GRACO INC

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the shareholders and the Board of Directors of Graco Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Graco Inc. and subsidiaries (the "Company") as of December 29, 2023 and December 30, 2022, the related consolidated statements of earnings, comprehensive income, shareholders' equity, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended December 29, 2023, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the "financial statements"). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 29, 2023 and December 30, 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 29, 2023, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 29, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 20, 2024, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company's internal control over financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Retirement Benefits – U.S. Pension Benefit Obligation – Refer to Note J to the financial statements

Critical Audit Matter Description

The Company has both funded and unfunded defined benefit pension plans. The actuarial determination of the present value of the pension obligation on an annual basis requires management to make significant assumptions related to the selection of the discount rates used in the calculation of the net present value of future pension benefits. The Company establishes the discount rate assumptions for the U.S. pension plans by reference to a yield curve published by an actuary and projected plan cash flows.

Given the significance of the U.S. pension obligation and the requirement of management to make significant assumptions related to the selection of the discount rates, performing audit procedures to evaluate the reasonableness of the discount rates selected for the U.S. pension plans required a high degree of auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort, including the need to involve our actuarial specialists.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures related to selection of the discount rates for the U.S. pension obligation included the following, among others:

a. We tested the effectiveness of internal controls over the valuation of the pension obligation, including management’s controls over selection of the discount rates.

b. With the assistance of our actuarial specialists, we evaluated the reasonableness of the discount rates by:

•Evaluating the methodology utilized to select the discount rates for conformity with applicable accounting guidance.

•Testing the source information underlying the determination of the discount rates, including the methodology used to construct the yield curve, the characteristics of the bonds underlying the yield curve analysis, and the mathematical accuracy of the calculation.

•Developing independent estimates using external published yield curves and comparing them to the discount rates selected by management.

/s/DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP

Minneapolis, Minnesota

February 20, 2024

We have served as the Company’s auditor since at least 1969, however, an earlier year could not be readily determined.