NASDAQ: OCC

The OCC team strives to provide top-tier communication solutions that are well-suited for the specific needs and application requirements of our customers and the end-users of our systems—leveraging our technical expertise and broad fiber optic and copper data communication product offering.

OCC® is internationally recognized for pioneering the design and production of fiber optic cables for the most demanding military field applications, as well as of fiber optic cables suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and creating a broad product offering built on the evolution of these fundamental technologies. OCC® is also internationally recognized for pioneering the development of innovative copper connectivity technology and designs used to meet industry copper connectivity data communications standards.

OCC primarily manufactures its fiber optic cables at its ISO 9001:2015 registered facility located in Roanoke, Virginia, primarily manufactures its enterprise connectivity products at its ISO 9001:2015 registered facility located near Asheville, North Carolina, and primarily manufactures its harsh environment and specialty connectivity products at its ISO 9001:2015 registered and MIL-STD-790G certified facility located near Dallas, Texas.

OCC designs, develops and manufactures, and markets and sells, fiber optic and hybrid cables for a broad range of enterprise, data center, harsh environment, wireless carrier and other specialty markets and applications. We refer to these products as our fiber optic cable offering. OCC designs, develops and manufactures, and markets and sells, fiber and copper connectivity products for a broad range of enterprise, data center, and residential applications. We refer to these products as our enterprise connectivity product offering. OCC designs, develops and manufactures, and markets and sells, a broad range of specialty fiber optic connectors and connectivity solutions principally for use in military, harsh environment and other specialty applications. We refer to these products as our harsh environment and specialty connectivity product offering.

OCC markets and sells our harsh environment and specialty connectivity product offering through AOS under the names Optical Cable Corporation and OCC® by the efforts of our integrated OCC sales team.

Optical Cable Corporation, OCC®, Procyon®, Superior Modular Products™, SMP Data Communications™, Applied Optical Systems™, Centric Solutions™, and associated logos are trademarks of Optical Cable Corporation.

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Strategic Collaboration and Investment

On July 7, 2025, Optical Cable Corporation and Lightera, LLC (“Lightera”), part of the Furukawa Electric CompanyGroup, announced that OCC and Lightera had entered into a strategic collaboration agreement to expand product offerings and solutions—especially for the data center and enterprise sectors. As part of this strategic collaboration, OCC and Lightera have combined portions of the product portfolios of both companies to deliver additional integrated cabling and connectivity solution offerings, which will include certain Lightera products being offered and sold by OCC.

In connection with this strategic collaboration, OCC and Lightera entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement, under which OCC issued 642,199 redeemable restricted shares of its common stock to Lightera for an aggregate purchase price of $2.0 million. Lightera’s 642,199 shares of redeemable restricted common stock of OCC represents 7.24% of OCC’s outstanding common shares as of October 31, 2025.

Products

OCC® is a leading manufacturer of a broad range of fiber optic and copper data communication cabling and connectivity solutions primarily for the enterprise market and various harsh environment and specialty markets (the non-carrier markets), offering an integrated suite of high quality, warranted products which operate as a system solution or seamlessly integrate with other components. OCC also manufactures and sells products in the wireless carrier market. OCC’s product offerings include designs for uses ranging from enterprise networks, data centers, residential, campus and Passive Optical LAN (POL), stadium and other sporting event installations to customized products for harsh environments and specialty applications, including military, industrial, mining, petrochemical, renewable energy, distributed sensing, and broadcast applications.

OCC products include fiber optic and copper cabling, hybrid cabling (which includes fiber optic and copper elements in a single cable), fiber optic and copper connectors, specialty fiber optic, copper and hybrid connectors, fiber optic and copper patch cords, pre-terminated fiber optic and copper cable trunks and assemblies, racks, cabinets, datacom enclosures, fiber optic and copper patch panels, face plates, multimedia boxes, fiber optic reels and accessories and other cable and connectivity management accessories. Our products are designed to meet the most demanding needs of end-users, delivering a high degree of reliability and outstanding performance characteristics. During the past five years, OCC has been granted 12 patents for innovative designs of fiber optic and copper connectivity and fiber optic cable.

Our fiber optic and copper cabling and connectivity products and solutions (predominantly passive, rather than active systems) are used for transmission of data, video and voice communications primarily over short- to moderate-distances.

We are widely recognized for our leadership, contributions and support to various industry standards, including the Insulated Cable Engineers Association (ICEA) with respect to North American fiber optic cable standards, and to the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).

Fiber Optic Cable Products

We design, manufacture, market and sell a broad array of top-tier fiber optic and hybrid cables that provide high bandwidth transmission of data, video and voice communications primarily over short- to moderate-distances.

OCC is internationally recognized for pioneering the design and production of fiber optic cables for the most demanding military field applications, as well as fiber optic cables suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and for creating a broad product offering built on the evolution of these fundamental technologies.

Our product line is diverse and versatile, in keeping with evolving application needs of customers within our markets. Our fiber optic cables address a wide range of needs, primarily for the enterprise and data center markets and various harsh environment and specialty markets (the non-carrier markets), ranging from enterprise networks, data centers, residential, campus and Passive Optical LAN (POL) installations, as well as the needs for the harsh environment and specialty markets including military, industrial, mining, petrochemical, renewable energy, distributed sensing, and broadcast applications. Our fiber optic cable offering includes a variety of cable constructions including tight-buffered, loose tube and rollable ribbon cables. OCC also manufactures and sells fiber optic cable and hybrid cable (fiber and copper) products in the wireless carrier market. Our patented tight-buffered fiber unit cables have both high fiber-count and rugged performance in a compact and lightweight design. We believe that we offer one of the most comprehensive fiber optic cable product offerings for our markets.

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We produce fiber optic cables for specialized installations, including various hybrid cables (fiber and copper), and cables with specialty fibers. We offer certain of our fiber optic cables pre-installed in conduit (FIC), for installation time reduction. We armor fiber optic cables for additional protection in certain installations, providing both steel tape and interlocking armor options. We offer cables suitable for underground or overhead installations. For overhead installations, we offer several self-supporting fiber optic cables including both Figure-8 and round messenger construction. We have fiber optic cables available in various flammability ratings. We offer cables combining different types of optical fiber and/or copper wires, with copper wires being used as power feeds. Our hybrid cables include a line of security cables which combine copper power feeds with optical fiber in the cables making them particularly well suited for surveillance cameras and other specialty applications. We also design and manufacture specialty fiber optic cables for use in such applications as: Fiber-to-the-Antenna (FTTA) for cell tower build-outs, military ground tactical, industrial (including tray cables), mining, deployable broadcast, oil and gas, festoon, pierside, distributed sensors, and numerous other applications. Our product offerings also include fiber optic cables complying with or certified to various standards for specialty applications, such as: U.S. Department of Defense; Det Norske Veritas (DNV) type approval certificate for marine shipboard and offshore platform applications; U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) approval for use in mines; and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) type approved cables. We also offer our customers a variety of customized constructions to meet their specific communication needs.

Copper Datacom Cable Products

We market and sell a wide range of high quality copper datacom cables, including unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and shielded twisted pair (F/UTP) constructions, in Category 5e, Category 6 and Category 6A performance ratings, in riser and plenum configurations, and in various colors. The addition of copper datacom cables enables OCC to offer our customers an end-to-end solution for copper network installations.

Enterprise Connectivity Products (Fiber Optic and Copper)

We design, manufacture, market and sell top-tier fiber optic and copper connectivity components for use in a broad range of enterprise, data center, residential, military, harsh environment, and other specialty applications. We are internationally recognized for our role in establishing copper connectivity data communication standards and for our innovative technologies.

The following summarizes the major types of fiber optic and copper enterprise connectivity products and their attributes; however, we produce many other types of connectivity products as well:

Fiber Optic Connectivity Products. Our fiber optic connectivity products provide customers a comprehensive line of fiber optic system solutions for equipment rooms, telecommunications closets, industrial installations, data centers, and workstations, including unique infrastructure and cabling solutions for Passive Optical LAN (POL) installations. Our product offering includes fiber optic wall mount, cabinet mount and rack mount enclosures, NEMA enclosures, pre-terminated fiber optic enclosures, fiber optic connectors, splice trays, fiber optic jumpers, plug and play cassette modules, pre-terminated fiber optic cable trunks, assemblies, adapters, and accessories.

Copper Connectivity Products. OCC’s copper enterprise connectivity products offer customers a comprehensive line of copper system solutions and a line of component compliant products necessary for high speed data and voice applications in equipment rooms, telecommunications closets, data centers and workstations. Our product offering includes: category compliant patch panels, jacks (standard keystone or proprietary bezel configuration), plugs, patch cords, faceplates, surface mounted boxes, distribution and multimedia boxes, copper rack mount and wall mount enclosures, cable assemblies, cable organizers, and other wiring products. OCC provides products compliant with Category 5e, Category 6 and Category 6A standards in both shielded and unshielded offerings. OCC also manufactures industry recognized Category 8 test qualification fixtures, and offers Category 8 plugs based on OCC’s patented technologies. OCC pioneered the required technology for high performance RJ45 connectivity applications to Ethernet, holding multiple patents for electrical performance and usability features.

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Cabinets, Racks and Enclosures. We offer a wide array of high-performance network, data storage and telecommunications management systems for enterprise, data center, and residential use. Our product line includes wall mount enclosures, horizontal and vertical cable management systems and open frame relay racks. These products meet the demands of various network segments. Our products serve the equipment, cross-connect and termination needs for copper and fiber optic multimedia applications as well as wall mount and space saving UL listed ceiling mount enclosures for Passive Optical LANs.

Residential Products. Our product offering includes datacom cabling and connectivity products comprised of various enclosures, modules and modular outlets, and solutions for Passive Optical LAN (POL) installations, designed for single dwelling and multiple dwelling residential use.

Harsh Environment and Specialty Connectivity Products

In addition to our fiber optic and copper enterprise connectivity products described above, we design, manufacture, market and sell specialty fiber optic connectors and connectivity components, fiber optic cable assemblies, certain ruggedized copper datacom connectors, and related deployable systems and solutions for military, harsh environment and other specialty applications.

We manufacture a full range of tactical fiber optic connectors that conform to U.S. Department of Defense standards, such as MIL-PRF-29504, MIL-DTL-83522, MIL-DTL-83526, NAVSEA 7379171, and NAVSEA 7379172. In addition to military specified products, we also design and manufacture commercial grade versions of cylindrical connector products including EZ-MATE™, MHC®-T2, MHC®-T3 and F-LINK™. Many of our products utilize a hermaphroditic design that allows for concatenation of assemblies without regard to connector gender. This design allows for quick and easy deployment and retrieval.

We designed and developed a complete family of lightweight reels, lightweight reel stands and accessories enabling us to offer comprehensive deployable interconnect solutions. Our patented lightweight reels and lightweight reel stands are approved for use by the United States military.

We design and manufacture cylindrical connector products for fixed fiber optic or applications requiring optical fiber and copper connections in the same connector. Our product offering also includes ruggedized RJ45 connectors.

We manufacture a wide variety of simplex, duplex and multi-channel fiber optic assemblies for uses as varied as mining, oil & gas, petrochemical, renewable energy, broadcast, industrial, military and other specialty applications.

Distribution Methods of Products and Services

Our products are sold to major distributors, regional distributors, various specialty and smaller distributors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, and, in certain cases, end-users. Generally, our products are purchased from our customers by contractors, system integrators and end-users.

Competitive Business Conditions, Positions in the Industry and Methods of Competition

The fiber optic and copper data communications cables and connectivity enterprise markets and other short- to moderate-distance markets are highly competitive. Our fiber optic cable product lines compete with products of large fiber optic cable manufacturers such as Corning Incorporated, Berk-Tek Cable (part of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.), CommScope Holding Company, Inc., AFL (a subsidiary of Fujikura Ltd.), Proterial Cable (formerly Hitachi Cable America Inc.), Superior Essex (part of LS Cable & System), Belden Inc., Prysmian Group (including General Cable), and others, some of which manufacture optical fiber. Our copper cable product lines compete with products of large copper cable manufacturers such as Prysmian Group (including General Cable), Berk-Tek Cable (part of Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.), CommScope Holding Company, Inc., Proterial Cable, Superior Essex (part of LS Cable & System), Belden Inc., and others. Our fiber optic and copper connectivity product lines compete with products of large fiber optic and copper connectivity manufacturers such as CommScope Holding Company, Inc., Corning Incorporated, Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc., Legrand S.A. (including Ortronics), Panduit Corp. and others. Our harsh environment and specialty connectivity product lines compete with products of Amphenol Corporation (including AFSI), Aptiv PLC (formerly Delphi Connection Systems), and others.

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Some of our competitors are more established, benefit from greater market recognition and have much greater financial, research and development, production and marketing resources than we do. Competition could increase if new companies enter the market or if existing competitors expand their product lines.

Compliance with Government Laws and Regulations

We are not aware of any material violations at our facilities of any local, state or federal government laws and regulations. We have not incurred any material expenditures related to compliance with government laws and regulations during our 2025 fiscal year, other than those in the ordinary course of business. We believe that we have materially complied with all applicable government laws and regulations.

Customers and End-Users

We have a global customer base, selling into approximately 50 countries in fiscal year 2025.

Our products are sold to major distributors, regional distributors, various specialty and smaller distributors, original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, and, in certain cases, end-users. Generally, our products are purchased from our customers by contractors, system integrators and end-users.

The following is a partial list of representative types of end-users of our fiber optic and copper connectivity and cable products:

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Commercial Institutions. Businesses located in offices, retail space, hospitals and other medical facilities, to name a few, are installing or improving networks to distribute increasing volumes of data at increased speeds. These businesses often use high performance local area networks (“LANs”) or enterprise data centers.

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Government Agencies. Government agencies including offices, complexes, campuses, and other types of government facilities, including military facilities. Like commercial institutions, these agencies routinely are installing or improving high performance LANs or enterprise data centers. Security also may be desired, making our cabling and connectivity solutions a logical choice.

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Data Centers. Data centers use fiber optic cable, connectors, pre-terminated trunks, assemblies and jumpers, fiber optic enclosures, racks, cabinets, and cable management products. Data centers vary in purpose, size and complexity from enormous hyperscale data centers, to multi-tenant data centers (MTDCs), to enterprise data centers. Commercial institutions, government agencies, educational institutions, as well as various other end-users may have enterprise data centers. Our cabling and connectivity products are primarily designed for MTDCs and enterprise data centers.

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Industrial and Manufacturing Facilities. Industrial and manufacturing facilities and complexes often have a more severe environment (including heavy electrical equipment) than other types of businesses. Our fiber optic cable and connectivity products in these environments offer ruggedness, immunity to electrical noise, high information carrying capacity and greater distance capability. Such facilities also have need for our copper cabling and connectivity products. Our products are installed at automotive assembly plants, steel plants, chemical and drug facilities, petrochemical facilities and petroleum refineries, mines, renewable energy complexes, and many other environments.

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Cable Assembly Houses. Cable assembly houses typically manufacture cable trunks, assemblies and jumpers, which are various lengths of cable pre-terminated with connectors. Supporting virtually all segments of the market, these manufacturers use cables and connectivity products. Products sold to customers in this market sometimes may be privately labeled.

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Military. Our core fiber optic cable technologies enable us to develop and efficiently produce fiber optic cables for military tactical applications that survive extreme mechanical and environmental conditions. We are a qualified supplier of ground tactical fiber optic cable for the United States Department of Defense (“U.S. DoD”). We also supply the U.S. DoD with tactical fiber optic cable assemblies, which we sell as fiber optic cables connectorized with qualified military connectors, which can include assemblies on military reels and reel stands ready for deployment.

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Educational Institutions. Colleges, universities, high schools and grade schools are installing and improving data communication networks for higher data transmission speeds and volumes. Installations include buildings, campuses, enterprise data centers, and other facilities.

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Wireless Carriers. We design and manufacture various specialty fiber optic and hybrid (fiber and copper) cables for FTTA applications such as cell phone tower build-outs and upgrades.

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Original Equipment Manufacturers. We private label a number of our products for certain customers and other major manufacturers.

Our extensive technology base and versatile manufacturing processes enable us to respond to diverse customer needs.

Employees and Human Capital Resources

As of October 31, 2025, we employed a total of 348 persons (excluding independent sales representatives and firms). Our employees are all located in the United States and are not represented by unions. We have experienced no work stoppages and we continue to take steps we believe appropriate to ensure our employee relations are good.

We continue to monitor our demand for skilled and unskilled labor and provide training and competitive compensation packages in an effort to attract and retain skilled employees. We believe our employees are key to achieving our business goals and growth strategy. Our human capital measures and objectives focus on safety of our employees, employee benefits and employee development and training. All of our employees are at-will employees, which means that each employee can terminate his or her relationship with us and we can terminate our relationship with him or her at any time.

We have periodically experienced, and may experience in the future, difficulty in identifying and hiring skilled labor for certain positions, particularly in manufacturing, as a result of macroeconomic labor trends, as well as other related factors. These trends and factors can decrease the pool of available qualified talent for certain functions. As a result, we have made and continue to make diligent efforts to recruit, train and retain qualified talent. While we believe our compensation and benefits offerings position us for success in meeting our personnel needs, we continue to be mindful of and responsive to changing labor market dynamics, and we are committed to being competitive in recruiting and retaining the best qualified talent possible.

Seasonality

We typically expect net sales to be relatively lower in the first half of each fiscal year and relatively higher in the second half of each fiscal year, and excluding other volatility, we would normally expect 48% of total net sales to occur during the first half of a fiscal year and 52% of total net sales to occur during the second half of a fiscal year. We believe this historical seasonality pattern is generally indicative of an overall trend and reflective of the buying patterns and budgetary cycles of our customers. However, this pattern may be altered during any quarter or year by the quarterly and annual variability of net sales due to other factors, such as: the timing of larger projects, the timing of orders from larger customers, market demand in certain of our targeted markets, other economic factors impacting our industry or impacting the industries of our customers and end-users, and various macroeconomic conditions. While we believe seasonality may be a factor that impacts our quarterly net sales results, we are not able to reliably predict net sales based on seasonality because net sales variability, due to such other factors, can also, and often does, substantially impact our net sales patterns during the year. During our last two fiscal years, approximately 46% of our total net sales occurred during the first half of fiscal years 2025 and 2024 and approximately 54% of our total net sales occurred during the second half of fiscal years 2025 and 2024.