the date of filing. Griffon's patents are in various stages of their terms of validity. Research and Development The company's research and development costs were charged to selling, general and administrative expense as incurred; and amounted to approximately $18,000 for the year ended September 30, 2023. History Griffon Corporation was founded in 1774. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1970.