H.B. Fuller Company (FUL) Risk Analysis

Approximately 56 percent, or $2.0 billion, of our net revenue was generated outside the United States in 2025. International operations could be adversely affected by changes in economic, political, regulatory, and social conditions, especially in Brazil, Russia, China, the Middle East, including Turkey and Egypt, and other developing or emerging markets where we do business. An economic downturn in the businesses or geographic areas in which we sell our products could reduce demand for these products and result in a decrease in sales volume that could have a negative impact on our results of operations. Product demand often depends on end-use markets. Economic conditions that reduce consumer confidence or discretionary spending may reduce product demand. Challenging economic conditions may also impair the ability of our customers to pay for products they have purchased, and as a result, our reserves for doubtful accounts and write-offs of accounts receivable may increase. In addition, tariffs and other trade protection measures, anti-bribery and anti-corruption regulations, restrictions on repatriation of earnings and cash, currency controls implemented by foreign governments, differing intellectual property rights and changes in legal and regulatory requirements that restrict the sales of products or increase costs could adversely affect our results of operations. In addition, anti-bribery and anti-corruption regulations, restrictions on repatriation of earnings and cash, currency controls implemented by the U.S. and foreign governments, differing intellectual property rights and changes in legal and regulatory requirements that restrict the sales of products or increase costs could adversely affect our results of operations. Import tariffs, taxes, customs duties and other trading regulations imposed by the U.S. government on foreign countries, or by foreign countries on the U.S., could significantly increase the prices we pay for raw materials that are critical to our ability to manufacture our products. In addition, we may be unable to find a domestic supplier to provide the necessary raw materials on an economical basis in the amounts we require. Tariffs may decrease the competitiveness of our products in foreign markets or foreclose our sales entirely into those markets.  We could experience a negative impact on our operating results, profitability, customer relationships and future cash flows. Fluctuations and volatility in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and other currencies could potentially result in increases or decreases in net revenue, cost of raw materials and earnings and may adversely affect the value of our assets outside the United States. In 2025, the change in foreign currencies negatively impacted our net revenue by approximately $20.1 million. In 2025, we spent approximately $1.7 billion for raw materials worldwide of which approximately $0.9 billion was purchased outside the United States. Based on 2025 financial results, a hypothetical one percent change in our cost of sales due to foreign currency rate changes would have resulted in a change in net income of approximately $9.1 million or $0.17 per diluted share. Although we utilize risk management tools, including hedging, as appropriate, to mitigate market fluctuations in foreign currencies, any changes in strategy in regard to risk management tools can also affect revenue, expenses and results of operations and there can be no assurance that such measures will result in cost savings or that all market fluctuation exposure will be eliminated.

Adverse equity market conditions and volatility in the credit markets could have a negative impact on the value of our pension trust assets, our future estimated pension liabilities and other postretirement benefit plans. In addition, we could be required to provide increased pension plan funding. As a result, our financial results could be negatively impacted. In a rising interest rate environment, more costly debt and reduced access to capital markets may affect our ability to invest in strategic growth initiatives such as acquisitions. In addition, the reduced credit availability could limit our customers' ability to invest in their businesses, refinance maturing debt obligations, or meet their ongoing working capital needs. If these customers do not have sufficient access to the financial markets, demand for our products may decline.

Weak demand may cause underutilization of our manufacturing capacity or elimination of product lines; contract terminations or customer shutdowns may force sale or abandonment of facilities and equipment; or other events associated with weak economic conditions or specific product or customer events may require us to record an impairment on tangible assets, such as facilities and equipment, as well as intangible assets, such as intellectual property or goodwill, which would have a negative impact on our financial results.

Our current indebtedness contains various covenants that limit our ability to engage in specified types of transactions. Our overall leverage and the terms of our financing arrangements could: - limit our ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures and acquisitions, even when necessary to maintain adequate liquidity, particularly if any ratings assigned to our debt securities by rating organizations were revised downward;- make it more difficult to satisfy our obligations under the terms of our indebtedness;- limit our ability to refinance our indebtedness on terms acceptable to us or at all;- limit our flexibility to plan for and adjust to changing business and market conditions in the industries in which we operate and increase our vulnerability to general adverse economic and industry conditions;- require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow to make interest and principal payments on our debt, thereby limiting the availability of our cash flow to fund future acquisitions, working capital, business activities and other general corporate requirements;- subject us to higher levels of indebtedness than our competitors, which may cause a competitive disadvantage and may reduce our flexibility in responding to increased competition; and - expose us to interest rate risk since a portion of our debt obligations are at variable rates. This could negatively impact our earnings, cash flows and our ability to grow. For example, a one percentage point increase in the average interest rate on our floating rate debt at November 29, 2025 would increase future interest expense by approximately $6.6 million per year. In addition, the restrictive covenants require us to maintain specified financial ratios and satisfy other financial condition tests. Our ability to meet those financial ratios and tests will depend on our ongoing financial and operating performance, which, in turn, will be subject to economic conditions and to financial, market and competitive factors, many of which are beyond our control. A breach of any of these covenants could result in a default under the instruments governing our indebtedness.

As part of our growth strategy, we have made, and will likely continue to make, acquisitions of complementary businesses or products and divestitures of businesses or products that do not align with our portfolio optimization strategy. The ability to grow through acquisitions and optimize our portfolio through divestitures depends upon our ability to identify, negotiate, and complete suitable acquisitions and divestitures. If we fail to successfully integrate acquisitions into our existing business, our results of operations and our cash flows could be adversely affected. Our acquisition strategy also involves other risks and uncertainties, including distraction of management from current operations, greater than expected liabilities and expenses, inadequate return on capital, unidentified issues not discovered in our investigations and evaluations of those strategies and acquisitions, and difficulties implementing and maintaining consistent standards, controls, procedures, policies and systems. Future acquisitions could result in additional debt and other liabilities, and increased interest expense, restructuring charges and amortization expense related to intangible assets. Divestiture activity poses similar risks, including distraction of management from current operations, disruption of operations in adjacent or related businesses, greater than expected time and expenses, reductions to profit margins if we are unable to reduce fixed costs, loss of customer, supplier, or other business relationships, and employee retention challenges. The inability to successfully manage the risks associated with our divestiture activity may result in higher production costs, lost sales or otherwise negatively affect earnings and financial results. Our growth strategy depends in part on our ability to further penetrate markets outside the United States, where there is the potential for significant economic and political disruptions. Our operations in these markets may be subject to greater risks than those faced by our operations in the United States, including political and economic instability, project delay or abandonment due to unanticipated government actions, inadequate investment in infrastructure, undeveloped property rights and legal systems, unfamiliar regulatory environments, relationships with local partners, language and cultural differences and increased difficulty recruiting, training and retaining qualified employees. In addition, our profitability is dependent on our ability to drive sustainable productivity improvements such as cost savings through organizational restructuring, including our Quantum Leap global supply chain restructuring initiative. Delays or unexpected costs may prevent us from realizing the full operational and financial benefits of such restructuring initiatives and may potentially disrupt our operations.

Ongoing innovation and product development are important factors in our competitiveness, as is acquisition of new technologies. Failure to create and/or acquire new products and generate new ideas, including with the effective use of artificial intelligence, could negatively impact our ability to grow and deliver strong financial results. We may face difficulties marketing products produced using new technologies including, but not limited to, sustainable adhesives, which may adversely impact our sales and financial results.  Failure of our products to work as predicted could lead to liability and damage to our reputation. We continually apply for and obtain U.S. and foreign patents to protect the results of our research for use in our operations and licensing. We are party to a number of patent licenses and other technology agreements. We rely on patents, confidentiality agreements and internal security measures to protect our intellectual property. Failure to protect this intellectual property could negatively affect our future performance and growth.

Increasingly, companies are subject to a wide variety of attacks on their networks on an ongoing basis. In addition to traditional computer "hackers," malicious code (such as viruses and worms), phishing attempts, ransomware, employee theft or misuse, and denial of service attacks, sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors engage in intrusions and attacks (including advanced persistent threat intrusions) and add to the risks to internal networks, cloud deployed enterprise and customer-facing environments and the information they store and process. In addition, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing may increase the frequency and magnitude of cyber-attacks. Despite significant efforts to create security barriers to such threats, it is virtually impossible for us to entirely mitigate these risks. We, and our third-party software and service providers, have experienced and will continue to experience security threats and attacks from a variety of sources. As part of our business, we store our data, including intellectual property, and certain data about our employees, customers and vendors in our information technology systems. Our security measures may be breached as a result of third-party action, including intentional misconduct by computer hackers, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. Third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, or other information to gain access to our customers' data or our data, including our intellectual property and other confidential business information, or our information technology systems. In addition, given their size and complexity, our information systems could be vulnerable to service interruptions or to security breaches from inadvertent or intentional actions by our employees, third-party vendors and/or business partners, or from cyber-attacks by malicious third parties attempting to gain unauthorized access to our products, systems or confidential information. We are subject to increasingly complex and evolving laws, regulations and customer-imposed controls, that govern privacy and cybersecurity.  These laws and regulations have been adopted by multiple agencies at the federal and state level, as well as in foreign jurisdictions, and the regimes have not been harmonized.  Our failure to comply with these regulatory regimes may result in significant liabilities or penalties. Security breaches resulting in unauthorized access to our data, including any data regarding our employees, customers or vendors, expose us to risks. Such unauthorized access and a failure to effectively recover from breaches could compromise confidential information, disrupt our business, harm our reputation, result in the loss of customer confidence, business and assets (including trade secrets and other intellectual property), result in regulatory proceedings and legal claims, and have a negative impact on our financial results.

We rely on information technology to record and process transactions, manage our business and maintain the financial accuracy of our records. Our computer systems are subject to damage or interruption from various sources, including power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, security breaches, vandalism, catastrophic events and human error. Interruptions of our computer systems could disrupt our business, for example by leading to plant downtime and/or power outages and could result in the loss of business and cause us to incur additional expense. We are in the process of implementing a global Enterprise Resource Planning ("ERP") system, that we refer to as Project ONE, which will upgrade and standardize our information system. Implementation of Project ONE began in our North America adhesives business in 2014 and, through 2025, we completed implementation of this system in various parts of our business including Latin America (except Brazil), Australia and various other businesses in North America and Europe, India, Middle East and Africa (EIMEA). During 2026 and beyond, we will continue implementation in Brazil and Asia Pacific. Any delays or other failure to achieve our implementation goals may adversely impact our financial results. In addition, the failure to either deliver the application on time or anticipate the necessary readiness and training needs could lead to business disruption and loss of business. Failure or abandonment of any part of the ERP system could result in a write-off of part or all of the costs that have been capitalized on the project.

Our wide variety of products are sold in numerous markets, each of which is competitive. Our competitive position in markets is, in part, subject to external factors. For example, supply and demand for certain of our products is driven by end-use markets and worldwide capacities which, in turn, impact demand for and pricing of our products. Many of our direct competitors are part of large multinational companies and may have more resources than we do. Any increase in competition may result in lost market share or reduced prices, which could result in reduced profit margins. This may impair our ability to grow or even to maintain current levels of revenues and earnings. While we have an extensive customer base, loss of certain top customers could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations until such business is replaced, and no assurances can be made that we would be able to regain or replace any lost customers.