Sysco to Acquire Greco & Sons – Foodservice Distributor
Outlook – 10 June 2021
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Specialist: Michael Linacre (ML)
Title:
Moderator: Nyree Hinton (NH), Third Bridge Sector Analyst
Former CFO, Albany at Sysco Corp
Agenda:
1. Strategic rationale for Sysco's (NYSE: SYY) announced acquisition of Italy-based Greco & Sons
2. Foodservice recovery, highlighting supply chain constraints
3. Sysco’s pricing power amid the labour and freight crunch
4. Foodservice distributor outlook
Contents
Q: Can you briefly summarise the US foodservice distributor industry? How has it evolved and who are the
key competitors?
Q: How fragmented would you say the industry is? Do national brands or distributors still dominate or are
there lots of smaller local distributors?
Q: What were 2-3 pre-coronavirus trends in the foodservice distributor industry and how have they
evolved?
Q: Could you describe Sysco’s evolution over the last five years?
Q: How did coronavirus impact Sysco’s performance?
Q: Did any part of Sysco’s restructuring stand out as being strategically-savvy? Which parts were perhaps
too aggressive and may hinder its recovery?
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Q: Could you elaborate on the localisation of the foodservice distribution industry? Why do you think that
characteristic exists? How can a player become a strong local distributor? What investments or resources are
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needed to compete locally?
Q: Could you describe Sysco’s customer profile, including the customer type that offers the highest margin
profile? Is it hospitals or restaurants?
Q: Sysco and foodservice suffered through the lockdown but how could the company capitalise on this
temporary downturn, besides the deal that we will discuss?
Q: What inflationary pressures are impacting Sysco and other foodservice distributors, besides the sharp
decline in demand due to coronavirus?
Q: How would you break down the market share between national and local distributors? Would you say
most of the US is 60/40?
Q: Could you give an overview of Sysco’s recently announced acquisition of Greco & Sons? How do you
interpret consolidation in the foodservice distribution industry overall?
Q: What are your thoughts on overall consolidation in the industry? US Foods made a number of
acquisitions during its time as a distributor.
Q: Do you think Sysco could have been more aggressive around consolidating smaller distributors or
expanding into new areas to enhance its offerings, given its large capital structure?
Q: Where do you think Sysco could have been more aggressive?
Q: What do you think are the potential synergies with Sysco’s planned acquisition of Greco & Sons?
Q: How would you assess Sysco’s operational efficiency vs peers?
Q: Could you discuss Sysco’s previous acquisitions in light of its upcoming Greco & Sons integration? What
are the challenges of integrating businesses into a bigger organisation? Is it consolidating sales teams or
understanding the operations of the acquired businesses?
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Q: You mentioned that Sysco’s scale leads to difficulties when managing costs. Could you discuss the
flexibility around passing on higher costs to end customers? Why do you think managing costs is hard for the
company, despite it being so efficient and considering the technology it has that some local players are
lacking? Is it a quality issue as well as the local distributor cutting prices?
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Q: Can Sysco reduce its overheads? What effect do they have on the company’s long-term goals? Is volume
all that matters and it is only slightly more profitable than last year, if at all? What is the endgame here?
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Q: You talked about the drivers as an opportunity to increase margin by lowering cost but what about the
warehouse? How important was automation and increasing efficiency during your time at Sysco? Companies
such as Amazon and Kroger are building fully automated organisational systems within warehouses. How
aggressive has Sysco been?
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Q: Sysco’s on-the-ground footprint increased last year, with a huge increase in freight. How do you think
that impacted the company’s margin compression? Does it own some of the drivers? Is it more of a contract
set-up?
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Q: What would you say is Sysco’s biggest cost driver – sales, warehouse or drivers? What has the company
focused on most when reducing cost?
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Q: You mentioned that independent restaurants drive Sysco’s margin. How would you assess the company’s
ability to acquire those new independent customers?
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Q: What would you say were some of Sysco’s biggest strategic missteps over the last few years? There is so
much overhead and so many people involved in decision-making, as you mentioned. Are the decisions too
slow? What would you say is the company’s biggest challenge?
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Q: Coronavirus has significantly disrupted seat service, everyone is facing labour issues and 15% of
restaurants have likely closed for good. What does this mean for foodservice distributors such as Sysco?
What direction do you think the company should take to adjust to this new market environment?
Q: Why do you think the foodservice distribution market is so segmented? Why don’t big distributors with
capital, resources and expertise such as Sysco target grocery chains that have done exponentially well
throughout the pandemic? It seems like an obvious next step.
Q: Could you assess Sysco’s competitive strengths vs US Foods?
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Q: How would you describe innovation at Sysco? Where does the company focus its investment? What does
it prioritise?
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Q: Would you say Sysco is more vulnerable to market shocks than other large distributors?
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Q: How well-placed would you say Sysco is to gain market share? Do you expect the company to lose market
share over the next few years?
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Q: What is your 3-5-year outlook for Sysco? Is there anything that we should keep in mind when tracking the
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business and its long-term trajectory?
Q: Are there any smaller or national competitors with unique characteristics that we should pay attention
to?
Q: What do you think is the biggest post-pandemic risk to the foodservice distributor industry?
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Sysco to Acquire Greco & Sons – Foodservice
Distributor Outlook
Transcription begins at 00:00:01 of the recorded material
NH: Welcome to Third Bridge Forum’s Interview entitled Sysco to Acquire Greco & Sons – Foodservice
Distributor Outlook. I am Nyree Hinton and I will be facilitating today’s Interview with Mr Michael Linacre,
former CFO, Albany at Sysco Corp.
Michael, before we get started with today’s Interview, please state I agree or I disagree to the following
statement: You understand the definition of material non-public information and agree not to disclose any
such information, or any other information which is confidential, during this Interview.
ML: I agree.
NH: Thank you, Michael. Could you start with an overview of your background?
ML: I’ve been in finance now for over 25 years, various background. I started my career in public accounting
with KPMG, worked on a variety of clients, mostly manufacturing, and then I was hired at a Controller for a
plastics foodservice packaging company, manufacturing. Worked there as a Controller for 10 years. Moved on
as a Senior Finance Director for a chemical company, and then moved onto Sysco as the CFO there. I was
there for about three years. Previously, since then, I moved on to another CFO role. I work for a
construction/contracting company, so various different types of finance experiences in my career thus far.
[00:01:43]
Q: Can you briefly summarise the US foodservice distributor industry? How has it evolved and who are the
key competitors?
ML: There used to be more larger national customers like your US Foodservices, your Syscos, your Gordons,
your PFGs, and in the last number of 5-10 years, there’s been a lot more competition that’s come up, a lot more
regional, local companies coming up and really changing the industry and changing the market, for sure.
[00:02:47]
Q: How fragmented would you say the industry is? Do national brands or distributors still dominate or are
there lots of smaller local distributors?
ML: I think the larger ones still control the markets, but the smaller ones have definitely forced the larger
companies to change the way they do business. I know a lot of these smaller companies are pretty much just
wanting to get market share, so they’re very aggressive on pricing and offerings to customers, where these
larger companies have more limited ability to get to that pricing, just based on their cost structure and the way
the company is structured overall, and the minimum margin you really need to make. The margins have really
come down over this period because of these new entrants in the market.
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[00:04:02]
Q: What were 2-3 pre-coronavirus trends in the foodservice distributor industry and how have they evolved?
ML: I know, a result of COVID, a lot of these companies were really forced to reinvent themselves.
Restaurants typically, traditionally, were just in-house only, whereas now, during COVID, they had to really
reinvent themselves as far as take-out and having pop-up shops, almost selling like mini grocery stores, just
anything they could to stay in business. Now, restaurants, as we’re opening back up, are able to have indoor
seating, but also, they have this other way of doing business that they can also fall back on and use it in
addition to their traditional in-house dining.
[00:05:25]
Q: Could you describe Sysco’s evolution over the last five years?
ML: I know there’s been a big, I think the food in general has changed and what people want is different.
People want more healthy foods, they want more farm-to-table types of foods. Sysco has typically, traditionally
been seen as the big company that you can buy in bulk from, not necessarily the company that buys from the
local farm or buys organic or things that people are looking for now, so Sysco really has tried to change their
image. A lot of people don’t realise that they do buy from the local places as well as national places, to be able
to compete with the local produce guy or the local butcher, places like that. I think that’s been a real change
over the last number of years.
[00:06:49]
Q: How did coronavirus impact Sysco’s performance?
ML: When COVID hit, the business was down like 70%. The only real business that Sysco had at the
beginning of COVID when everything was shut down was hospitals, nursing homes, maybe some colleges that
hadn’t officially closed yet. It was not a lot at all. Then, gradually, as places would start to open up for take-out
only, sales would start to go up a little bit, but for the bulk of through July of last year, sales were still down 55-
60%, so it really, really decimated Sysco, which they were forced to reorganise the whole company as a result
of COVID. They went and got a loan from the bank and took a hard look at how the company was structured,
and realised that they needed to save a lot of cost, so they really reorganised the whole company, consolidating
locations, consolidating leadership teams, getting as lean as they could, wherever they could, to save cost. Still,
the company is recovering. It’s only until very recently that restrictions have been lifted from restaurants. It’s
only very recently that restaurants are at 75%-plus. This is in the last month or so, so they’re just finally getting
to the point now where they’re starting to see areas fully open and a return to normalcy.
[00:09:05]
Q: Did any part of Sysco’s restructuring stand out as being strategically-savvy? Which parts were perhaps too
aggressive and may hinder its recovery?
ML: I think that they made all these cuts and they reorganised because they had to. As we get back into
normal business and things start to pick up, foodservice is a very local business, and every single location
would have a local leadership team, a CFO, a President, you have all at the VP level, and I think that you need
that. The business is very local and the customers really require a lot of touch and feel, a lot of local touch, and
I think once you start consolidating leadership teams, consolidating your staff and you’re spreading them too
thin, it takes away from that local touch and feel. That’s the one thing that really loses Sysco a lot of business,
is that they’re not that local company. I think the consolidation only pulls them further in that direction of
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being perceived as not the local guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if, once things get back to normal and the
business continues to pick up, that they go back to more of that local leadership, because I think that they’re
going to need it to compete. I do.
[00:11:04]
Q: Could you elaborate on the localisation of the foodservice distribution industry? Why do you think that
characteristic exists? How can a player become a strong local distributor? What investments or resources are
needed to compete locally?
ML: The local competitors of Sysco, they do things that Sysco doesn’t do, and a lot of times it doesn’t make
economic sense for Sysco to do, like do non-truckload deliveries, do off-day deliveries, do under-minimums
per order, deliver on onesie-twosies, deliver on Saturdays and Sundays. They really do everything possible that
they know that Sysco is not going to do, to get their niche in the market. Once these customers get in doing
things like that, that opens the door for more opportunity for additional business. These restaurants want you,
if you’re going to do all that, they’ll take it and then they appreciate it and they’ll give you more business.
[00:12:44]
Q: Could you describe Sysco’s customer profile, including the customer type that offers the highest margin
profile? Is it hospitals or restaurants?
ML: As far as margins are concerned, it’s definitely the independently owned restaurants, we call them street
customers, that don’t really have a set contract like a hospital would, that might be part of a purchasing group
or we’d get them on a programme. It’s definitely those independently-owned operating restaurants that are
buying unique items. That’s where the margin is, for sure.
[00:13:52]
Q: Sysco and foodservice suffered through the lockdown but how could the company capitalise on this
temporary downturn, besides the deal that we will discuss?
ML: I think Sysco has really capitalised on this and changed the way the sales team functions and interacts
with the customers. They’re almost like a consultant now vs just the guy that’s going and taking a grocery list
for the week. Like I said, they were really closely, the sales team was really closely involved in helping some of
these restaurants reinvent themselves, helping them, how they create these menus and how they would do
their to-go business, and how they would set up a pop-up groceries type of arrangement in the restaurant,
things like that. I think they’re really trying to differentiate themselves as having these sales consultants and
not an order taker that’s just putting an order into a computer. I think they use that to their advantage and
really are going to try to use that as a differentiator, going forward.
[00:15:30]
Q: What inflationary pressures are impacting Sysco and other foodservice distributors, besides the sharp
decline in demand due to coronavirus?
ML: Sysco has always tried to move pricing along with inflation, especially now that goods are becoming more
and more expensive, but that’s another issue that some of these smaller companies, that they’re really causing,
that are really disturbing the market, because they’re not going up when the market goes up. They stay the
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same, and it’s hard to compete if someone else isn’t going up in price and you have to because your costs are
going up. It goes along with the cost structure thing, where they can afford to take on a lower margin to get
market share, so they don’t have to go up with the ups, with the market ups, as much as a Sysco would.
[00:16:40]
Q: How would you break down the market share between national and local distributors? Would you say most
of the US is 60/40?
ML: I think it depends on where you are in the country, and urban markets and rural markets are also
different, but I think it’s definitely, it’s come down over the last five years a lot. It used to be maybe 70/30, and
I think it may be 55/45 now, with all these local regional distributors around.
[00:17:32]
Q: Could you give an overview of Sysco’s recently announced acquisition of Greco & Sons? How do you
interpret consolidation in the foodservice distribution industry overall?
ML: I know when I was there, we were looking more at market analytics more and more, and the foodservice
industry, there’s market information now that tells you market share by type of cuisine and type of food in
different geographic areas. One area that I know that Sysco was lagging behind was in the ethnic food market,
and I know definitely for sure in Italian food, so it doesn’t surprise me that Sysco would acquire someone with
an Italian, ethnic type of background to diversify their sales base.
[00:18:52]
Q: What are your thoughts on overall consolidation in the industry? US Foods made a number of acquisitions
during its time as a distributor.
ML: The thing of it is Sysco has the backing and financially healthy enough to make it through a COVID,
where a lot of these companies were barely hanging on before, and COVID really took them out. Those
companies have been in real trouble, so these companies are prime for the taking, that Sysco and other big
companies can just gobble them up at this point, because companies like that could never really recover from a
pandemic like this.
[00:19:52]
Q: Do you think Sysco could have been more aggressive around consolidating smaller distributors or
expanding into new areas to enhance its offerings, given its large capital structure?
ML: I think so. Absolutely, yes. There were a lot more moves that we could have made, or that Sysco could
have made, looking back, but I guess when you’re going through the pandemic, you really don’t want to be too
risky, because you don’t really know when it’s going to go back to normal, or if it ever will. I think that was
holding them back a little bit, but now, hindsight with the vaccines and areas opening back up, states opening
back up, I think if they were able to turn back the clocks and know this was going to be all over mid-2021, they
would have been a lot more aggressive in snatching up some businesses.
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[00:21:02]
Q: Where do you think Sysco could have been more aggressive?
ML: I know even locally there were a couple of companies that we wanted to buy, and we thought, “This is a
great chance, they’re looking to get out of the business now. We could probably get it for a better price,” and
we ran that up the chain and they weren’t really even looking at it at that point, so I think I have personal
experience with, “We can buy this company now at a discounted rate,” and they really weren’t even pursuing
opportunities like that.
[00:22:03]
Q: What do you think are the potential synergies with Sysco’s planned acquisition of Greco & Sons?
ML: I think it fills a need for them, for sure, is getting deeper into this Italian market where sometimes it’s
hard for Sysco to get into these ethnic places, because a lot of these places like to buy local or from another
Italian distributor. The fact that that’s part of Sysco now is certainly going to help them. They’ll also inherit, in
that acquisition, they’re inheriting their sales team, they’re inheriting their existing customers, so with that
sales team, they can penetrate other Italian customer accounts that they may not have been able to get before,
but now, since they’re part of Greco & Sons, they might be able to get that business now. I’m not sure what the
leadership structure of Greco & Sons looks like, but I know from a sales perspective it would certainly be a fit.
[00:23:18]
Q: How would you assess Sysco’s operational efficiency vs peers?
ML: Sysco is very operationally efficient. The company operationally is run by metrics, and it’s all about being
as efficient as possible. I mentioned before, there are a lot of things that Sysco won’t do that a lot of these local
companies do, because it’s not efficient. The way we route our trucks, the way we fill our trucks, the minimum
orders we take, the set schedule we have our customers on, it’s all very, very efficient. The set delivery days
that each customer is assigned in each area, even as the drivers are out on the road, they’re tracked very closely
on if they’re sticking to their route, how long it’s taking to offload each location, how many errors are in each
delivery. It’s all tracked. There are metrics for everything. It’s just designed to be very efficient. I think maybe
Gordon, I’ve heard, is really the only one that really does it better, as far as really saying no to their customers
and sticking with their policy of just keeping your cost down. It’s really just a cost efficiency.
[00:25:09]
Q: Could you discuss Sysco’s previous acquisitions in light of its upcoming Greco & Sons integration? What
are the challenges of integrating businesses into a bigger organisation? Is it consolidating sales teams or
understanding the operations of the acquired businesses?
ML: Sysco is very regimented and it’s very structured, very standardised, and when you acquire a smaller local
company, it’s not like that at these companies. The sales team has its daily, weekly routines. They meet and do
a certain routine on Monday, and really, every day, there are meetings on Tuesday and there’s a ride-with or
whatever on Wednesday, and there’s a lot of accountability and there are targets that are set that are fairly
aggressive. I don’t think there are that many metrics and accountability at these smaller companies. The
technology is also a lot different, as far as what they’re using, as far as our ordering system and our online
platform, and what they have to document in the system. Really, it’s a lot of measuring of a lot of different
types of metrics that a lot of these local companies don’t do, and I think that’s definitely something on the
sales side. Sometimes, some people like it and then it does cause some people to leave, because it’s a lot
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different than what they’re used to. I think a lot of that is on the operations side as well, types of things, like in
the warehouse, it’s really speed and efficiency metrics everyone is based on. If they don’t make it, then they
don’t last. Same thing with the drivers. They’re watched really closely, and they have to meet a certain
standard as well, that that standard wasn’t nearly as high as some of these local companies.
[00:27:53]
Q: You mentioned that Sysco’s scale leads to difficulties when managing costs. Could you discuss the flexibility
around passing on higher costs to end customers? Why do you think managing costs is hard for the company,
despite it being so efficient and considering the technology it has that some local players are lacking? Is it a
quality issue as well as the local distributor cutting prices?
ML: I think Sysco just has a lot more overhead than these other companies. They’re a local company, and
they’re not publicly traded. They don’t have to meet earnings targets. It’s just some guy that owns a company
and his team, and he doesn’t need to make 10% margin, whereas you have a Sysco company that is a publicly
traded company, that has very aggressive growth goals from year to year. They have a corporate structure
where there’s a ton of overhead. There are a lot of people that work in the Houston, the whole corporate
headquarters, that there are a lot of people that there has to be revenue to cover costs for all these people,
whereas local companies don’t have that. Even at each location, there’s even a local leadership team, and a lot
of these local companies don’t have all these different levels of management or any of that, so they have way
more flexibility in the pricing they can offer and the margins that they can accept.
[00:30:03]
Q: Can Sysco reduce its overheads? What effect do they have on the company’s long-term goals? Is volume all
that matters and it is only slightly more profitable than last year, if at all? What is the endgame here?
ML: Foodservice, it is a volume business. With all the competition now in foodservice, the margins are low, so
if Sysco tries to raise margins, they’re going to lose business. What Sysco really tries to do is pretty much the
big differentiation that Sysco has is we have a chef in-house locally. Really, where they want to differentiate
themselves is get the customers in the building to talk with the chef, who the chef is the expert on the newest
trends in food, can help you with your menu, do cost analysis. They come into the office and the whole sales
team is part of the process. It goes more into this consulting area too, where a lot of these restaurant owners
may know a lot about food, but they don’t know how to run a business, so we really help them with helping
them understand that cost in addition to giving them specialised new food that they can make in their
restaurant that would be tailored to them, that would differentiate themselves from a food standpoint.
I think when you do that, the things that you’re offering to them that are going to differentiate themselves
from other restaurants, there’s more margin in stuff like that, so it’s really the specialisation and getting these
restaurants to specialise and differentiate themselves. I think that’s really where some of the margin
opportunities come, for sure. Overall, it is a volume business, but I think there are areas of getting margin like
that. I think also, in the urban areas, it’s very hard to get margin, because that’s where all the competitors are.
Expanding more in these rural areas, in these country areas, that’s where you can make a lot of margin too,
because Sysco can get out to these rural places where, if you have five customers in that area, it’s economical
for Sysco to go out there vs a local guy that might only have one of those customers, has to go way out to this
area, may not be as economical for them.
[00:33:30]
Q: You talked about the drivers as an opportunity to increase margin by lowering cost but what about the
warehouse? How important was automation and increasing efficiency during your time at Sysco? Companies
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such as Amazon and Kroger are building fully automated organisational systems within warehouses. How
aggressive has Sysco been?
ML: Not aggressive enough. The warehouse and the drivers, they’re very manual jobs, they’re very physically
demanding jobs. Sysco really hasn’t done a whole lot in automating the warehouseman’s process of picking
items and loading trucks. I think the only thing they’ve really done since I was there is have auto-packing
devices which just wrap a pallet of goods per machine, but that pallet is still being manually loaded onto trucks
for the most part. I think that this could make a big difference, because every dollar spent in the warehouse is a
dollar of margin that you can’t make, and the warehouse has to be as efficient as possible. I think there’s a lot
more they can do, for sure.
[00:35:25]
Q: Sysco’s on-the-ground footprint increased last year, with a huge increase in freight. How do you think that
impacted the company’s margin compression? Does it own some of the drivers? Is it more of a contract set-
up?
ML: The drivers are employees. A lot of the locations are union employees, but the thing with drivers, it’s
tough, because there’s a national shortage of drivers and they’re hard to come by. A lot of times, you have to
accept some shortcomings and issues with drivers, just because you need them. You can’t just find another one
to replace them. They’re not out there. The fuel increase has been margin compression, because you can’t just
go and pass that along either. You really just have to try to control the drivers as much as possible, keep them
on track, get them back on time, and the biggest area that can hit you, not only with freight, is the overtime
that the drivers have by not being as efficient as they could be.
[00:37:06]
Q: What would you say is Sysco’s biggest cost driver – sales, warehouse or drivers? What has the company
focused on most when reducing cost?
ML: The transportation, besides sales, is the biggest cost. Given the fuel, what we pay the drivers, the
depreciation on the trucks, all of the maintenance that’s done to the trucks, it’s a huge expense. Their big
initiative in the last year was trying to fill up all the trucks as much as possible and just send them out on the
most efficient route. That’s a big push, and then the idea is that in doing that, they’re going to have to use less
trucks, and therefore maximise savings on the transportation cost. For every truck you don’t send out, there’s
all that fuel that you’re saving. That was a big initiative. On the sales side, unfortunately, a lot of the savings
initiative, sales, it’s mostly people. That’s what the cost is on the sales side. For saving costs in sales, you’re
either cutting heads. I know that during the pandemic, there were a couple of different series of lay-offs and
permanent terminations of people, and really, the sales teams are just doing more with less, is really the
answer to that.
[00:39:31]
Q: You mentioned that independent restaurants drive Sysco’s margin. How would you assess the company’s
ability to acquire those new independent customers?
ML: Sysco has invested a lot in part of the way they restructure. There are more resources devoted to business
development, and the thing is, Sysco has cut people, but the competition has as well. There are still more Sysco
people out there on the road than there is any other company. They are out there, pounding the pavement,
knocking on doors and trying to really obtain as much business as possible, so there has been a big push to get
back market share. Every year, I go to these national conferences and you would see that our market share is
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going down and down and down every year from where we were the year before, and all these areas, there are
customers buying more from local people than they ever have before. There was definitely a push to get more
business. Also, the compensation structure has changed in that district sales managers and even the sales
team, they’re rewarded financially for opening up new business. That’s definitely a push as well.
[00:41:32]
Q: What would you say were some of Sysco’s biggest strategic missteps over the last few years? There is so
much overhead and so many people involved in decision-making, as you mentioned. Are the decisions too
slow? What would you say is the company’s biggest challenge?
ML: That’s a big one, is that they have these leadership teams locally that know their market, they know their
business, they know their customers, and I think sometimes you need to make moves locally. A lot of times,
sometimes you need to run it up the chain, and by the time you run it up this chain, it’s too late. You already
lost, because other companies can react much quicker. Even companies that are the size of you act a lot
quicker. I think if we’re going to compare a PFG, for example, they’re a big company, but they operate on a
very local basis, and they’re able to make quick decisions and be very aggressive and make things happen on a
local level, where Sysco, they just can’t do it. I think they definitely need to empower that local team more and
trust that they’re going to make the right decision for the company in total. I think what’s happened over the
years is there have been a couple of decisions over the years that people have made locally that have not
worked out, so their answer was, “They’re not doing anything anymore. We’re just going to oversee
everything,” and in doing that, has just crippled the growth in a lot of areas I think.
[00:43:42]
Q: Coronavirus has significantly disrupted seat service, everyone is facing labour issues and 15% of
restaurants have likely closed for good. What does this mean for foodservice distributors such as Sysco? What
direction do you think the company should take to adjust to this new market environment?
ML: I think they’re definitely going to rebound here in the short term, when things open up, but they’ve got to
be prepared for things going back to the way they were. This pandemic could hit strong again, and everybody
could close again. They need to have an answer for that and be able to act quickly to transform the business, to
be able to stay afloat and not having to go back and do furloughs and lay-offs and all that. I think they need to
maybe diversify a little bit more so they’re protected. I think one area that they particularly missed through all
this was selling to grocery stores. Some other large distributors sold to grocery stores, and grocery stores
throughout this whole thing were killing it, were as busy as busy could be, and Sysco missed the bus on a lot of
this. I would suggest that be part of the plan too, is to get in with these customers that are going to be busy if
this pandemic ever does strike again, to be able to get that business. I remember going through this pandemic
and trying to pick up customers, these national grocery chains, and just losing left and right, never really
getting any traction on them. I think that’s a big area that’s missed, because it may not be a ton of margin, but
it’s a ton of volume and it’s pandemic-proof business.
[00:46:19]
Q: Why do you think the foodservice distribution market is so segmented? Why don’t big distributors with
capital, resources and expertise such as Sysco target grocery chains that have done exponentially well
throughout the pandemic? It seems like an obvious next step.
ML: I think it’s just never been a priority to them. There hasn’t been a lot of margin in grocery stores, but I
think a lot of that is changing with these grocery stores having their own chefs there, they’re making their own
food, they have ready-to-go meals. It’s almost like a restaurant when you go into a grocery store, as far as what
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you can take home with you. I think not focusing on it and really not having the relationships and not really
being in that business at all, I think it’s just too late to go in a lot of times, because these companies, they’re all
embedded with these customers already, their competitors, that they’re not really looking at Sysco because we
haven’t been there at all, up until now.
[00:48:05]
Q: Could you assess Sysco’s competitive strengths vs US Foods?
ML: I think that one area that Sysco has always lagged behind US Foods is technology. They have a pretty
slick system that is easier to use, and I think it makes them a little bit easier to do business with than Sysco. I
think that the food offering is probably pretty close. I think Sysco differentiates themselves a little bit more
with their initiative of getting customers into their kitchen and doing more specialisation of foods. I think
Sysco does a better job with that. I think Sysco also does a better job of transportation. I think they’re better
with on-time deliveries and getting food to the customers on time, and giving them what they need when they
need it, better reliability. I think it’s fairly close, but I think definitely the technology part makes them easier to
do business with. As far as just the food part, I think Sysco probably has the edge a little bit.
[00:49:41]
Q: How would you describe innovation at Sysco? Where does the company focus its investment? What does it
prioritise?
ML: I know they invest a lot in the fleet, getting newer trucks, because every year that we had older trucks, it’s
very expensive to run old trucks. There’s a ton of maintenance that you’re going to have to end up paying for
these trucks, and it gets very, very expensive, so they did a good job of turning these trucks over and making
sure you’re getting your set of new trucks and trailers every year. I think that’s a big area that Sysco has
invested in. I know they’re also looking at electric trucks. That’s more down the line, but there’s a pilot of
electric trucks, and so I think that’s coming at some point. Beyond, I think they invest in their people. They
invest in training. Those aren’t really capital investments, but I think that’s also equally as important in
investing in a company. Yes, I would say those are the main areas.
[00:51:20]
Q: Would you say Sysco is more vulnerable to market shocks than other large distributors?
ML: I think that they’re all pretty equally at risk. I think what I mentioned before about the supermarkets and
customers like that, I think that puts Sysco more at risk, but Sysco is also very financially, it’s been more
financially healthy than some of these other companies. You can look at US Foods’ and PFG’s P&L and balance
sheet. We are healthier than them, so I think that probably puts us less at risk than some of these other
companies, because we can absorb, we joked when we were talking when we were there, the longer this goes
on, it favours us the most because we’re the most healthy financially out of all these companies. I think it puts
Sysco the least at risk, I think, compared to some of these other larger companies.
[00:52:40]
Q: How well-placed would you say Sysco is to gain market share? Do you expect the company to lose market
share over the next few years?
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ML: I think that they’re still going to lose market share, to be honest with you. I think they’re trying their best
to increase their market share, but I just don’t see that trend happening in customers. I think customers more
and more want the local guy, they want the guy that brings them Sunday morning orders. There’s always going
to be a place in the market for that customer to do business with that local guy. I don’t know if some of that
stuff is ever going to make sense to do for a Sysco. I think once you’re the big guy, you can’t do certain things
anymore, and if you go back on that, I think you’re just going to lose profitability in the end. You may gain
market share, but it’s going to cost you money.
[00:53:59]
Q: What is your 3-5-year outlook for Sysco? Is there anything that we should keep in mind when tracking the
business and its long-term trajectory?
ML: I think they’re going to rebound. They’re going to come back strong. The stock is going to go up, but
hopefully they learn from some of the shortcomings that they saw during this pandemic. I go back to the
supermarket thing, I think just retail customers in general. They need those customers. There shouldn’t really
be any customer that they’re not willing to accept. They always have to be prepared for us to go back in a
pandemic situation. I hope they do that, but I see a lot of growth over the next 3-5 years. I see a lot of
acquisitions. That’ll be the one thing that keeps the local business at bay, is if they can snatch as many up as
possible, if some of these companies don’t make it out of this or just get tired and don’t want to be in the
business anymore.
[00:55:29]
Q: Are there any smaller or national competitors with unique characteristics that we should pay attention to?
ML: Yes. I think PFG is definitely one to watch, because they go against all conventional wisdom at times.
During the pandemic, they were hiring people. They were offering customers upfront money in a time where
no one really had any money or it was very uncertain how much money they had or how long it was going to
last. They’re adding a ton of people. They’ve added a ton of people from Sysco, good-quality people, long-
tenured people with Sysco. I think they have the management structure right, being focused on the local
markets and the decisions being made at the local markets. They’re being very aggressive. I can see them,
they’re picking up market share. I can see them being a big player and surpassing, becoming a superpower
here, coming up, especially they bought Reinhart Foods, and so with PFG combined with Reinhart, I think it
could be pretty dangerous.
[00:57:14]
Q: What do you think is the biggest post-pandemic risk to the foodservice distributor industry?
ML: I think the biggest risk is these competitors. It’s not only the local competitors, but it’s your other large
competitors that are looking to steal your people. That’s huge in foodservice. If you lose your sales team, you
are done, because the local relationships that those salespeople have with the restaurants are vitally important.
These places buy from who they like. If you don’t have good salespeople, then you have no chance. I’ve seen it
locally here in markets where we lost a number of people to the competition. The competition has owned that
area ever since, so holding onto your, retainage is huge. That could sink them, from a sales perspective and
from an operations perspective too. Same thing with drivers. Customers really get to know their drivers as
well. They probably see them more than they see the sales team. They’re in their kitchen twice, three times a
week, delivering them all their goods and talking to them, and if you lose those drivers, you may not have
enough people to make all the deliveries, but there is a relationship there as well, so that’s also a concern.
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[00:59:10]
NH: Michael, I think that is a great point to conclude on. Let me close by saying thank you for your time and
input today. Clients, thank you for joining Third Bridge Forum's Interview. If anyone would like to speak with
Michael in a private call or meeting, please let your relationship manager know. Michael, thanks again.
ML: Thank you.
Transcription ends at 00:59:21 of the recorded material
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