A rival in the form of another national distributor could emerge amidst the delay of the Sysco-US Foods merger, according to NRN. In 2013 Sysco announced it agreed to purchase US Foods in a transaction costing approximately $8.2 billion. The deal, which was expected to close in the 2014 third quarter, has now been delayed until after the first quarter of 2015 pending a review by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). To ensure that Sysco-US Foods has national competition, the FTC may force Sysco to sell assets to Performance Food Group, the third-largest food distributor in the U.S., according to the source. The article suggests that some regional and smaller distributors could merge to “take on Sysco more directly,” the source reports. Full article.
