Gentex — Jan 31, 2025 release

“Despite the many headwinds that impacted revenue and gross margins in 2024, we were able to continue to make improvements to the gross margin profile of the Company. The improvements made in 2024, combined with our targeted improvements for 2025, provide the roadmap and plan to achieve a target of approximately 35% gross margin by the end of 2025," concluded Downing. For calendar year 2024, operating expenses increased 17% to $311.4 million, compared to operating expenses of $266.9 million for calendar year 2023. "Net of the impairment charges discussed previously, the total operating expense for the year was in-line with our forecasted operating expenses for Exhibit 99.1 2024. The Company has been investing heavily in engineering capability over the last two years in order to support the elevated rate of launches driven by customer awards, to accelerate our research and development activity necessary to execute the new technologies and product roadmaps showcased at CES, and to fund R&D activity required to achieve product redesigns in support of our cost improvement initiatives. The plan for 2025 is based on a much lower growth rate in operating expenses for the year as we believe the new base line of engineering spend is sufficient to support our current engineering initiatives,” concluded Downing. For calendar year 2024, the Company's effective tax rate was 14.3%, compared to an effective tax rate of 15.2% for calendar year 2023. The decrease in the tax rate in 2024 was primarily driven b