John Bean Technologies Stock

John Bean Technologies Corporation operates as a global technology solutions and service provider to high-value segments of the food and beverage industry. The company designs, produces, and services sophisticated products and systems for multi-national and regional customers.

The company provides comprehensive solutions throughout the food production value chain extending from primary processing through packaging systems for a large variety of food and beverage groups, including poultry, beef, pork, seafood, ready-to-eat meals, fruits, vegetables, plant-based meat alternatives, dairy, bakery, pet foods, soups, sauces, and juices. The company's solutions also support nutraceutical and powder applications. The company also provides stand-alone and fully integrated automated guided vehicle systems for repetitive material handling requirements for use in manufacturing, warehouse, and other facilities.

The product offering of the company's businesses includes:

Food and Beverage Solutions. The company's equipment offerings include primary, secondary and further value-added processing, including chilling, mixing/grinding, injecting, blending, marinating, tumbling, flattening, forming, portioning, coating, cooking, frying, freezing, extracting, pasteurizing, sterilizing, concentrating, high pressure processing, weighing, inspecting, filling, closing, sealing, end of line material handling, and packaging solutions, which support a large and growing portfolio of food, beverage, and health end markets.

Automated Guided Vehicle Systems. The company's Automated Guided Vehicle Systems offerings include stand-alone, fully integrated, and dual-mode robotic systems for material movement requirements with a wide variety of applications including automotive manufacturing, warehousing, and medical facilities.

On August 1, 2023, the company completed the sale of the AeroTech business segment (AeroTech). This sale was completed pursuant to the Stock and Asset Purchase Agreement, dated May 26, 2023, to sell AeroTech to Oshkosh Corporation. This divestiture supported the company's strategy to become a pure-play food and beverage solutions provider.

The company's historically strong position in the markets the company serves has provided the company with a large installed base of systems and equipment that is a source of recurring revenue from the company's aftermarket parts and service offerings and re-build services for customer-owned equipment. As part of the company's aftermarket program, the company also provides a digital solution called OmniBlu, a subscription-based offering including integrated best-in-class service, parts availability, and machine optimization capabilities - all supported by a powerful digital infrastructure leveraging AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics. The company also provides continuous, proactive service to its customers including the fulfillment of preventative maintenance agreements, such as PRoCARE and consulting services. The company offers full service operating leases on certain high-capacity industrial extractors, which include routine parts and maintenance support. Recurring revenue accounted for 51% of total revenue in 2023.

The company has operations strategically positioned around the world to serve the company's existing equipment installed base located in more than 100 countries. The company's principal production facilities are located in the United States (Arkansas, California, Florida, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin), Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. In addition to sales and services offices based in more than 25 countries, the company supports its customers in their development of new food products and processes, as well as the refinement and testing of their current applications through 10 technical centers located in the United States (California, Florida, and Ohio), Mexico, Brazil, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The company's global presence allows the company to provide direct customized support to customers virtually anywhere they process food.

Solutions, Products and Services

The company offers a broad portfolio of systems, equipment and services to its customers, which are often sold as part of a fully integrated processing line solution. The company's systems are typically customized to meet a large variety of customer application needs within food and beverage groups, including poultry, beef, pork, seafood, ready-to-eat meals, fruits, vegetables, plant-based meat alternatives, dairy, bakery, pet foods, soups, sauces, and juices. Thus, actual production capacity ranges vary and are dependent on the food and product packaging type being processed. The company's fully integrated processing lines often span from the initial point of entry of raw products through further processing and end of line packaging.

The initial step in the food processing cycle is primary processing, where the readily edible food is extracted from the inedible raw commodity or preserved in its raw form to increase shelf life. The company's primary processing offerings increase food yield, lower energy and water usage, reduce food waste, and enhance food safety. In the primary processing space, the company offers solutions for meat and poultry applications, and fruit and vegetable processing equipment. Products in the primary processing space include poultry overhead and conveyance systems; offal and feather processing; meat and poultry processing applications, including scalding, picking, evisceration, maceration, water re-use, paw processing, cut-up and deboning, wing segmentation, and skinning equipment; pathogen protection for poultry and meat applications; freezing, chilling, refrigeration, and proofing systems; industrial citrus, tropical and temperate fruit and vegetable processing equipment, including cleaning, grading, storing, feeding, finishers, pulp systems, evaporators, ingredient recovery systems, slicing, washing, drying, transporting, and mixing; specially formulated fruit and vegetable cleaners, post-harvest sanitizers, fungicides, and coatings; skid-mounted products, including solutions for aseptic sterilization, bulk filling, and labelling, as well as ingredient and by-product recovery and clean-up systems; and high-capacity industrial juice extractors; and point of use produce juicers for retail markets.

The next step in the food processing cycle is secondary processing where the ingredients prepared through primary processing are transformed into consumable food or are further preserved for consumption. The company's secondary processing offerings add further value by transforming food into a more marketable and edible product while reducing labor through automation, increasing yields, improving product quality, reducing energy and water usage, lowering food waste, and enhancing food safety. In the secondary processing space, the company supplies a broad portfolio of processing solutions for customers producing protein products, such as meat, poultry, and seafood, and liquid food and beverage products, including products used standalone or as ingredients in dairy products, bakery products, and fruit-based beverages. Products in the secondary processing space include: meat and poultry processing functions, including tenderization, portioners and waterjet portioners, slicers and cordon-bleu slicers, attribute scanners/sorters, injectors, scales and weighing systems, brine preparation, injection, marination, mixers, grinders, flatteners, formers, and tenderizers; x-ray detection systems created for the unique needs of poultry and fish; aseptic systems, including sterilizers, fillers, blow molders and controls that can be used for bulk or retail production of diverse products such as not-from concentrate orange juice, milk, alt-dairy, purees, soups, sauces, and concentrates; flavor vats, batching systems, melting systems, and storage tanks; fully integrated industrial preservation systems that enable production of extended shelf life and shelf-stable foods in a wide variety of flexible, rigid, and semi-rigid packages; rotary and linear filling and closing technologies for metal cans, glass jars, glass and plastic bottles, and pouches; and integrated solutions for the processing of extended shelf life and shelf-stable food and liquid products, including a line of continuous hydrostatic sterilizers, continuous rotary sterilizers, batch retorts, heat exchangers, and thermal process controls.

The final step in the food processing cycle is further processing where the food product is further refined through a variety of different value added techniques for broader or more convenient consumption. The company's further processing offerings enhance the quality of the final food product while reducing labor through automation, improving product quality, reducing energy and water usage, lowering food waste, and enhancing food safety. In the further processing space, the company supplies a comprehensive portfolio of high-volume industrial cooking and freezing solutions, in addition to capabilities in filling, carbonated beverages, high pressure processing, fresh-cut produce, infant food, pet food, and pharma/nutraceuticals. Products in the further processing space include: cookers, fryers, spiral and linear ovens and cooking systems, coating and seasoning applicators, pasteurizers, and proofers; design, assembly, testing, and installation of self-stacking spiral ovens, freezers, chillers, individual quick freezing (IQF) systems, linear/impingement freezing systems, and flat product and contact freezers; equipment to clean, mix, grade, sort, and blanch produce, fresh-cut salads, fruits, and vegetables; powder and linear fillers, and vacuum fillers, a leading filler for high-value powdered food; solutions for blending, filling, container handling and seaming on high-capacity beverage lines packaged in cans or bottles; high-pressure processing equipment, supporting clean-label products and non-thermal preservation solutions for a broad array of market segments; full line solutions for wet pet food producers; and modularized tanks, skids, and bioreactors as well as installation of sanitary/high purity piping that plays a vital role in producing vaccines and medicines.

In the packaging space, the company supplies packaging systems, tray seal packaging equipment, and case packers providing automatic in-line solutions for the food segment. The company's tray sealing solutions help extend the self life of packaged food and can reduce plastic consumption versus traditional packaging methods, offering solutions in a wide range of industries, including food, pharmaceutical, and retail markets.

The company is a recognized U.S. Department of Agriculture ('USDA') and Food and Drug Administration ('FDA') Food Process Authority and offer consulting services to help design food production processes in accordance with the USDA's and FDA's stringent requirements. The company's solutions also include specialized material handling systems to automate the handling and tracking of processed and unprocessed containers, as well as software and controls provided by AutoCoding Systems that help the company's customers optimize and track their processes to allow real time modifications in the case of process deviations.

Across the company's equipment and technologies, the company creates shared value for its food and beverage customers by offering high-quality, technologically advanced, and reliable solutions that deliver quality performance while also striving to support customer sustainability objectives. As a result, many of the company's solutions seek to minimize food and packaging waste, extend food product life, optimize and reduce water and energy usage, increase yield and maximize efficiency.

Automated Systems

The company is a leading global supplier of robotic automated guided vehicle systems for material movement in the automotive, food and beverage, building materials, warehousing and healthcare industries. The company provides engineering services and simulations to evaluate material handling requirements, standard and custom automated guided vehicle hardware and software, and stand-alone (JayBoT) and fully integrated system hardware and software for a scalable solution that can be applied individually or across the entire customer enterprise.

Aftermarket Products, Consumables, Parts, and Services

The company provides aftermarket products, parts, and services for all of its integrated food processing systems and equipment. The company provides retrofits and refurbishments to accommodate changing operational requirements, and the company supplies its own brand of food grade lubricants and cleaners designed specifically for the company's equipment. The company supplies packaging material components for the company's clip packaging customers in the form of metal clips and hanging loops. The company also provides continuous, proactive service to the company's customers, including through the fulfillment of preventative maintenance agreements and consulting services such as water treatment, corrosion monitoring control, food safety and process auditing, and the expertise of on-site technical personnel.

In addition to helping the company's customers improve efficiencies, the company's customer service focus helps the company maintains strong commercial relationships and provides the company with ongoing access to information about the company's customers' requirements and strategies to foster continuing product development. The company's aftermarket products, parts, and services, coupled with the company's large installed base of food processing systems and equipment, provide the company with a strong base for growing recurring revenue. Sales of aftermarket products, parts and services are consolidated within the total revenue of the related business. As part of the company's aftermarket program, the company also provides a digital solution called OmniBlu, a subscription-based offering, including best-in-class service, parts availability, and machine optimization capabilities - all supported by a powerful digital infrastructure leveraging AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics. The company also provides continuous, proactive service to the company's customers, including the fulfillment of preventative maintenance agreements, such as PRoCARE and consulting services.

Sales and Marketing

The company sells and markets its products and services predominantly through a direct sales force, supplemented with independent distributors, sales representatives, and technical service teams. The company's experienced global sales force is consisted of individuals with strong technical expertise in the company's products and services and the industries in which they are sold.

The company supports its sales force with marketing and training programs that are designed to increase awareness of the company's product offerings and highlight the company's differentiation while providing a set of sales tools to aid in the sales of the company's technology solutions. The company actively employs a broad range of marketing programs to inform and educate customers, the media, industry analysts, and academia through targeted newsletters, the company's website, blogs, social media platforms, seminars, trade shows, user groups, and conferences. The company regularly introduces new internal digital resources designed to accelerate the quote-to-order process, identify cross-selling opportunities between the company's separate businesses. In addition, the company utilizes marketing automation processes and technology to drive lead generation.

Competition

JBT's major competitors include, but are not limited to, Advanced Equipment Inc.; Alit SRL; Allpax Products, Inc.; Atlas Pacific Engineering Company, Inc.; Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.; Brown International Corp.; CFT S.p.A.; Egemin Automation Inc.; Elettric 80 S.p.a. Italia; Ferrum; Food Processing Equipment Company; FPS Process Foods Solutions; GEA Group AG; Krones; Marel hf.; METALQUIMIA, S.A.; Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.; Morris & Associates, Inc.; MYCOM; Middleby Corporation; Nantong Freezing Equipment Company, Ltd.; Poly-clip system GmbH & Co. KG; Provisur Technologies, Inc.; Shibuya Corporation; Starfrost; Statco Engineering; Steriflow SAS.; Tetra Laval; Tecnopool S.p.A; Heinen Freezing GmbH & Co. KG; Square Technology Group Co., Ltd; DSI Dantech A/S; Duravant LLC; Bettcher Industries, Inc; and ProMach Inc.

Patents, Trademarks and Other Intellectual Property

The company owns a number of the United States and foreign patents, trademarks, and licenses that are cumulatively important to the company's business. The company owns approximately 659 United States and foreign issued patents and has approximately 307 patent applications pending in the United States and abroad. Further, the company licenses certain intellectual property rights to or from third parties. The company also owns numerous United States and foreign trademarks and trade names and has approximately 703 registrations and pending applications in the United States and abroad. Developing and maintaining a strong intellectual property portfolio is an important component of the company's strategy to extend the company's technology leadership.

Governmental Regulation and Environmental Matters

Many of the company's facilities and operations are governed by laws and regulations relating to worker health and workplace safety, including the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, or OSHA.

Research and Development

The company's research and development expenses were $20.5 million for 2023.

History

John Bean Technologies Corporation was incorporated in 1994 in Delaware.