be enlightened by our
Thought Leadership
The Pentallect partners’ personal executive experience, coupled with their reputation as provocative and outside-the-box thought leaders, have made their pragmatic advice, opinions and insights some of the most sought after in the food industry. The Pentallect team is honored to be regularly quoted in national and leading industry publications.
Third Quarter Results for the Big 3 Foodservice Distributors: Back to Normal
The third quarter results of the Big 3 publicly traded foodservice distributors (Performance Food Group, Sysco Corp. and US Foods) were in line with analyst and industry expert expectations given restaurant traffic declines1 that are largely attributable to ongoing...
The Big 3 Foodservice Distributor Results for Q2 2024: Maintaining Momentum
Despite solid GDP, employment and wage growth and a sharply lower inflation rate, many foodservice and retail industry participants have recently commented on challenging macro-economic conditions and attribute them, at least in part, to lagging performance. While...
First Quarter Results for the Big 3 Foodservice Distributors: Consumers are Finally Saying “No Mas” to High Menu Prices
Based on numerous reported sources, restaurant traffic, most notably in the quick service restaurant chain segment, has been soft and average check growth has been decelerating. This is having an adverse impact on industry participants - including the Big 3...
The Pricing Party is Over: Food and Beverage Manufacturers’ Volume Declines Are Not Sustainable
Pentallect has continued to conduct our quarterly analyses of the most recent performance1 of 20 publicly traded, multi-billion-dollar, brand-oriented food and beverage companies. Collectively, the most recent quarterly performance clearly shows that past reliance on...
Fourth Quarter 2023 Results for the Big 3 Foodservice Distributors: Ending the Year with a “Bang”
In the absence of inflationary tailwinds, each of the Big 3 foodservice distributors – Performance Food Group, Sysco and US Foods – reported very solid growth in revenues, volume and profitability. They showed marked improvement in virtually all key operational and...
Big 3 Foodservice Distributor Results for Q3 2023: Market Appears to be Surprisingly Strong
The “Big 3” foodservice distributors have a 35 – 40% share of market1 and, as such, are a reasonable proxy for the broader market. Their most recent results, most notably their total and independent case volume growth of 2.7% and 4.4%, respectively, seemingly indicate...
Food and Beverage Manufacturers’ Volume Decline is Concerning
Pentallect has compiled and analyzed the most recent quarterly performance1 of 20 publicly traded, multi-billion-dollar, brand-oriented food and beverage companies. While the studied companies achieved solid growth in sales and profitability, their volume...
Big 3 Foodservice Distributors’ Q2 2023 Results: Industry Returns to “Normal” Conditions
A year ago, the industry was recovering, and food cost inflation was 16.4% (a rate that, in hindsight, is hard to fathom). Consequently, the Big 3 sales were +29.5% and case volume was a healthy +4.7%. What a difference a year (and sharply lower inflation)...
First Quarter 2023 Results for the Big 3 Foodservice Distributors: Positive Performance but Headwinds Lurking
Performance Food Group (PFG), Sysco and US Foods (the Big 3) recently released their 2023 first quarter results. These results reflect several significant, generally favorable and rather interesting trends including, most notably, ongoing deceleration of product cost...
2022 Food Company Performance: Inflation Provides Big Boost
Pentallect has comprehensively assessed the 2022 sales and profit performance of 70 publicly traded food companies (almost all of which are $1+ billion) that operate in all major industry sectors – food and beverage (non-alcoholic and alcoholic) manufacturers, nonfood...
Big 3 Foodservice Distributor Results for the Fourth Quarter, 2022: An End to Peak Performance?
For the fourth quarter of 2022, the Big 3 foodservice distributors reported revenue and total case growth of 11.2% and 3.6%, respectively; organic case volume was +2.6%. These results are in line with 2022 industry growth estimates, which Technomic reported as...
2023: What To Expect and How to Prepare
As the food industry moves into 2023, Pentallect partners, like others, are examining how the year may unfold. While we lack the proverbial crystal ball, we have identified several anticipated dynamics that will have implications for food industry participants...