Sysco

Sysco was formed in 1969 when John Baugh, founder of Houston’s Zero Foods Company, combined nine small food distributors; the name stands for “Systems and Services Company.” The company went public in 1970 and made its first acquisition, Arrow Food Distributor, that year. By 1981 Sysco was rated the largest U.S. foodservice distribution company. In 1988 it bought CFS Continental, then the third-largest U.S. food distributor, for $750 million.⁠[1]

On January 20, 2009, Sysco announced that chairman and CEO Richard J. Schnieders would step down as CEO on March 31, 2009, and retire on June 27, 2009. Schnieders had held both posts since January 2003. Executive vice president and CFO Bill DeLaney succeeded him as CEO effective March 31, 2009.⁠[2]

On December 9, 2013, Sysco and US Foods announced a merger agreement. Sysco would pay $3 billion in stock and $500 million in cash for US Foods’ equity and assume about $4.7 billion of net debt, for an enterprise value of about $8.2 billion. US Foods was owned by affiliates of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and KKRKKRKKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) is an investment firm engaged in alternative asset management, capital markets services, and insurance. Jerome Kohlberg, Henry Kravis, and George Roberts co-founded the firm in 1976. Its managed funds invest in private equity, credit, and real assets, and its subsidiary Global Atlantic operates retirement, life insurance, and reinsurance businesses. KKR listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010 under the ticker KKR.Open the full entry, and the combined company would have annualized sales of about $65 billion.⁠[3]

In July 2014, Sysco agreed to pay $19.4 million to settle claims over storing fresh food at outdoor drop sites in California, including $15 million in penalties. The California Department of Public Health reviewed records from July 2009 to August 2013 and counted 405,859 food items stored at the sites. The practice was exposed by an NBCNBCNBC (National Broadcasting Company) is an American national commercial broadcast television network. It was founded by RCA in 1926, began as a radio network and later developed television. With ABC and CBS it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it passed to General Electric with RCA in 1986, merged with Universal to form NBCUniversal in 2004, has been controlled by Comcast since 2011, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry San Francisco investigation.⁠[4]

On February 19, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3–2 to issue an administrative complaint and seek a preliminary injunction in federal court. It alleged that the combined company would account for 75% of the national market for broadline foodservice distribution, and found that the parties’ plan to sell 11 US Foods distribution centers to Performance Food Group would not offset the lost competition.⁠[5]

On June 23, 2015, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction. The parties then abandoned the merger, and on July 1 the Commission announced that it had voted 5–0 to dismiss its administrative complaint.⁠[6]

Sysco terminated the merger agreement and owed termination fees of $300 million to US Foods and $12.5 million to Performance Food Group; its board authorized an additional $3 billion in share repurchases over two years. CEO DeLaney said, “we are disappointed that it did not come to fruition.”⁠[7]

On July 5, 2016, Sysco completed its acquisition of Brakes Group for about $3.1 billion (£2.3 billion), including the refinancing of Brakes’ debt. Brakes was a foodservice distributor in the United Kingdom, France and Sweden, with operations in Ireland, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, and had 2015 revenue of nearly $5 billion.⁠[8]

On July 17, 2017, Sysco’s board named Tom Bené, president and chief operating officer since January 1, 2016, as the next CEO effective January 1, 2018. Bené had spent 23 years at PepsiCoPepsiCoPepsiCo, Inc. is a global beverage and convenient food company headquartered in Purchase, New York.Open the full entry and was president of PepsiCo Foodservice from 2011 to 2013. DeLaney retired as an officer and director on December 31, 2017, and stayed on as an advisor through the end of 2018.⁠[9]

On January 13, 2020, Sysco announced that Bené would step down as president and CEO on January 31, and that Kevin Hourican, executive vice president of CVS Health and president of CVS Pharmacy, would succeed him on February 1. Lead independent director Ed Shirley was named executive chair the same day.⁠[10]

On December 4, 2023, Vestar Capital Partners announced that it had completed the sale of Edward Don & Company to Sysco; terms were not disclosed. Based in Woodridge, Illinois, Edward Don distributes foodservice equipment and supplies to restaurants, healthcare facilities, schools and other customers and had been run by the Don family since 1921.⁠[11]

In March 2026, Sysco announced a $29.1 billion deal to acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot, which operates 166 large warehouse-style stores in 35 states. Its shareholders are to receive $21.6 billion in cash and 91.5 million Sysco shares. The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of Sysco’s fiscal 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.⁠[12]

As of June 27, 2026, Sysco operated 333 distribution facilities in North America and Europe and had about 75,000 employees. Kevin Hourican has been chair and CEO since 2024.⁠[13]

Results released on August 4, 2026, showed that in fiscal 2026, ended June 27, 2026, Sysco’s sales rose 3.9% to $84.6 billion, operating income was $3,095 million and net earnings were $1,757 million, or $3.66 per diluted share, compared with $1,828 million, or $3.73 per diluted share, in fiscal 2025.⁠[14]