NYSE: ZWS

Our strategy is to build Zurn Elkay around a strategic platform that participates in end markets with sustainable growth characteristics where we are, or have the opportunity to become, the industry leader. We have a track record of acquiring and integrating companies and expect to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions that will broaden our product lines, allow us to move into adjacent markets and expand our geographic presence.

The demand for our products is primarily driven by new institutional and commercial building construction, the retrofit of existing structures (to make them more energy and water efficient) and, to a lesser extent, new infrastructure and residential construction. With our broad portfolio of products, we believe we have become a market leader in the industry by developing innovative products that meet stringent third-party regulatory, building, and plumbing code requirements and by subsequently achieving specification of our products into projects and applications.

We are led by an experienced, high-caliber management team that employs ZEBS as a proven operating philosophy to drive excellence and world-class performance in all aspects of our business, which includes our "Voice of the Customer" process to promote superior customer satisfaction and striving for continuous improvement across the business. Our physical footprint encompasses 21 principal manufacturing and warehouse facilities located primarily in North America.

As previously disclosed, on February 12, 2022, Zurn Water Solutions Corporation entered into a definitive agreement to combine with Elkay Manufacturing Company (the “Merger" or "Elkay Merger”). On July 1, 2022, the Merger was completed following which we changed our name to “Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation”. Shares of our common stock are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ZWS”.

Also, as previously disclosed, on October 4, 2021, we completed a Reverse Morris Trust tax-free spin-off transaction (the “Spin-Off Transaction”) in which our former Process & Motion Control business was divested to Regal Rexnord Corporation (formerly known as Regal Beloit Corporation). Following the transaction, we operate as a pure-play water management business. The operating results and financial position of the Process & Motion Control business are reported as discontinued operations within our consolidated financial statements.

ZEBS

ZEBS creates a scalable, process-based framework that focuses on driving superior customer satisfaction and financial results by targeting world-class operating performance throughout all aspects of our business. ZEBS is based on the following principles: (1) strategy deployment (a long-term strategic planning process that determines annual improvement priorities and the actions necessary to achieve those priorities); (2) measuring our performance based on customer satisfaction, or the "Voice of the Customer;" (3) involvement of all our associates in the execution of our strategy; and (4) a culture that embraces Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement and the concepts around 80/20 simplification. We believe applying ZEBS can yield superior growth, quality, delivery and operating costs relative to our competition, resulting in enhanced profitability and ultimately the creation of stockholder value. As we continue to apply ZEBS, we have experienced improvements in growth, productivity, cost reduction and asset efficiency and believe there are ongoing opportunities to improve our performance.

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Our Business

Zurn Elkay is a growth-oriented, pure-play water management business that designs, procures, manufactures, and markets what we believe to be the broadest sustainable product portfolio of specification-driven water management solutions to improve health, hydration, human safety and the environment. Our product portfolio includes professional grade water safety and control products, flow systems products, hygienic and environmental products, and filtered drinking water products for public and private spaces that deliver superior value to building owners, positively impact the environment and human hygiene and reduce product installation time. Our products are marketed and sold under widely recognized brand names, including Zurn®, Elkay®, Wilkins®, Green Turtle®, World Dryer®, StainlessDrains.com™, JUST®, Hadrian®, Wade®, and Halsey Taylor®.

Over the past century, Zurn Elkay has established itself as an innovator and leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of highly engineered products and solutions that control the flow, delivery, treatment and conservation of water as well as human hygiene to and within institutional and commercial buildings and, to a lesser extent, for waterworks and residential applications. The institutional construction end users include education, healthcare, and government segments. The commercial construction end users include retail, office, lodging, dining, warehouse, and sports arenas segments. The waterworks end users include municipal water and wastewater and transportation segments. The demand for our products is primarily driven by new institutional and commercial building construction, the retrofit of existing structures (to make them more energy and water efficient) and, to a lesser extent, new waterworks and residential construction.

Our products are principally specification-driven given their technical design and ability to meet certain performance characteristics. They deliver superior value to building owners, positively impact the environment and human health and hygiene and reduce product installation time while meeting the stringent county-specific regulatory, building, and plumbing code requirements. These stringent testing and regulatory approval processes are completed principally through the Foundation for Cross-Connection Control and Hydraulic Research at the University of Southern California ("USC"), the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials ("IAPMO"), the National Sanitation Foundation ("NSF"), the American National Standards Institute ("ANSI"), ASTM International ("ASTM"), the Plumbing and Drainage Institute ("PDI"), Underwriters Laboratories ("UL"), Factory Mutual ("FM") and the American Waterworks Association ("AWWA") typically prior to the commercialization of our products. Our products are project-critical and typically represent a low percentage of the overall project cost. We believe these characteristics, coupled with our extensive distribution network, create a high level of end-user loyalty for our products and allow us to achieve specification of our products into projects and applications and to maintain leading market shares in the majority of our product lines.

We utilize an extensive sales and marketing network with a strong focus on the North American market. This market consists of approximately 1,000 independent sales representatives across 120 sales agencies in North America. Specifically, it has been our experience that, once an architect, engineer, contractor, or owner has specified our product with satisfactory results, that person will generally continue to use our products in future projects. The inclusion of our products in project specifications, combined with our ability to innovate, engineer, and deliver products and systems that save time and money in both installation and over the life of the product for engineers, architects, contractors and builders has resulted in growing demand for our products. Our distribution model is predicated upon maintaining high product availability near our customers. We believe this model provides us with a competitive advantage as we can meet our customer demand with local inventory at significantly reduced lead times as compared with others in our industry.

Our Markets

We evaluate our competitive position in our markets based on available market data, relevant benchmarks compared to our relative peer group and industry trends. We generally do not participate in segments of our served markets that have been commoditized or in applications that do not require differentiation based on product quality, reliability and innovation. We serve a broad and diverse array of institutional and commercial end markets, and to a lesser extent waterworks and residential end markets, with solid fundamental long-term growth characteristics. We believe there continues to be long-term growth potential in our markets.

The markets in which we participate are relatively fragmented with competitors across a broad range of industries, sectors, and product lines. Although competition exists across all of our businesses, we do not believe that any one competitor directly competes with us across the breadth of all of our product lines. We believe our served markets are growing long term at relatively strong rates, and that the growing demand for water safety, conservation, hygienic solutions, availability of clean drinking water, and the elimination of plastic water bottles can potentially support market growth above that of overall United States industrial production. We believe that we can continue to grow our platform long term at rates above the growth rate of the overall market and the growth rate of our competition, by focusing our efforts and resources towards end markets that have above-average growth characteristics.

We believe the areas in which we compete are primarily tied to growth in institutional and commercial construction, as well as, to a lesser extent, waterworks and residential. We believe these areas have significant long-term growth fundamentals.

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Historically, the institutional, commercial, and waterworks construction sectors have been more stable and less vulnerable to down-cycles than the residential construction industry. Compared with residential construction cycles, downturns in waterworks, institutional and commercial construction have been shorter and less severe, and upturns have lasted longer and had higher peaks in terms of spending as well as units and square footage. In addition, we believe water management manufacturers with innovative products, like ours, are able to grow at a faster pace than the broader waterworks, institutional, and commercial construction markets, as well as mitigate cyclical downturns in market growth.

The industry's specification-driven end markets require manufacturers to work closely with building owners, local engineers, architects, contractors and builders to design specific applications on a project-by-project basis that meet specific local performance requirements as well as building owners' needs. As a result, building and maintaining relationships with owners, architects, engineers, contractors and builders, who specify products for use in construction projects, and having flexibility in design and product innovation are critical to compete effectively in these markets. Companies with a strong network of such relationships have a competitive advantage. Specifically, it has been our experience that, once an owner, engineer, contractor, builder, or architect has specified our product with satisfactory results, they often will continue to use our products in future projects.

Our Products

Our products tend to be project-critical, highly-engineered and high value-add and typically are a low percentage of overall project cost. We believe the combination of these features can create a high level of end-user loyalty, reinforced by our investments in developing innovative new product solutions. Demand for these products is influenced by regulatory, building and plumbing code requirements. Many of our products must meet stringent county, state or municipal-specific regulatory, building, and plumbing code requirements prior to the commercialization of our products (such as IAPMO, NSF, ANSI, UL, FM, PDI, ASTM, and AWWA). In addition, many of these products must meet detailed specifications set by water management engineers, architects, contractors and builders. Our leading brands include Zurn®, Elkay®, and Wilkins®.

Drinking Water Products

Our drinking water product line includes an extensive collection of filtered drinking water delivery products oriented around providing cleaner and safer drinking water while improving overall water hygiene, accessibility and sustainability. Our drinking water products are sold under the Elkay® and Halsey Taylor® brand names and filtered units include water filters certified by NSF and ANSI to reduce the level of contaminants in water, including lead, microplastics, and total polyfluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS") chemicals (as defined by NSF/ANSI 53), also known as forever chemicals. Elkay’s water dispensing and filtration products, predominantly comprised of filtered bottle filling stations, water fountains and water dispensers, and filtered faucets, are often plumbed directly into building water systems and required to comply with strict applicable codes and standards. Elkay's drinking water solutions are designed to meet or exceed facility needs and specifications of education, healthcare, hospitality, multifamily, municipal, office, retail and commercial facilities, as well as residential applications. In 2025, Elkay launched Pro FiltrationTM, the latest evolution of our trusted ezH2O® Bottle Filling Station line, advancing both water quality and sustainability with up to 10,000 gallon filtration capacity. Pro Filtration features a new top-mounted filter housing that allows anyone to replace filters in under 30 seconds, reducing downtime and improving operational efficiency. These units can be equipped with a range of filters certified to NSF/ANSI 42, 53, and 401 requirements to reduce PFAS, lead, microplastics, asbestos and other contaminants.

Water Safety and Control Products

Our water safety and control products are sold under the Zurn® and Wilkins® brand names and encompass a wide range of valve and water distribution control products. Key valve products include backflow preventers, fire system valves, pressure reducing valves and thermostatic mixing valves. These highly specified and engineered flow control devices protect and control the potable water supply and emergency water supply within a building or site. Designed to meet the stringent requirements of independent test labs, such as the IAPMO, NSF, UL, FM and USC, they are sold into institutional, commercial, and residential new construction and retrofit applications as well as the fire protection, municipal water and wastewater and irrigation end markets.

Flow Systems Products

Flow systems products are commonly installed within a building or on a site to manage storm water and wastewater. Specification drainage products within flow systems include point drains (such as roof drains and floor drains), hydrants, fixture carrier systems, and chemical drainage systems that are used to control storm water, process water and potable water in various institutional, commercial, industrial, civil and irrigation applications. Linear drainage systems are used to capture and direct storm water in a wide variety of institutional, commercial, industrial and transportation infrastructure applications. Our wastewater pre-treatment products include oil and grease interceptors and separators, acid neutralization systems and remote monitoring systems and are marketed under the Zurn®, Green Turtle®, and Wade® brands. Interceptors are used to separate and capture fats, oils, and greases from wastewater before it is discharged into the municipal wastewater collection system. Our

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proprietary designs are primarily fabricated from fiberglass reinforced polyester, which we believe is gaining market share from traditional concrete products due to its reliability, service life, ease of service, and lowest cost of ownership. Applications include restaurants and institutional foodservice operations, office buildings, hotels, entertainment venues, schools, grocery and convenience stores, airports, vehicle service garages, and fleet operations and maintenance facilities. Acid neutralization systems are primarily used in schools, hospitals and laboratories.

Hygienic and Environmental Products

Hygienic and environmental products are typically required in the latter stages of a construction or retrofit project, when interior spaces are being outfitted with fixtures, valves and faucets. Zurn Elkay's hygienic and environmental products include primarily sensor-operated flush valves marketed under the Aquaflush®, AquaSense® and AquaVantage® brand names, heavy-duty commercial faucets marketed under the AquaSpec® brand name, and flush valves and faucets marketed under the Hydro X Power® brand name. Innovative water conserving fixtures are marketed under the EcoVantage® and Zurn One® brand names. These products are commonly used in schools, hospitals, office buildings, airports, sports facilities, convention centers, shopping malls, restaurants, and industrial production buildings. The Zurn One Systems® integrate valve and/or faucet products with fixtures into complete, easily customizable plumbing systems, and thus provide a valuable time and cost-saving means of delivering institutional and commercial bathroom fixtures. The EcoVantage® fixture systems promote water-efficiency, health and hygiene and assist in achieving compliance with certain water conservation requirements, and generate savings for building owners in new construction and retrofit bathroom fixture installations.

Zurn Elkay's hygienic and environmental products also include stainless steel, quartz, fireclay-ceramic, and cast iron sinks marketed under the Elkay® brand name and stainless steel sinks and plumbing fixtures marketed under the JUST® brand name, as well as restroom partition systems and lockers, marketed under the Hadrian® brand name, which are primarily used in institutional and commercial end markets. The combination of Elkay's wide array of sinks recognized for their design, durability and aesthetics, World Dryer’s eco-friendly hand dryers, Just Manufacturing's stainless steel product portfolio, Hadrian’s partition systems and Zurn's water-efficient fixtures allows us to deliver a bundle of products to our customers, what we believe is the most comprehensive hygienic and environmental content to new and existing buildings.

Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are a critical part of the Zurn Elkay growth strategy. Our mergers and acquisitions strategy is to grow strategically by acquiring leading companies in attractive markets with businesses that we believe will benefit from ZEBS to increase customer satisfaction, revenue growth and operating margins. We continue to evaluate opportunities focused on expanding our product portfolio in the industry's specification-driven end markets.

Customers

Our water safety and control, flow systems, hygienic and environmental, and filtered drinking water products are sold for new construction, remodeling and retrofit applications to customers in institutional, commercial, waterworks and residential end markets and are distributed through independent sales representatives, plumbing wholesalers and industry-specific distributors in the waterworks, foodservice, industrial, janitorial, sanitation and siteworks industries. Our independent sales representatives work with building owners, engineers, architects, operators, contractors, and builders, to specify our products for their use and with wholesalers to assess and meet the needs of building contractors in construction projects. They also combine knowledge of our products’ installation methods and delivery availability with local market expertise to provide contractors with value-added service. We use approximately 1,000 independent sales representatives within North America, along with a network of regional distribution centers and third-party warehouses, to provide our customers with same-day service and quick response times. Zurn®, Elkay®, JUST®, Hadrian®, and Wilkins® benefit from strong brand recognition, which is enhanced by a strong propensity to replace "like-for-like" products. The Company’s largest customer accounted for 18%, 19% and 20% of consolidated net sales for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively. No other customers account for more than 10% of consolidated net sales for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, or 2023.

Product Development

The majority of our new product development begins with our extensive "Voice of the Customer" operating philosophy. We have a team of approximately 180 engineers and technical employees who are organized by product line. Each of our product lines has technical staff responsible for product development and application support.

Zurn Elkay has approximately 240 active patents in the United States and approximately 90 foreign active patents as of December 31, 2025. Product innovation is crucial in the institutional and commercial plumbing products markets because new products must continually be developed to meet specifications and regulatory demands as well as customer needs. Zurn Elkay's products are known in the industry for such innovation. Our innovation is focused on introducing products that provide incremental value to our end customer and help enable our customers to achieve their sustainability goals by focusing innovation on products that save water, use less energy, provide clean drinking water, reduce installation time, lower maintenance costs, and other sustainable attributes.

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Our digital strategy for a customer productivity platform is based on the integration of technology with Zurn Elkay's leading portfolio of products. Our secure online portal, plumbSMART™, allows for real-time insights from our Connected Products including wireless monitoring of usage trends, filter status, water consumption, possible issues and alerts through digitally connected product solutions that can be retrofitted to the installed base of our products. This information is used by our customers’ operations and maintenance staff through their facility and automation control systems and cloud-based portals to minimize unplanned system downtime and improve the productivity and safety of their operations.

Suppliers and Raw Materials

The principal materials used in our manufacturing processes are commodities and components available from numerous sources. The key materials used in our manufacturing activities include: bronze, iron, brass, stainless steel, carbon steel, zinc, and engineered plastics. Our global sourcing strategy is to maintain alternate sources of supply for our important materials and components wherever possible.

Historically, we have been able to successfully source materials and consequently are not dependent on a single source for any significant raw material or component. As a result, we believe there is a readily available supply of materials in sufficient quantity from a variety of sources to serve both our short-term and long-term requirements. Additionally, we have not experienced any significant shortage of our key materials and have not historically engaged in hedging transactions for commodity supplies. We generally purchase our materials on the open market.

In addition to our domestic manufacturing facilities, we maintain a global network of independent sources that manufacture high quality, lower-cost component parts for our products. These sources fabricate parts to our specifications using our proprietary designs, which enables us to focus on product engineering, assembly, testing and quality control. By closely monitoring these sources and through extensive product testing, we are able to maintain product quality and be cost-competitive.

Seasonality

Demand for our products is primarily driven by institutional and commercial building activity, remodeling and retrofit opportunities, and to a lesser extent, new home starts as well as waterworks expansion. Accordingly, weather has an impact on the seasonality of certain end markets. With the exception of our remodeling and retrofit opportunities, weather is an important variable as it significantly impacts construction. Spring and summer months in the United States and Canada represent the main construction season with increased construction in the institutional, commercial, and waterworks markets, as well as new housing starts. As a result, sales generally decrease slightly in the first and fourth quarters as compared to the second and third quarters of the calendar year.

Our business also depends upon general economic conditions and other market factors beyond our control, and we serve customers in cyclical industries. As a result, our operating results have been, and in the future likely will be, negatively affected during economic downturns. See Item 1A, Risk Factors of this report for information on the risks associated with general economic conditions.

Human Capital Management

As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 2,600 employees, of whom approximately 2,000 were employed in the United States. Approximately 160 of our United States employees are represented by labor unions. We are currently party to four collective bargaining agreements in the United States with expiration dates in November 2026, October 2027, and January 2028. We believe we have a strong relationship with our employees, including those represented by labor unions.

Zurn Elkay strives to attract, retain and develop the talent necessary to meet our goals. Our Human Resources programs are designed to, among other aims, develop talent for critical roles and leadership positions, reward and support associates through competitive compensation and benefits, and promote the health and safety of our associates.

Associates: We are committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of inclusion and belonging where our associates are engaged and fulfilled. We recognize and value our associates for the unique perspectives they bring to Zurn Elkay – from different ages, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, veteran status and abilities, including individuals who bring diverse opinions, experience and leadership styles to their work at Zurn Elkay.

Training and Talent Development: We are committed to having a workplace that fosters learning, development and innovation. Our leadership team conducts a robust program of employee engagement and we have invested in the personal and professional development of our employees. Each year all employees are trained on various policies and procedures along with matters specific to their respective roles within the organization. We monitor metrics to ensure the health of our company culture and alignment with our values and strategic business priorities. Each year, we survey our employees to better understand what matters most to them. We also strive to provide competitive compensation and benefits for our associates.

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Health and Safety: The safety of our associates is a top priority. To be our best and maintain integrity in everything we do, we strive to provide associates with the right tools and resources. Through continual training and engaging associates and visitors in addressing safety issues, we have reduced our Total Recordable Incident Rate ("TRIR") by 43% when compared to the combined Zurn Elkay rate for calendar year 2022, at the time of the Merger, and also reduced our Lost Time Incident Rate ("LTIR") by 43% over the same period. At 0.69 TRIR and 0.21 LTIR per 100 associates, we are better than best-in-class benchmarks. We are also committed to improving the holistic health and well-being of our associates and have various programs in place to provide information, activities and support for assisting healthy choices.

Compliance with Laws and Regulations

Our operations and facilities are subject to extensive laws and regulations, including those related to trade taxes, government contracts, pollution and the protection of the environment, health and safety, including those governing, among other things, emissions to air, discharges to water, climate change, the generation, handling, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes and other materials, and the remediation of contaminated sites. A failure by us to comply with applicable requirements or the permits required for our operations could result in civil or criminal fines, penalties, enforcement actions, third-party claims for property damage and personal injury, requirements to clean up property or to pay for the costs of cleanup or regulatory or judicial orders enjoining or curtailing operations or requiring corrective measures, including the installation of pollution control equipment or remedial actions.

Some environmental laws and regulations impose requirements to investigate and remediate contamination on present and former owners and operators of facilities and sites, and on a potentially responsible party ("PRP") for sites to which such parties may have sent waste for disposal. Such liability can be imposed without regard to fault and, under certain circumstances, may be joint and several, resulting in one PRP being held responsible for the entire obligation. Liability may also include damage to natural resources. On occasion we are involved in such investigations and/or cleanup, and we have been named as a PRP in environmental matters and could be named in future matters.

We do not currently anticipate any significant additional expenses related to maintaining compliance; however, due to the evolving nature of laws and regulations and changes thereto, there can be no assurance that current expenses will be adequate or that violations will not occur.

Additional Information

The address of our principal executive office is 511 West Freshwater Way, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53204. Our phone number is (855) 480-5050. Our website address is www.zurnelkay.com. We make available free of charge, on or through our website, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and proxy statements on Schedule 14A, as well as amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). Copies of any materials that we file with the SEC can also be obtained free of charge through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, our website includes (i) the charters for the Audit Committee, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, Compensation Committee, and Sustainability Committee of our Board of Directors; (ii) our Corporate Governance Guidelines; and (iii) our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. We will also post on our website any amendments to these documents, and information about any waivers granted to directors or executive officers with respect to our Code of Ethics. Our website and the information contained on or connected to that site are not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K.

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