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.
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...
National Sales Agency Evolution – What’s Next?
By: Rick Abraham | Bob Goldin June 25, 2019 With the recent departure of one national foodservice sales agency president to a competitor, industry executives are asking questions about the continued evolution of the national foodservice sales agency...
Big 3 Distributors “Outrunning the Coverage”: A Review of Latest Results
By: Bob Goldin | Barry Friends May 14, 2019 Against the backdrop of sluggish foodservice industry performance, rising labor and freight costs and a brutally cold winter in many parts of the country, the Big 3 publicly traded distributors (Sysco, US...
It’s Time for a New Sales Productivity RoadMap
by: Rick Abraham April 8, 2019 Remember not too long ago when foodservice manufacturers sold a wide variety of mostly undifferentiated products to a base of mostly similar operator customers through a mostly analogous group of broker/agencies and...
The Kraft Heinz Bombshell: Sorting Through the Rubble
by: Bob Goldin February 22, 2019 On February 21st, Kraft Heinz announced a profit decline, a 36% dividend cut, an SEC investigation of its accounting practices, margin contraction, lower realized prices, cost headwinds, potential asset sales, a...
Sysco, US Foods and Performance Food Group: Are they over-relying on independents?
by: Barry Friends | Bob Goldin | Bob Planck* February 19, 2019 Market-leading growth in high-margin independent case volume and private brands continues to be a major catalyst for improved year-over-year performance by the three largest...
Amazon.com as a Foodservice Titan: Not So Fast
by: Bob Goldin | Barry Friends February 4, 2019 We have the utmost respect for Amazon.com (Amazon). Perhaps more than any company in the recent past, it has and is fundamentally reshaping how business is conducted. No one can ignore their...
The Labor Crisis: Now is The Time to Collaborate
by: Bob Goldin | Gary Karp | Rob Veidenheimer | Barry Friends January 11, 2019 Labor shortages are widespread and growing in severity. They are causing major disruptions to business efficiency and costs to rise, in some cases fairly...
Capitalize on Data Analytics
by: Gary Karp November 28, 2018 A recent study by Pentallect, "Best Practices: Strategic Use of Data Analytics", confirmed the need for continuous improvement in the use of data analytics and identified significant differences in how various...
Food and Beverage Manufacturers: Stuck in Neutral
by: Rob Veidenheimer | Bob Goldin November 13, 2018 Major food & beverage (F & B) manufacturers have been actively pursuing a number of strategic initiatives to accelerate sales and profit growth. These...