Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
OVERVIEW
The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with the unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements and the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Our fiscal year ends on the final Thursday of June each year, and typically consists of fifty-two weeks (four thirteen-week quarters). Additional information on the comparability of the periods presented is as follows:
•References herein to fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2025 are to the fiscal year ending June 25, 2026 and the fiscal year ended June 26, 2025, respectively.
•References herein to the first quarter of fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2025 are to the quarters ended September 25, 2025 and September 26, 2024, respectively.
As used herein, unless the context otherwise indicates, the terms “we”, “us”, “our” or “Company” collectively refer to John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. and our wholly-owned subsidiary, JBSS Ventures, LLC.
We are one of the leading processors and distributors of peanuts, pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds and other nuts in the United States. We also manufacture and distribute a portfolio of snack and nutrition bars (“bars”), and market and distribute, and in most cases, manufacture or process, a diverse product line of food and snack products, including peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, candy and confections, snack and trail mixes, granola, sunflower kernels, dried fruit, corn snacks, sesame sticks, other sesame snack products and baked cheese snack products. We sell our products primarily under a variety of private brand names, as well as under our Fisher, Orchard Valley Harvest, Squirrel Brand, Southern Style Nuts and Just the Cheese brand names. Our bars are sold under a variety of private brands to some of the largest retailers in the United States. Our products are sold through three core distribution channels, including food retailers in the consumer channel, commercial ingredient users and contract manufacturing customers.
Our Long-Range Plan defines our future growth priorities and focuses on growing our private brand business across key customers and high-growth snacking categories, notably private brand bars, as well as expanding branded distribution behind Orchard Valley Harvest and Fisher via insight-driven product and packaging innovation. We will execute our Long-Range Plan by providing our private brand customers with value-added solutions and high-quality, innovative products based on our extensive industry and consumer expertise. Accelerating our private brand bars business will require us to expand capacity and develop a robust innovation pipeline with continued focus on nutrition bars. We will grow the reach of our branded nut & trail mix business by targeting new consumers, emphasizing product innovation, expanding distribution across current and alternative channels and focusing on new ways for consumers to buy our products, including club stores and e-commerce. In support of this strategy, we intend to focus our branded promotional and advertising investments on achieving sales volume growth. We are also executing an omni-channel approach to win with key customers in key categories, including recipe nuts, snack nuts and trail mix. Our Long-Range Plan also anticipates increasing our sales through product and packaging innovation and targeted, opportunistic acquisitions. Beginning in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 and continuing into the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we began investing significant additional capital to purchase new equipment and make infrastructure improvements (and incur related expenses) to further expand our production capabilities, increase our efficiency and enhance our product offerings for our customers.
We continue to face the ongoing challenges and regulation specific to our business, such as food safety and regulatory matters, maintenance and growth of our customer base and overall category growth for private brand and branded products. Varying, decreasing or shifting consumer demand for our products in a challenging snack food environment and against an uncertain macroeconomic environment may adversely impact our ability to execute our Long-Range Plan.
We face a number of challenges in the future, including, among others, the impacts of higher food prices due in part to increasing underlying commodity acquisition costs and the overall impact of tariffs (actual, pending implementation or threatened) by the U.S. government or other governments on certain commodities, raw materials and equipment to process and manufacture our products. We continue to see uncertainty over interest rates that may negatively impact economic growth, consumers reducing their private brand and branded snack purchases, including snack nuts, trail mix and bars, intense competition in the snack food industry, the potential for economic downturn in the markets in which we operate and supply chain challenges. To stay compliant with recent changes in employment laws across states where we operate and remain competitive in attracting qualified talent, we expect our labor costs to continue to increase.