SYSCO is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Its family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries. For the fiscal year 2008, the company generated more than $37 billion in sales, achieving a ranking of 70th in Fortune Magazine’s 500 largest U.S. corporations.
SYSCO’s network of 177 locations extends from coast to coast—throughout the United States and Canada. Its family of companies includes broadline distributors whose customers serve a broad menu of foods; specialty produce and custom-cut meat distributors; a distributor specializing in products for restaurants that serve Asian foods; a hotel supply operation; and a chain restaurant distribution specialist.
SYSCO’s mission is “Helping our Customers Succeed,” and one important tool the company uses to help customers realize success is the Business Review program. Through this initiative, customers are able to explore a full array of profit-bolstering initiatives—from re-engineering their menus to improving their purchasing practices and refining employee-training strategies. This gives customers new perspectives on their businesses and can encourage them to transform challenges into unexplored opportunities to increase their growth.
Food safety is one of the company’s highest priorities. More than 180 SYSCO quality–assurance professionals are in the manufacturing and processing plants and out in the fields the world over, qualifying those sources to assure that the products they produce under the SYSCO brand measure up to the standards the company expects for safety, quality and consistency. The detailed, written qualifications meet, and often exceed, U.S. government grading standards and inspection guidelines established by the U.S.Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Commerce and other regulatory authorities. The restaurants and foodservice operators of the United States and Canada continue to change and respond to the varied tastes and demands of the consumer. Today, eating away from home offers a world of possibilities—from low-cost options to fine dining, from the domestic to the exotic—and SYSCO is privileged to serve this industry.