2025annual report
fiscal year 2025 annual report
p. 2: Letter from the CEO
p. 3: Letter from the Board
p. 4: Treasurer’s Report
p. 5: Financial Report
p. 6+7: Local Marketplace
p. 8: Trowel & Error
p. 9: Sweet Season Farm
p. 10: Shared Economics
p. 11: Grocery Differently
p. 12+13: Staff Gratitude
p. 14: Stronger + Together
p. 15: Member Savings
Board of Directors (Year indicates when term expires)
President
JON FOGARTY (2025) | jon@newpi.coop
Vice President
JEN KNIGHTS (2026) | jen@newpi.coop
Secretary
CAITLIN SLESSOR (2025) | caitlin@newpi.coop
Treasurer
JIM JOHNSON (2025) | jim@newpi.coop
DANA JUDAS (2027) | dana@newpi.coop
KELLY RIDENOUR (2027) | kelly@newpi.coop
SARAH WALZ (2025) | sarah@newpi.coop
Members are welcome to share their views with the New Pi Board.
A Letter from the CEO
PATRICK BRICKEL, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Hello to everyone in our New Pioneer Food Co-op Community,
As we reflect on the past year, I want to begin by thanking our shoppers, staff, vendors, and board of directors. We’ve accomplished a lot in the last year, and your support has made this year one of the most meaningful in recent memory.
In last year’s report, I shared the goal of returning the Co-op to ongoing profitability and growth. I’m proud to say: we’re doing it. We closed the year with $29.3 million in sales, and for the first time in nearly a decade, we are profitable. This milestone wasn’t achieved through flashy strategies or shortcuts—it came from focusing on the basics: taking care of our shoppers, keeping shelves stocked, and reinvesting in our stores.
This past year, we re-launched Co+op Basics, offering budget-friendly prices on over 200 popular staples and ensuring that nutritious, high-quality essentials remain accessible to everyone—regardless of budget. We revitalized our Bulk Foods program, expanding our selections of grains, flours, seeds, nuts, and more—boosting affordability and reducing excessive packaging. We’ve painted, decorated, and fixed things (so many things). And thanks to the support of our shoppers driving this growth, we’re now in a stronger position to take on even more improvements.
Some of those improvements are already in motion:
• Bringing back a full-service Meat & Seafood program to our Coralville store, so you can get personalized help finding all the humane & sustainable proteins you need to feed yourself & your loved ones.
• Bringing back a made-to-order sandwich program in our Iowa City store—because you’ve told us you miss it, and we do too.
• Adding additional people & equipment to our production facility, to expand our selection of prepared foods, pastries, & bakehouse breads.
We’ll be doing more. Some of it you’ll see—fresh paint, building updates, new equipment—and some of it you won’t see (but will feel), like improved systems for how we care for our staff, more effective approaches to product procurement, and streamlined processes behind the scenes. Whether visible or not, each change is part of our commitment to reinvest, evolve, and build a stronger co-op for everyone.
Thank you again for your continued support. We’re excited for what’s ahead, and we’re grateful to be on this journey with you.
With sincere appreciation,
Patrick Brickel, New Pi CEO
A Letter from the Board
JON FOGARTY AND JEN KNIGHTS, NEW PI BOARD
Without a doubt, New Pi has had our best year in a decade, financially. The past few years have been great, trending upwards to this point, but here’s the big news we are celebrating on the board:
We ended the fiscal year with a profit for the first time since before the pandemic!
In the past few years as our fiscal picture has continued to improve, we’ve been able to make modest investments in the stores and expand operations to bring back lunch catering in both Linn and Johnson counties. In the past year, most of our investment has been behind the scenes, supporting improvements to our HR systems and muchneeded equipment updates to better support our staff and their working conditions.
On the board level, we use a set of governing policies to manage the CEO and evaluate operations—a kind of a road map to ensure strategic oversight and monitoring without interfering with daily operations and CEO decisions. The board has been working to update those policies and return to a regular reporting schedule, after a few years disrupted by changes in management, pandemic recovery, and turnover on the board.
Looking to the future, the Iowa City store facility is always on our minds. Last year we pursued an opportunity to relocate the Iowa City location—and although that particular project didn’t work out, a new store for Iowa City remains a strategic priority. We continue to watch for the next viable option to secure our future, but in the near term we will need to make urgent repairs to the building and parking lot. Likewise, the Cedar Rapids store has hit 10 years of age and is in need of some updates.
Our continued success is due in large part to our staff. Those employees—from staff on the retail floor to our management team, from our CEO to our bakers, drivers, and cooks—are the heart of our success, and we are grateful for their work, which delights our members and customers and helps to keep our bottom line healthy.
We also want to express our gratitude to all of our customers and member-owners. It’s often said, “no money, no mission,” and without your continued patronage, our past success and future improvements would not be possible. Every time you spend your grocery dollars at the Co-op, you are keeping money in the community and ensuring the Co-op will thrive and not merely survive.
As always, we are open to hearing your helpful ideas, feedback, and suggestions. Hope to see you virtually at the Annual Member Meeting!
Sincerely,
Jen Knights, New Pi Board Vice President
Jon Fogarty, New Pi Board President
Treasurer’s Report
JIM JOHNSON, BOARD TREASURER
The last two annual treasurer reports have been largely dedicated to providing positive context to less than ideal financial results. I am excited to share that this report will carry a much different tone. The Co-op closed FY25 with a net profit of $172k. As a reminder, FY24 closed with a net loss of $122k and FY23 carried a loss of $573k. Patrick Brickel and the staff have managed to improve the financial condition of the Co-op to the incredible tune of nearly $750k in the past three years.
Nationally, the organic grocery market has seen slight growth since the COVID recovery. However, much of this growth has been fueled by chain stores integrating organic products, rather than showing a consumer migration to organic focused retailers. With the current federal administration choosing to increasingly wield tariffs as a negotiation tactic, it is likely to expect rising import costs on produce items across the country. While this will likely result in a decline in national organic sales, New Pi’s supply chain is poised to be more resilient than many other grocers across the nation. While there are certainly items on the shelves that will be impacted by availability/ tariffs, New Pioneer may be in a better position due to the number of local producers that it has partnered with. This partnership continues to be an example of how communities can benefit from working with each other. This model is going to be incredibly valuable to the Co-op, its members, and the community in the upcoming period of economic uncertainty that appears to be on the horizon.
Sales growth continues to be the driving force behind the successful year. FY25 finished with a total revenue of $29.3m, roughly a 14% increase from FY24. All three locations saw sales growth, with Cedar Rapids leading the way with 18% revenue growth from last year. It’s also worth noting that this was another year in which almost every department outperformed the previous year. Again, this points to an organizational improvement and is not the result of one department suddenly overperforming. This further supports the idea that this growth is going to continue.
The nature of this year’s numbers bears a striking similarity to the past couple of years, which indicates that this was not a fluke. Rather, the approach and revitalization efforts of the entire staff at the Co-op have shown that their revised customer first emphasis will set New Pi apart from the competitors and bring back what has made the Co-op special to our members and surrounding communities. There will always be work to be done, but this year provides reassurance that New Pioneer is on the right track.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support and efforts!
Jim Johnson New Pi Board Treasurer
Activites $706,447 $ 483,854 ($266,838)
Activites ($175,610) ($154,922) ($289,971) Financing Activities ($180,675) ($197,931) ($208,016) Net Change in Cash & Cash Equivalents $350,162 $131,001 ($764,825)
$532,529 $1,660,832
$11,649,264 $12,521,296 Liabilities & Equities
Income Statement 2025* 2024 2023
From Operations $340,665 $26,749 ($282,057)
Income/Expenses ($168,260) ($151,913) ($290,548) Income Before Taxes $172,405 ($125,164) ($572,605) Net Income $172,405 ($125,164) ($572,605) *2025 numbers are preliminary and preaudit
New Pioneer is a sustainable and forward-thinking local food marketplace.
We are committed to supporting local growers and producers by o ering them a marketplace to sell their products at fair prices. We purchase from over 211 local and regional farmers and food producers year-round to bring you the best Iowa has to o er (Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois, too) –even for the ingredients in our prepared foods!
local and regional producers 211
3,139 local products on our shelves
local products sold – 25% of total sales
$7,330,962.22 organic products sold – 34% of total sales
$10,115,416.76 of all produce sold was organic 76% diverse brands –women, BIPOC, LGBTQ 156
We are dedicated to providing our owners and customers with house-made products of the highest quality, including hearth breads, scratch-made cakes, cookies, pastries, mu ns, scones, and pies. We use organic and local ingredients as much as possible and have some of the best chefs in the area to run our kitchens and delis.
132,895 New Pi cookies sold.
188,077 New Pi pastries, mu ns, scones, pies, and cakes sold.
151,045 Loaves of bakehouse bread sold.
Prep Foods Fun Facts in 2025
Prep Foods lead the organization in growth, landing at almost 26% for the year.
Pastry and bread production saw much-needed sta ng improvements, and were important drivers for the prepared foods category, growing by 23% and 24% respectively.
Catering in Cedar Rapids began to take hold, increasing sales by over 300%.
e Hub filled 7 positions, giving the team more depth and resilience.
New Pi shoppers said “Yes, please!” to local tofu, buying over 2000LBS. of popcorn tofu alone!
Support Your Local Community
New Pioneer Co-op has always prioritized purchasing locally grown produce, sourcing from over 25 growers each year. While it requires more effort than ordering from wholesalers, it is worth it! Local produce is fresher, has more flavor and nutrients, less spoilage, and we know exactly where it comes from. When buying locally, we are supporting our local economy, and we are building partnerships with growers that we hope to see thrive.
Trowel
& Error Iowa City, Iowa
Carly Andrews was inspired to start farming after attending the University of Vermont, and learning about the local foods movement. After seeing a panel of all women farmers in her undergrad, she decided to try it out for herself. She worked on a farm in Vermont, then California, and eventually found herself working at Echollective Farm in Mechanicsville, Iowa, before gaining access to land through Johnson County’s Land Access Program (LAP).
The Historic Poor Farm
Established in 1855, the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm operated as a 160-acre county-owned farm providing shelter and support for low-income individuals, seniors, immigrants, widows, orphans, and people with disabilities. Residents worked on the farm until 1988.
Today, the Poor Farm is a community space focused on food production, historic preservation, accessibility, natural areas, education, and support of new farmers.
“I feel very lucky to have this piece of land that I get to work on. Land access is such a challenge for beginning farmers.”
Carly supports long-term sustainability through cover crops, crop rotation, composting, and organic practices. Carly grows plant starters in caterpillar tunnels, allowing her to harvest spring crops like radishes, lettuce, and kale by May. Quick hoops also extend her season, protecting greens into December and enabling early spring harvests of overwintered crops like carrots. By growing storage crops like cabbage, squash, and onions, Trowel & Error provides local produce in winter and plans to add a root cellar for expanded offerings.
Sweet Seasons Calmar, Iowa
Iowa natives Ethan and Carly Zierke share a strong belief that the state needs more vegetable and organic farms. After attending an organic veggie farming program in Washington, they headed back to their home state to start Sweet Season Farm in fall 2021 with the goal of making local, organic food more available for Iowa families.
“We grow organic veggies here in Iowa because we see the farm and those who eat our food as part of a better local food future.”
Currently, they are a small operation, with just Carly, Ethan, and a part-time worker running everything on the farm, but they hope to continue to grow and see more local veggie farms across the state.
“We see a future where local farms grow a more significant portion of the produce we eat and we see ourselves as part of that movement. We’re proud of how everything we do aims to help make local food easier to find, use, understand, and celebrate. It’s an honor to be part of people’s tables as they feed their families nutritious meals.”
Carly and Ethan are honored to be certified organic and affiliated with the Real Organic Project. The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led initiative dedicated to upholding the integrity of organic food. It promotes agricultural practices focused on soil health and animal welfare.
“Everything we grow is grown in healthy Iowa soil, which makes our veggies super tasty, high-quality, and long-lasting while contributing to a healthy environment.”
Their produce is available at all New Pi locations, and they especially recommend their arugula!
$20,823.02 in Change for Change round up donations, $16,265.49 just since revamping in January.
We have donated to 54 di erent organizations, local schools. 15
$25,034.51
$19,500 in sponsorships for 16 community events and programs.
300 trees given away on Earth Day. SHARED ECONOMICS, COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT, AND PARTNERSHIPS IN THE CORRIDOR.
$6,140 in direct and in-kind donations.
275 Celebrate Pride yard signs sold, raising money for area LGBTQ youth.
300 caterpillar homes donated for monarch adoption & raising.
54,848LBS. of food rescued throught HACAP & Table 2 Table donations. saved through the Fresh Food Access program.
New Pioneer Food Co-op strives to be known as a valued source of natural, organic, local, and specialty foods. As a democratically controlled organization dedicated to serving our owners' needs, we take pride in serving our community and seek to be actively involved in issues, causes, and events supported by our owners.
To that end, we will generate publicity and disperse product and other resources to non-profit organizations in order to build goodwill and support for our mission in the community.
At New Pi, we approach grocery di erently. We lead with sustainable practices, support farmers and sta ers through fair compensation, and lift up our community through education and local partnerships.
32 employees tenured 10+ years – over 17%.
185 total employees.
98 employees participate in 401k.
111 employees eligible for health insurance.
$158,160.36 in sta discounts on groceries, vitamins, and supplements.
118 regular FT employees eligible for PTO.
Our employees are di erent too. Our sta work hard, they care, they even know your name! Co-op employees are a group of friendly, energetic people. Although our backgrounds are varied, we share a common bond: New Pioneer Food Co-op. To work in a place with like-minded people who share your values is unique and truly something special.
Thank you to ALL our hardworking staff!
WE’D LIKE TO GIVE A SPECIAL NOD OF APPRECIATION TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN WITH US THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN.
Enormous gratitude to Miss Nik & Chad Clark for reaching 30 years at New Pi!
Eric C.
Chad C. Miss Nik 30+ years
Jason P.
Ian M.
Barbara M.
Matt L-P.
Mike K.
Mike A.
Jesse K.
Tim S.
Michelle M.
Sam S.
Noah K.
Betsa F-S.
Mercedes P.
David W.
Paco F-P.
Joseph S.
Ryan H.
Adelina S-A.
Lynn A. 20+ years
Joseph G.
Jessie K.
Maggie M.
Julie K.
Sue A.
Jenifer A.
Sheila C. 15+ years
Monica F.
Patrick B.
Elizabeth B.
Jonathan C.
Gavin P. 10+ years
Shaun S.
Tony C-W.
Lisa H.
Jess M.
Widespread and diverse participation. Identifying and meeting the needs of owners and future owners.
Stronger + Together
It’s a belief that our founding members stood for and it’s one we stand for today. We are stronger when we take care of each other – our farmers, our owners, our community, and they, us. We believe that we can do good as individuals, but our greatness is witnessed best when we band together and support one another.
Everyone is welcome to shop at New Pi, but by joining our community of nearly 40,000 members, you get something more.
39,892
18,505 Total Members
1,172 Active Members
New Members
1,526
New Email List Signups
New Followers on Social Channels 627
