OPTICAL CABLE CORP

Letter from the CEO

Dear Shareholders of Optical Cable Corporation (OCC®):

Fiscal year 2025 was a solid year for OCC, driven by the successful execution of our growth strategies and strong positioning in our target markets. We entered into a strategic collaboration with Lightera, LLC that expands our growth opportunities. At the same time, we continued to operate efficiently and benefit from our strong operating leverage to drive gross profit growth.

Returning to Growth

In fiscal year 2025, we realized the benefits of actions we took the previous year, as the weakness across our industry during the second half of fiscal year 2023 and most of fiscal year 2024 subsided. As a result, in 2025, we were able to capture new opportunities and deliver consolidated net sales of $73.0 million. Our net sales increased during each quarter of fiscal year 2025 compared to the same periods in fiscal year 2024.

I am pleased to share that OCC achieved growth by all measures during fiscal year 2025: Net Sales grew by 9.5%, Gross Profit grew by 24.1%, Gross Profit Margin (gross profit as a percentage of net sales) increased to 30.9% compared to 27.3%, and Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) expenses decreased as a percentage of net sales—all contributing factors to the significant improvement in operating results compared to fiscal year 2024.

Strong Operating Leverage

OCC benefited fromstrong operating leverage in fiscal year 2025, and we anticipate this will continue to bolster our results in fiscal year 2026 and beyond.

Ourmanufacturing operating leverage tends to create disproportionate increases in gross profit as net sales and production volumes increase. While both gross profit and gross profit margin can be impacted by product mix, as OCC’s net sales and production volumes increase, substantial fixed manufacturing costs are spread over higher sales volumes, and importantly, manufacturing efficiencies also tend to increase—particularly for fiber optic cable production.Gross profit disproportionately increased 24.1% as net sales increased 9.5% during fiscal 2025.

OurSG&A operating leverage also tends to positively impact efficiency and profitability as net sales increase. Many SG&A expenses are relatively fixed costs rather than varying with net sales—including significant public company costs. As a result, OCC’s SG&A expenses as a percentage of net sales tends to decrease with increased net sales.

Capitalizing on New Opportunities

OCC’s commitment to pursuing new growth opportunities—including expanding our presence in targeted market sectors and enhancing our product solutions offerings—will fuel our future success.

As demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) applications continues to accelerate, OCC is capturing the opportunity by expanding our existing presence and product solutions offerings for the data center market.

We have continued to expand and innovate both our fiber optic cable product solutions offerings and our cabling and connectivity product solutions offerings.

As previously announced in July 2025, OCC and Lightera, LLC entered into a strategic collaboration agreement to expand product offerings and solutions—especially for the data center and enterprise sectors. As a global leader in optical fiber and connectivity solutions, Lightera has a long history of industry-leading innovation, design and manufacturing capabilities, including the production of high-performance optical fibers. As respected manufacturers in the fiber optic industry, OCC and Lightera have partnered in various ways over many years, and this strategic collaboration builds on that long, successful relationship.

Through this strategic collaboration, OCC and Lightera expect to benefit from offering expanded fiber optic and copper cabling and connectivity solutions to the enterprise and data center sectors, as well as an expanded presence in other sectors. The companies have combined portions of the extensive product portfolios of both OCC and Lightera to deliver integrated cabling and connectivity solutions offerings, which are being sold by OCC.

In connection with this strategic collaboration, Lightera made an investment in OCC, purchasing shares of OCC common stock from OCC and resulting in Lightera holding 7.24% of OCC’s outstanding shares.

Our Core Strengths Drive Long-Term Value

Founded in 1983, OCC has been a well-respected leader in the fiber optic and copper cabling and connectivity industry for decades. OCC remains uniquely positioned in the fiber optic and copper cabling and connectivity industry with differentiated core strengths and capabilities that enable us to offer top-tier products and application solutions and to compete successfully against much larger competitors.

OCC is committed to enhancing and leveraging our core strengths and capabilities to drive long-term value for our shareholders, which include:

OCC has also earned an exceptional reputation for service excellence, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, and has built a team who embodies OCC’s core strengths and capabilities.

Looking Forward to Fiscal Year 2026

Looking ahead to fiscal year 2026, we are optimistic about our growth opportunities, encouraged by our successes this past year, and excited to build on the growing momentum we are creating in our targeted market sectors. We look forward to leveraging our strengths and executing our strategies and initiatives to create long-term value for our shareholders.

Thank you to the OCC team for your hard work, your commitment to OCC and those that count on us, and your contributions to the team’s accomplishments this past year. Much has been accomplished by the OCC team this year, and we are confident we are well-positioned for future growth for fiscal year 2026 and beyond!

And, thank you to our shareholders for your continued support of OCC!

Sincerely,

Neil D. Wilkin, Jr.

Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

December 18, 2025