Retirement Benefit Plan

3 Months Ended

Jan. 02, 2016

NOTE 14EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

One of our 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, termination, disability or death, as defined in the plan. We use a September 30 measurement date for this defined benefit retirement plan.

We recognize the funded status of the defined benefit pension in our Consolidated Balance Sheets, recognize changes in that funded status in the year in which the changes occur through comprehensive income and measure the plan’s assets and obligations that determine the plan’s funded status as of the end of our fiscal year.

Net periodic benefit costs for our defined benefit retirement plan for the three months ended January 2, 2016 and December 27, 2014 included the following components:



	Three Months Ended
		January 2,		December 27,
(in thousands)		2016		2014
Service cost	$	239	$	233
Interest cost		150		172
Expected return on plan assets		(253)		(273)
Net amortization and deferral		144		136
Net periodic benefit cost	$	280	$	268

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 months ended January 2, 2016 and December 27, 2014 was 5.5% and 5.5%, respectively.