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Financial Summary (in thousands, except per share and ratio data) Fiscal Year: 2024 2025 Change Net sales Operating income Net earnings (see note 1) Stockholders' equity 1,578,887 $ 77,770 41,224 633,023 1,458,603 107,231 63,318 582,893 8.2% -27.5% -34.9% 8.6% Diluted earnings per share (see note 1) Total stockholders' equity per equivalent common share (see note 2) 5.90 $ 90.70 $ 8.56 81.69 -31.1% 11.0% Total debt/equity ratio Current ratio 0.62 3.52 1.10 6.40 Note 1: Seneca Foods Corporation uses the last-in, first out ( LIFO ) accounting methodology for valuing inventory as it believes this method allows for better matching of current production costs to current revenue. The LIFO accounting methodology decreased net earnings by $25.9 million (a reduction of $3.71 per diluted share) and by $16.8 million (a reduction of $2.28 per diluted share) in fiscal years 2025 and 2024, respectively. The net earnings impact is calculated by applying the statutory rate of 24.9% for fiscal year 2025 and 24.6% for fiscal year 2024 to the pre-tax LIFO charge. Note 2: Equivalent common shares are either common shares or, for convertible preferred shares, the number of common shares that the preferred shares are convertible into. Description of Business Seneca Foods Corporation ( Seneca or the Company ) conducts its business almost entirely in food packaging, which comprised 98% of the Company's total net sales in fiscal year 2025. Canned vegetables represented 83%, frozen vegetables represented 8%, fruit products represented 6%, and snack products represented 1% of the total food packaging net sales. Non-food packaging sales, which primarily related to the sale of cans, ends, seed and outside revenue from the Company's aircraft operations, represented 2% of the Company's fiscal year 2025 net sales. Approximately 13% of the Company s packaged foods were sold under its own brands, or licensed trademarks, including Seneca , Libby's , Green Giant , Aunt Nellie's , CherryMan , Green Valley and READ . The remaining 87% of packaged foods were sold under other segments including private labels, food service, restaurant chains, international, contracting packaging, and industrial. Fairport, New York June 12, 2025 1
To Our Shareholders, The Company recorded net earnings for fiscal 2025 of $41.2 million or $5.90 per diluted share on net sales of $1,578.9 million versus net earnings of $63.3 million or $8.56 per diluted share on net sales of $1,458.6 million in fiscal 2024. Despite cost challenges relating to the short pack in 2024 and effects of ongoing and most notably steel tariffs, fiscal year 2025 was another pretty good year. As a reminder, it is always important to consider that included in our current year s earnings is the impact of our LIFO accounting method for inventory. For fiscal year 2025 this represented a $34.5 million non-cash charge to earnings before income taxes vs a $22.3 million non-cash charge to earnings before income taxes for fiscal 2024. These LIFO charges were expected given the continued impact of inflation and the afore mentioned pack related costs. Without the LIFO charge, the Company s fiscal 2025 and 2024 net earnings would be $67.1 million or $9.61 per diluted share and $80.1 million or $10.84 per diluted share respectively. The fiscal 2025 packing season was one of the most difficult in my 38 years with the Company. While Mother Nature often delivers some challenges, the 2024 growing season was historic with persistent wet weather during critical portions of our planting and growing season. While we have significant geographic spread, our facilities are still located in the major growing regions for the crops we process. From early May until mid-August our Minnesota and Wisconsin growing regions experienced the wettest period since the 1880 s. This led to extended periods of time when no planting was able to be accomplished and there was significant damage to crops that were growing due to the excess rainfall. When the pack was concluded, between the crops that were prevented from being planted and the reduced yield for acres harvested, we delivered tonnage to our processing facilities at 70-75% of budget, depending upon the crop. This represents the poorest overall tonnage delivery in memory. Our plants performed as well as could be expected but ran well below capacity much of the season and costs from the 2024 pack reflect the reduced volume and suboptimal operating posture. It was only plentiful inventories from the 2023 crop that allowed us to meet the fifty-two week needs of our customers. The good news is that coming in to the 2025 pack season, inventories will be at normal to below normal levels. As such, our production plan for the upcoming season will be to run our facilities at capacity in order to meet customer demand going forward and to replenish an appropriate level of safety stock. The past year certainly saw the rate of inflation moderating but we still saw increases in labor and some other costs. Raw product contract prices for the 2024 crop to our more than 1,100 producer partners were down approximately 20% from the previous year but were more than offset by the significant impact of the weather related short pack season. As we developed pricing for the coming 2025 pack season we saw even further decreases driven by the weak commodity markets that we benchmark against. In our business, in addition to the normal fixed costs associated with the plant, our facilities are only operating during the harvest season and incur significant offseason expense in getting ready for the next season that also effectively becomes fixed. When we have reduced volume, the impact on our unit cost is significant. These offseason costs are largely sunk and there is simply no way to mitigate when faced with a short pack, highlighting the importance of running our plants at capacity each year. In addition, some of our business is under fixed price annual contracts where we had limited opportunity to pass along increased costs. However, where possible, we did make necessary adjustments. In times like these, the value of our copack business characterized by low margins but with actual cost plus pricing is highlighted. Certainly, our desire is to focus on the lowest possible cost for our customers and ultimately the consumer, but pricing must remain sustainable in challenging times such as these. On balance, we did experience some cost driven margin compression reflected in the year s overall results. Imports continued to be an area of concern, all-be-it less so than several years ago as our inventories supported our ability to supply our customers needs. To some degree, shortages through the pandemic led to the establishment of these supply chains and the related uptick in imports. Many customers seem to be realizing that the additional challenges around logistics, quality, reliability and tariff risk are not worth the lower costs that sometimes accompany imports. It should be understood that a portion of these import supply chains were established following COVID where our industry was not able to meet demand and actually had shortages. Imports from these sources have been slowly declining over the past year as our inventories supported our customers needs, but more recently the tariffs have really shut off the flow of imports of our products. A silver lining to the shadow cast by tariff impacts. I would like to spend a few words discussing the impact of steel tariffs on our business. Of course, given the volatility of the situation, my comments are qualified to reflect the situation as we presently know it. For starters, we have been dealing with steel tariffs since 2018. Over that period one of the two tinplate producers in the U.S. has closed and the industry has gone from twelve tin coating lines pre-tariff to just four today, with only three operating. This situation has led to domestic production only being able to supply 25% (generously) or so of domestic demand and has resulted in a significantly higher reliance on imports. Given the high price of tin plate in the U.S. relative to other parts of the world, it remains an attractive market for many suppliers despite the 25% Section 232 tariffs that have been in place. While there were modifications announced to the tariffs in March under the current administration, it left the impact from most countries unchanged. Only those who had previously been exempted were now brought under the 25% tariff. Tinplate is the most significant part of the cost structure for the products we sell. While tinplate cost has increased at least 70% since tariffs were first broadly applied in 2018, these costs are largely incorporated in to our selling price structure. However, the March changes combined with the recent announcement doubling steel tariffs from 25% to 50%, which was not only unexpected and the impact is still being evaluated, will inevitably lead to increased costs to the consumer. 2
As we look at our unit volumes over the past year we are very pleased. Total unit volumes over the past year were up just under 6% vs the previous year, with increases in almost all sales channels. Areas with reductions were Food Service and Frozen which were down 2% and 5% respectively almost entirely driven by the short pack of 2024 and lack of key items to sell. Our Branded Retail business benefited from a full year of Green Giant volume as opposed to the previous year when those volumes were split between our Branded and Co-pack channels. Regarding Green Giant we are pleased with where we are and have stopped the distribution declines relating to the previous owner and have begun to see new business with our expanded offerings of new items, including Green Giant canned pumpkin. Our International business has stabilized after declines the past couple of years associated with increased costs relating to steel tariffs as well as unfavorable exchange rates. Presently, it faces significant uncertainty as tariffs of the current administration and retaliatory tariffs from our trading partners play out. We remain committed to this cyclical business and recent exchange rate movements have been favorable. Our Co-pack segment volumes were up versus last year and based upon volume commitments for 2025 will continue to see increases, barring an unfavorable 2025 growing and packing season. As previously mentioned, our Canned Food Service business was down slightly as a result of continued pressure from imports to many of the school and state bid customers. We are already seeing opportunities in this channel as tariffs impact the level of imports in the market. We also are seeing more opportunities for strategic relationships with customers interested in reliable supply in Food Service and the National Chain Account segments that we are pursuing. Overall, we remain focused on unit volume and have a very aggressive production plan in place for 2025 with our facilities running at capacity. Turning for a moment to our fruit and snack businesses including Gray & Company and Seneca Snack. First, our Snack business had a very good year with volumes for our Branded Seneca Apple Chips up slightly. Additionally, we worked with a national retailer to introduce a new item under their private label that has done exceptionally well. We also continue to explore other opportunities to utilize existing capacity. We are seeing some pricing pressure on raw apples as tariffs have limited imported apple concentrate from China creating more demand for domestic concentrate but believe that necessary adjustments to our pricing will be modest. We remain pleased with where we are at Seneca Snack. Moving to our Gray & Company maraschino and glace business, we really had an exceptional year in fiscal 2025. We have finally fully integrated all of the acquisitions over the past years and have incorporated all of the major investments there and are seeing the benefits. Tariffs will impact our glace fruit business leading to price increases to pass along, in as much as all candied pineapple and orange peel is imported from Thailand and the EU respectively. The other area that we are working hard on is evaluating natural alternatives to the artificial coloring used for cherries. While we do not use the already scheduled to be banned Red 3, we do use Red 40 which has recently been targeted for voluntary phase out. There are natural alternatives that we have been working with although they do not duplicate the traditional red color of a maraschino cherry, and present operational and shelf-life challenges in addition to significant incremental costs for the natural alternatives. More work is needed here but in the current environment there are a lot of people working to find solutions should Red 40 be phased out. In the area of natural colors we also see great opportunities. As a part of our vegetable business we have for many years supplied a completely natural red color using a proprietary beet variety. We believe that we are the only domestic producer of this particular product, given its extremely high concentration of red color relative to competitive alternatives. We grow the crop, extract the color and have been a supplier to other companies who specialize in the food coloring channel. With recent actions to ban Red 3, to say nothing of the potential to phase out Red 40, we are seeing significantly increased demand for our products to the point that we will be making significant investments to further expand capacity. Full-time staffing, particularly for skilled hourly positions, remains a challenge for the business requiring continuous monitoring and adjustments to remain competitive and attractive as an employer. Regarding our seasonal workforce it cannot be overemphasized that this workforce is absolutely essential to our success. Many of our seasonal employees have been with us for decades and may represent third and even fourth generations working for the Company. Over the past five years or so we have made significant investments in wages to remain competitive as well as over $21 million in seasonal housing that we believe are the key factors helping to keep us an attractive employer to our workforce. As we entered the 2024 pack season, for the first time in memory, we actually had a waiting list of seasonal workers interested in joining us. Our experience ahead of the 2025 recruiting season has been similar. We are continuously evaluating what we can do to remain attractive and competitive in order to recruit and retain our workforce in both the fulltime and seasonal areas for which we heavily rely on and appreciate. While we continue to view our stock as undervalued and buybacks remain part of our capital allocation strategy once other capital needs are met, given the performance of the stock over the past year our repurchases were just 194,370 shares at an average price of $59.64 vs fiscal 2024 where we repurchased 634,231 shares at an average price of $52.23 per share. The fiscal year 2025 repurchases represented just 2.8% of our outstanding shares and impacted diluted earnings per share by $0.16 per share increasing to $5.90 per share. 3
 • shareholder letter icon 7/7/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 • stockholder letter icon More "Food & Beverage" Category Stockholder Letters
 • Benford's Law Stocks icon SENEA Benford's Law Stock Score = 97


SENEA Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:



Financial Summary
(in thousands, except per share and ratio data)
Fiscal Year:
2024
2025
Change
Net sales
Operating income
Net earnings (see note 1)
Stockholders' equity

1,578,887 $
77,770
41,224
633,023
1,458,603
107,231
63,318
582,893
8.2%
-27.5%
-34.9%
8.6%
Diluted earnings per share (see note 1)
Total stockholders' equity per equivalent common share (see note 2)


5.90 $
90.70 $
8.56
81.69
-31.1%
11.0%
Total debt/equity ratio
Current ratio
0.62
3.52
1.10
6.40
Note 1: Seneca Foods Corporation uses the last-in, first out (   LIFO   ) accounting methodology for valuing inventory as it believes
this method allows for better matching of current production costs to current revenue. The LIFO accounting methodology decreased
net earnings by $25.9 million (a reduction of $3.71 per diluted share) and by $16.8 million (a reduction of $2.28 per diluted share)
in fiscal years 2025 and 2024, respectively. The net earnings impact is calculated by applying the statutory rate of 24.9% for fiscal
year 2025 and 24.6% for fiscal year 2024 to the pre-tax LIFO charge.
Note 2: Equivalent common shares are either common shares or, for convertible preferred shares, the number of common shares
that the preferred shares are convertible into.
Description of Business
Seneca Foods Corporation (   Seneca    or the    Company   ) conducts its business almost entirely in food packaging, which comprised
98% of the Company's total net sales in fiscal year 2025. Canned vegetables represented 83%, frozen vegetables represented 8%,
fruit products represented 6%, and snack products represented 1% of the total food packaging net sales. Non-food packaging sales,
which primarily related to the sale of cans, ends, seed and outside revenue from the Company's aircraft operations, represented 2%
of the Company's fiscal year 2025 net sales.
Approximately 13% of the Company   s packaged foods were sold under its own brands, or licensed trademarks, including Seneca  ,
Libby's  , Green Giant  , Aunt Nellie's  , CherryMan  , Green Valley   and READ  . The remaining 87% of packaged foods were sold
under other segments including private labels, food service, restaurant chains, international, contracting packaging, and industrial.
Fairport, New York
June 12, 2025
1

To Our Shareholders,
The Company recorded net earnings for fiscal 2025 of $41.2 million or $5.90 per diluted share on net sales of $1,578.9 million
versus net earnings of $63.3 million or $8.56 per diluted share on net sales of $1,458.6 million in fiscal 2024. Despite cost challenges
relating to the short pack in 2024 and effects of ongoing and most notably steel tariffs, fiscal year 2025 was another pretty good
year. As a reminder, it is always important to consider that included in our current year   s earnings is the impact of our LIFO
accounting method for inventory. For fiscal year 2025 this represented a $34.5 million non-cash charge to earnings before income
taxes vs a $22.3 million non-cash charge to earnings before income taxes for fiscal 2024. These LIFO charges were expected given
the continued impact of inflation and the afore mentioned pack related costs. Without the LIFO charge, the Company   s fiscal 2025
and 2024 net earnings would be $67.1 million or $9.61 per diluted share and $80.1 million or $10.84 per diluted share respectively.
The fiscal 2025 packing season was one of the most difficult in my 38 years with the Company. While Mother Nature often delivers
some challenges, the 2024 growing season was historic with persistent wet weather during critical portions of our planting and
growing season. While we have significant geographic spread, our facilities are still located in the major growing regions for the
crops we process. From early May until mid-August our Minnesota and Wisconsin growing regions experienced the wettest period
since the 1880   s. This led to extended periods of time when no planting was able to be accomplished and there was significant
damage to crops that were growing due to the excess rainfall. When the pack was concluded, between the crops that were prevented
from being planted and the reduced yield for acres harvested, we delivered tonnage to our processing facilities at 70-75% of budget,
depending upon the crop. This represents the poorest overall tonnage delivery in memory. Our plants performed as well as could be
expected but ran well below capacity much of the season and costs from the 2024 pack reflect the reduced volume and suboptimal
operating posture. It was only plentiful inventories from the 2023 crop that allowed us to meet the fifty-two week needs of our
customers. The good news is that coming in to the 2025 pack season, inventories will be at normal to below normal levels. As such,
our production plan for the upcoming season will be to run our facilities at capacity in order to meet customer demand going forward
and to replenish an appropriate level of safety stock.
The past year certainly saw the rate of inflation moderating but we still saw increases in labor and some other costs. Raw product
contract prices for the 2024 crop to our more than 1,100 producer partners were down approximately 20% from the previous year
but were more than offset by the significant impact of the weather related short pack season. As we developed pricing for the coming
2025 pack season we saw even further decreases driven by the weak commodity markets that we benchmark against. In our business,
in addition to the normal fixed costs associated with the plant, our facilities are only operating during the harvest season and incur
significant offseason expense in getting ready for the next season that also effectively becomes fixed. When we have reduced
volume, the impact on our unit cost is significant. These offseason costs are largely sunk and there is simply no way to mitigate
when faced with a short pack, highlighting the importance of running our plants at capacity each year.
In addition, some of our business is under fixed price annual contracts where we had limited opportunity to pass along increased
costs. However, where possible, we did make necessary adjustments. In times like these, the value of our copack business
characterized by low margins but with    actual cost plus    pricing is highlighted. Certainly, our desire is to focus on the lowest
possible cost for our customers and ultimately the consumer, but pricing must remain sustainable in challenging times such as these.
On balance, we did experience some cost driven margin compression reflected in the year   s overall results.
Imports continued to be an area of concern, all-be-it less so than several years ago as our inventories supported our ability to supply
our customers    needs. To some degree, shortages through the pandemic led to the establishment of these supply chains and the
related uptick in imports. Many customers seem to be realizing that the additional challenges around logistics, quality, reliability
and tariff risk are not worth the lower costs that sometimes accompany imports. It should be understood that a portion of these
import supply chains were established following COVID where our industry was not able to meet demand and actually had
shortages. Imports from these sources have been slowly declining over the past year as our inventories supported our customers
needs, but more recently the tariffs have really shut off the flow of imports of our products. A silver lining to the shadow cast by
tariff impacts.
I would like to spend a few words discussing the impact of steel tariffs on our business. Of course, given the volatility of the
situation, my comments are qualified to reflect the situation as we presently know it. For starters, we have been dealing with steel
tariffs since 2018. Over that period one of the two tinplate producers in the U.S. has closed and the industry has gone from twelve
tin coating lines pre-tariff to just four today, with only three operating. This situation has led to domestic production only being able
to supply 25% (generously) or so of domestic demand and has resulted in a significantly higher reliance on imports. Given the high
price of tin plate in the U.S. relative to other parts of the world, it remains an attractive market for many suppliers despite the 25%
Section 232 tariffs that have been in place. While there were modifications announced to the tariffs in March under the current
administration, it left the impact from most countries unchanged. Only those who had previously been exempted were now brought
under the 25% tariff. Tinplate is the most significant part of the cost structure for the products we sell. While tinplate cost has
increased at least 70% since tariffs were first broadly applied in 2018, these costs are largely incorporated in to our selling price
structure. However, the March changes combined with the recent announcement doubling steel tariffs from 25% to 50%, which was
not only unexpected and the impact is still being evaluated, will inevitably lead to increased costs to the consumer.
2

As we look at our unit volumes over the past year we are very pleased. Total unit volumes over the past year were up just under 6%
vs the previous year, with increases in almost all sales channels. Areas with reductions were Food Service and Frozen which were
down 2% and 5% respectively almost entirely driven by the short pack of 2024 and lack of key items to sell. Our Branded Retail
business benefited from a full year of Green Giant volume as opposed to the previous year when those volumes were split between
our Branded and Co-pack channels. Regarding Green Giant we are pleased with where we are and have stopped the distribution
declines relating to the previous owner and have begun to see new business with our expanded offerings of new items, including
Green Giant canned pumpkin. Our International business has stabilized after declines the past couple of years associated with
increased costs relating to steel tariffs as well as unfavorable exchange rates. Presently, it faces significant uncertainty as tariffs of
the current administration and retaliatory tariffs from our trading partners play out. We remain committed to this cyclical business
and recent exchange rate movements have been favorable. Our Co-pack segment volumes were up versus last year and based upon
volume commitments for 2025 will continue to see increases, barring an unfavorable 2025 growing and packing season. As
previously mentioned, our Canned Food Service business was down slightly as a result of continued pressure from imports to many
of the school and state bid customers. We are already seeing opportunities in this channel as tariffs impact the level of imports in
the market. We also are seeing more opportunities for strategic relationships with customers interested in reliable supply in Food
Service and the National Chain Account segments that we are pursuing. Overall, we remain focused on unit volume and have a very
aggressive production plan in place for 2025 with our facilities running at capacity.
Turning for a moment to our fruit and snack businesses including Gray & Company and Seneca Snack. First, our Snack business
had a very good year with volumes for our Branded Seneca Apple Chips up slightly. Additionally, we worked with a national retailer
to introduce a new item under their private label that has done exceptionally well. We also continue to explore other opportunities
to utilize existing capacity. We are seeing some pricing pressure on raw apples as tariffs have limited imported apple concentrate
from China creating more demand for domestic concentrate but believe that necessary adjustments to our pricing will be modest.
We remain pleased with where we are at Seneca Snack.
Moving to our Gray & Company maraschino and glace business, we really had an exceptional year in fiscal 2025. We have finally
fully integrated all of the acquisitions over the past years and have incorporated all of the major investments there and are seeing
the benefits. Tariffs will impact our glace fruit business leading to price increases to pass along, in as much as all candied pineapple
and orange peel is imported from Thailand and the EU respectively. The other area that we are working hard on is evaluating natural
alternatives to the artificial coloring used for cherries. While we do not use the already scheduled to be banned Red 3, we do use
Red 40 which has recently been targeted for voluntary phase out. There are natural alternatives that we have been working with
although they do not duplicate the traditional red color of a maraschino cherry, and present operational and shelf-life challenges in
addition to significant incremental costs for the natural alternatives. More work is needed here but in the current environment there
are a lot of people working to find solutions should Red 40 be phased out.
In the area of natural colors we also see great opportunities. As a part of our vegetable business we have for many years supplied a
completely natural red color using a proprietary beet variety. We believe that we are the only domestic producer of this particular
product, given its extremely high concentration of red color relative to competitive alternatives. We grow the crop, extract the color
and have been a supplier to other companies who specialize in the food coloring channel. With recent actions to ban Red 3, to say
nothing of the potential to phase out Red 40, we are seeing significantly increased demand for our products to the point that we will
be making significant investments to further expand capacity.
Full-time staffing, particularly for skilled hourly positions, remains a challenge for the business requiring continuous monitoring
and adjustments to remain competitive and attractive as an employer. Regarding our seasonal workforce it cannot be
overemphasized that this workforce is absolutely essential to our success. Many of our seasonal employees have been with us for
decades and may represent third and even fourth generations working for the Company. Over the past five years or so we have made
significant investments in wages to remain competitive as well as over $21 million in seasonal housing that we believe are the key
factors helping to keep us an attractive employer to our workforce. As we entered the 2024 pack season, for the first time in memory,
we actually had a waiting list of seasonal workers interested in joining us. Our experience ahead of the 2025 recruiting season has
been similar. We are continuously evaluating what we can do to remain attractive and competitive in order to recruit and retain our
workforce in both the fulltime and seasonal areas for which we heavily rely on and appreciate.
While we continue to view our stock as undervalued and buybacks remain part of our capital allocation strategy once other capital
needs are met, given the performance of the stock over the past year our repurchases were just 194,370 shares at an average price
of $59.64 vs fiscal 2024 where we repurchased 634,231 shares at an average price of $52.23 per share. The fiscal year 2025
repurchases represented just 2.8% of our outstanding shares and impacted diluted earnings per share by $0.16 per share increasing
to $5.90 per share.
3


shareholder letter icon 7/7/2025 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 

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