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.
Pandemic Catalyzes a Foodservice Distribution “Mutation”
By: Barry Friends | Bob Goldin June 17, 2020 The foodservice value stream includes a long-established and minimally discussed class of distributors specializing in restaurant chains, known as “Systems” or “Customized” distributors (in the 1980’s...
Small Food and Beverage Companies Face New Obstacles That Demand A New Path Forward
By: Bob Goldin | John Geocaris* June 4, 2020 For the past five years, small and micro-sized food and beverage companies¹ have grown 2.5 times faster than larger companies². They have effectively capitalized on key consumer trends (such as simple and...
Time to “Re-engineer” Your Trade Spending
By: Barry Friends | Gary Karp May 28, 2020 There are many projections of what the size and structure of the foodservice industry will be as we emerge from the March-April-May restrictions and how long it will take for foodservice to establish new sales...
The “Big 3” Distributors: Crisis Management in Action
By: Bob Goldin | Barry Friends May 8, 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic caused a dramatic slowdown (and in some segments, a near or total cessation) of virtually all foodservice activity during the last few weeks in March for industry participants of all types...
The Post Pandemic Sales Process – An Opportunity to Reinvent and Reenergize
May 6, 2020 By: Rick Abraham | Bill Caskey Introduction Those of us that have been around a while wish we had a nickel for each time we said “foodservice is a face to face people business and always will be…”. Relationship based selling is always...
A Post-Pandemic “Elephant in the Room”
April 15, 2020 By: Barry Friends | Bob Goldin We all believe there’s a not-too-distant future in which we can leave our homes and begin doing the many things we’ve always taken for granted. And while so much about that future remains unknown and only...
Fourth Quarter 2019 Results from the “Big 3”: Acquisitions Fuel Growth
By: Bob Goldin | Barry Friends and Bob Planck¹ February 13, 2020 The “Big 3” publicly traded foodservice distributors – Sysco, US Foods and Performance Food Group – have again reported impressive results for the most recent quarter. For the group,...
Food and Beverage Brand Dynamics: Private Label in the “Driver’s Seat”
By: Bob Goldin | Rob Veidenheimer January 27, 2020 Food and beverage manufacturer sales were $860 billion in 2019. Of this total, $245 billion (29%) was private label¹. In retail, private label share is 21%; in foodservice it is 45%. Over the past...
The “Big 3” Broadline Foodservice Distributors: Firing on All Cylinders
By: Bob Goldin | Barry Friends and Bob Planck* November 14, 2019 The latest quarterly results of the “Big 3” publicly traded foodservice distributors – Sysco, US Foods, and Performance Food Group – reflect very solid performance on all key metrics, most...
Nontraditional Food Channels: A Key Industry Growth Driver
By: Rob Veidenheimer | Bob Goldin October 2, 2019 Broadly speaking, the $1.6 trillion U.S. food and beverage industry is composed of two major segments: Retail and Foodservice. Within these segments, major sub-segments are thoroughly measured by...
Food Industry Outlook for 2020: Major Challenges Ahead
By: Bob Goldin | Rob Veidenheimer and Bill Caskey September 6, 2019 As our clients begin to plan for the upcoming year, we believe it is timely to provide our perspectives on what to expect. Our views are informed by extensive interface with important...
Update on Foodservice Distribution: Second Quarter Results are a Mixed Bag
By: Barry Friends | Bob Goldin and Bob Planck* August 15, 2019 Sysco, US Foods and Performance Food Group’s latest results reflect growth in sales, case volume, gross profit and gross profit per case. However, all three...