Ludford's, Inc.

Ludford's, Inc., doing business as Ludfords Inc., is an SBA-certified HUBZone small business that manufactures and supplies bottled fruit and vegetable juice commodities to the federal government exclusively as a prime contractor, competing predominantly under small-business set-asides and no-set-aside designations in commodity procurement. The company is headquartered in Riverside, California, and operates under NAICS 311411 (Frozen Fruit, Juice, and Vegetable Manufacturing) and PSC code 8915 (Fruits and Vegetables).

Ludford's core federal business is supplying packaged juices—apple, cherry apple, orange, tomato, cranberry apple, grape concord, and grapefruit—in 8-ounce and 64-ounce plastic bottles to the Department of Agriculture for domestic food assistance programs including SNAP, WIC, and the National School Lunch Program. The source documents show a representative footprint: a $2.67 million August 2026 partial-small-business-set-aside contract with USDA Food and Nutrition Service for orange and tomato juice; a $2.816 million May 2026 contract covering cherry apple, orange, tomato, and cranberry apple juices; a $5.23 million May 2024 contract spanning seven juice varieties; and a $3.23 million February 2022 contract for apple, cherry apple, grape concord, orange, and tomato juices. Ludford's holds a ten million dollar Basic Ordering Agreement with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, awarded April 26, 2022, under which delivery orders have been issued. The company received a COVID-19 relief grant from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (Assistance Type: Project Grant, awarded January 3, 2022) covering workplace safety, market pivots, facility retrofitting, and worker-related costs between January 27, 2020, and December 31, 2021.

Customer concentration is extreme and singular. The Department of Agriculture accounts for all five distinct agencies in the customer base and dominates both volume and dollars. Of the 216 total prime awards, 93% flow to USDA entities, led by the Food and Nutrition Service with 101 awards totaling $148.8 million combined potential value, followed by the Agricultural Marketing Service Washington Office (29 awards, $54.3 million), Agricultural Marketing Service Specialty Crops Program (43 awards, $44.3 million), Farm Service Agency Kansas City Commodity Office (5 awards, $21.7 million), and Agricultural Marketing Service proper (22 awards, $862 thousand). These five USDA components account for 98% of combined potential value across all awards. No subcontractor relationships exist—Ludford's operates exclusively as a prime contractor across its entire federal footprint.

Activity has contracted from a ten-award peak in 2022 to five awards each in 2025 and 2026 year to date, indicating a declining award trajectory. The combined potential value across all 216 awards stands at $274.6 million, with $270.1 million obligated (98% realization rate). Only two awards with combined potential value of $2.7 million face ultimate completion in the next twenty-four months, presenting minimal recompete exposure relative to the overall portfolio. The source documents note the company has been a federal vendor since at least August 1998, demonstrating sustained longevity in commodity supply to USDA food assistance programs. Category concentration by NAICS shows 195 awards under Fruit and Vegetable Canning and 18 under Frozen Fruit, Juice, and Vegetable Manufacturing; by PSC, 214 awards fall under Fruits and Vegetables with one under Dairy Foods and Eggs. Ludford's participates in no government-wide vehicles, agency-wide IDIQs, or GWACs—its sole named vehicle position is the ten million dollar USDA BOA, which has issued at least one recorded delivery order at the $2.5 million level.

CANNED AND FROZEN FRUIT JUICE AND FRUIT JUICE CONCENTRATE. IMATATION MAPLE SYRUP. DRINK MIXES.