Bel Fuse Stock

Bel Fuse Inc. (Bel) designs, manufactures, and markets a broad array of products that power, protect, and connect electronic circuits. These products are primarily used in the networking, telecommunications, computing, general industrial, high-speed data transmission, military, commercial aerospace, transportation and eMobility industries.

Bel's portfolio of products also finds application in the automotive, medical, broadcasting and consumer electronics markets.

Bel's product groups include Magnetic Solutions (integrated connector modules, power transformers, power inductors and discrete components), Power Solutions and Protection (front-end, board-mount and industrial and transportation power products, module products and circuit protection), and Connectivity Solutions (expanded beam fiber optic, copper-based, RF and RJ connectors and cable assemblies). Bel has reliably demonstrated the ability to participate in a variety of product areas across a global platform.

Products

The company primarily generates revenue through the sale of its products. Bel offers a broad array of product offerings, which are grouped as follows: Power Solutions & Protection (44% of net sales in 2022), Connectivity Solutions (29% of net sales in 2022) and Magnetic Solutions (27% of net sales in 2022). The company’s diverse product mix and customer base minimizes its dependence on any one customer or end market.

Power Solutions and Protection

Bel's power conversion products include internal and external AC/DC power supplies, DC/DC converters and DC/AC inverters. These products provide power conversion solutions for a number of Industrial, Networking and Consumer applications. Bel circuit protection products include board level fuses (miniature, micro and surface mount), and Polymeric PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) devices, designed for the global electronic and telecommunication markets.

Connectivity Solutions

Bel offers a comprehensive line of high speed and harsh environment copper and optical fiber connectors and integrated assemblies, which provide connectivity for a wide range of applications across multiple industries, including commercial aerospace, military communications, defense, network infrastructure, structured building cabling and several industrial applications.

Magnetic Solutions

Bel's Magnetics offers industry leading products. The company's integrated connector modules (ICM) products integrate RJ45 connectors with discrete magnetic components to provide better performance and a more robust device that allows customers to substantially reduce board space and optimize performance. Power Transformers include standard and custom designs for use in a wide array of applications, including industrial instrumentation, alarm and security systems, motion control, elevators, and medical products.

Sales and Marketing

The company sells its products to customers throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Sales are made through one of three channels: direct strategic account managers, regional sales managers working with independent sales representative organizations or authorized distributors. Bel's strategic account managers are assigned to handle major accounts requiring global coordination.

Independent sales representatives and authorized distributors are overseen by the company's sales management personnel located throughout the world. The company has written agreements with all its sales representative organizations and most of its major distributors.

Sales support functions have also been established and located in the company’s international facilities to provide timely, efficient support for customers. This supplemental level of service, in addition to first-line sales support, enables the company to be more responsive to customers' needs on a global level. The company’s marketing capabilities include product management which drives new product development, application engineering for technical support and marketing communications.

Intellectual Property

The company has acquired or been granted a number of patents in the U.S., Europe and Asia and has additional patent applications pending relating to its products. The company’s existing patents expire on various dates through July 2041.

The company utilizes registered trademarks in the U.S., Europe and Asia to identify various products that it manufactures.

Government Contracts

The company must comply with and are affected by laws and regulations relating to the award, administration, and performance of U.S. Government contracts. For example, the U.S. Government may terminate any of the company’s government contracts and, in general, subcontracts, at its convenience, as well as for default based on performance.

Seasonality

In the People's Republic of China (PRC), the availability of labor is cyclical and is significantly affected by the migration of workers in relation to the annual Lunar New Year holiday. Each year following the Lunar New Year holiday, the company must assess the worker return rate and whether it is adequate to meet the needs of demand from the company’s customers. Accordingly, the company must continually recruit and train new workers to replace those lost to attrition each year and to address peaks in demand that may occur from time to time. This temporary setback in production has historically resulted in the company’s first quarter sales being the lowest sales quarter of the year. Further, recruiting and training efforts and related inefficiencies, as well as overtime required in order to meet demand, primarily during the first quarter of the year (year ended December 31, 2022).

Research and Development (R&D)

The company’s R&D expenses were $20.2million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

History

Bel Fuse Inc. was founded in 1949. The company was incorporated in 1949.