Ludford's, Inc.

Ludford's, Inc., doing business as Ludfords Inc., manufactures and supplies bottled fruit and vegetable juices to the federal government exclusively as a prime contractor, operating as an SBA-certified HUBZone small business based in Riverside, California. The company competes predominantly under small business set-asides (partial and total small business designations across recent awards) and full-and-open competitions, with no subcontractor footprint and no federal grant sub-recipient activity.

Ludford's delivers bottled juice commodities—including apple, cherry apple, orange, tomato, cranberry apple, grape concord, and grapefruit juices in 8-ounce and 64-ounce plastic bottles—to support domestic federal food assistance programs (SNAP, WIC, National School Lunch Program). Concrete work includes a $3.2 million total small business set-aside contract awarded by USDA Food and Nutrition Service in January 2026 for cherry apple, grape concord, orange, and tomato juices; a $2.8 million partial small business set-aside contract from the same agency in May 2026 for cherry apple, orange, tomato, and cranberry apple juices; and a $2.5 million partial small business set-aside from December 2025 for orange and tomato juice in support of food donation programs. All performance takes place at Ludford's Riverside, California facility, with FOB destination delivery nationwide.

Customer concentration is extreme: the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service accounts for 100 awards and $146.2 million (54% of combined potential value), with the Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service (across its Washington Office and Specialty Crops Program sub-offices) adding another 71 awards and $98.5 million combined. Together these USDA entities represent 93% of recent awards and 98% of combined potential value. Ludford's holds a $10 million multiple-award Basic Ordering Agreement with USDA Agricultural Marketing Service that facilitates recurring procurement of bottled juice commodities; the BOA was awarded April 26, 2022 with an ordering period through December 31, 2022, and has generated at least one tracked delivery order ($2.5 million, May 2022).

Award activity has declined year over year—ten awards in 2022 to three in 2026 through May—with only three awards (combined potential value $6.5 million) reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and therefore facing recompete. Ludford's operates entirely as a prime contractor with no identified subcontractors across 214 total prime awards. The company also received a federal grant from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service in January 2022 (assistance type: project grant, award date January 3, 2022, completion date January 2, 2023) to support COVID-19 response costs incurred between January 27, 2020 and December 31, 2021, including workplace safety, market pivots, facility retrofitting, transportation, worker housing, and medical expenses. Award classification by NAICS shows 193 of 214 awards under Fruit and Vegetable Canning, with the remainder under Frozen Fruit, Juice, and Vegetable Manufacturing; PSC coding is nearly entirely Fruits and Vegetables (212 awards). Combined potential value across all 214 prime awards sits at $271.9 million, with $267.3 million obligated (98% fulfillment rate).

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