9.3.9Segment

Printed Circuit Boards & EMS

Electronics manufacturing services companies and PCB fabricators providing contract manufacturing and assembly.

4
Verticals

Overview

Printed Circuit Boards & EMS covers the manufacture of bare printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) — the contract assembly of electronic products on behalf of brands. At ~$29B in U.S. activity it includes domestic PCB makers and the U.S. operations of EMS giants (Jabil, Flex, Sanmina, Celestica), though most high-volume EMS is offshore.

Demand is driven by electronics production across industries and, increasingly, by reshoring and supply-chain-resilience efforts plus defense and high-reliability requirements that favor domestic manufacturing. It is consolidating around scaled EMS providers and fragmented among PCB makers, with reshoring, defense/aerospace, and high-mix/low-volume work the growth areas for U.S. production.

Market snapshot

Market size
~$29B
Growth
~5.5%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
Companies
~1,130 firms
Firms by employee count

52.7% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 595 micro-businesses, below most mandates.

The investable universe535 firms with 20+ employees
20–99
33362%
100–499
13325%
500+
6913%

Contract assembly is where supply-chain relocation shows up first, and it grew faster than the components it assembles. The economics are volume and qualification: once a board is approved into a regulated product, the assembler is very hard to displace.

NAICS 334412, 334418. U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Economic Census.

Business model & economics

Revenue model

PCB manufacturing and contract-assembly (EMS) fees

Key economics

Revenue per firm
$25,524,181
Revenue per employee
$381,709
Employees per firm
63.2
Recurring revenue
Moderate

recurring contract-manufacturing programs

EBITDA margin
Thin EMS; better for high-mix/specialty
Capex intensity
High

Characteristics

  • Scale-driven — payroll is only 16% of revenue; the cost base is assets, not headcount
  • Moderate strategic-buyer pool — 69 firms exceed 500 employees; a scaled asset has buyers, but not many
  • Bare PCBs and contract electronics assembly.
  • Reshoring and defense favoring domestic production.
  • High-mix/low-volume the U.S. growth niche.

NAICS 334412, 334418. U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Economic Census.

Geographic concentration

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaColoradoFloridaGeorgiaIndianaKansasMaineMassachusettsMinnesotaNew JerseyNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOklahomaSouth DakotaTexasWyomingConnecticutMissouriWest VirginiaNew MexicoArkansasDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaHawaiiIowaKentuckyMarylandMichiganMississippiMontanaNew HampshireNew YorkOhioOregonTennesseeUtahVirginiaWashingtonWisconsinNebraskaSouth CarolinaIdahoNevadaVermontLouisianaRhode IslandPennsylvaniaIllinoisCalifornia

California, Illinois and Pennsylvania — contract assembly clusters near the design teams it prototypes for and the regulated manufacturers it qualifies into, rather than near cheap labour.

CaliforniaIllinoisPennsylvania

U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses (firms by state), NAICS 334412/334418. Concentration shown by location quotient.

M&A deal context

Deal activityModerate

Who’s acquiring

  • EMS majors (Jabil, Flex, Sanmina)
  • PE-backed PCB/EMS consolidators
  • Defense & specialty acquirers

What’s driving deals

  • Reshoring and supply-chain resilience.
  • Defense/aerospace and high-reliability demand.
  • EMS and PCB consolidation.

Verticals in this segment

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