Retirement Benefit Plan

9 Months Ended

Jun. 27, 2015

14. Retirement Benefit Plan

One of the Company’s German subsidiaries has a non-contributory, defined benefit retirement plan for eligible employees. This plan provides benefits based on the employee’s years of service and compensation during the years immediately preceding retirement, early retirement, termination, disability, or death, as defined in the plan.

During the fiscal year 2014, the Company initiated workforce reduction actions. These actions resulted in terminations of German employees who are eligible to receive future benefits under the German defined benefit pension plan. See Note 15 in Condensed Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information regarding the Company’s cost reduction actions that were initiated during the three months ended December 28, 2013.

The cost of the plan for the three and nine months ended June 27, 2015 and June 28, 2014 included the following components:



	Three Months Ended				Nine Months Ended
		June 27,		June 28,		June 27,		June 28,
		2015		2014		2015		2014
	(in thousands)
Service cost	$	207	$	203	$	652	$	604
Interest cost		152		211		481		630
Expected return on plan assets		(243)		(259)		(765)		(774)
Net amortization and deferral		121		117		380		350
Special termination benefits		-		(56)		-		26
Net periodic benefit cost	$	237	$	216	$	748	$	836

The weighted average expected long-term rate of return on plan assets used to determine the net periodic benefit cost for each of the three and nine months ended June 27, 2015 and June 28, 2014 was 5.5%