Performance Food Group Company, through its subsidiaries, markets and distributes primarily national and company-branded food and food-related products to customer locations across North America.
The company markets and distributes more than 250,000 food and food-related products to customers across North America, from the company’s 155 distribution centers to over 300,000 customer locations in the food-away-from-home industry. The company serves a diverse mix of customers, from independent and...
Performance Food Group Company, through its subsidiaries, markets and distributes primarily national and company-branded food and food-related products to customer locations across North America.
The company markets and distributes more than 250,000 food and food-related products to customers across North America, from the company’s 155 distribution centers to over 300,000 customer locations in the food-away-from-home industry. The company serves a diverse mix of customers, from independent and chain restaurants to schools, business and industry locations, hospitals, vending distributors, office coffee service distributors, retailers, convenience stores, and theaters. The company sources its products from various suppliers and serves as an important partner to the company’s suppliers by providing them access to the company’s broad customer base. In addition to the products the company offers to its customers, the company provides value-added services by allowing the company’s customers to benefit from the company’s industry knowledge, scale, and expertise in the areas of product selection and procurement, menu development, and operational strategy.
On October 8, 2024, the company acquired Cheney Bros., Inc. (‘Cheney Brothers’), expanding the company’s Foodservice operations in the Southeastern portion of the United States.
Segments
The company continues to have three reportable segments: Foodservice, Convenience, and Specialty.
Foodservice
Foodservice offers a broad line of products, including custom-cut meat and seafood, as well as products that are specific to the company’s customers’ menu requirements. Foodservice operates a network of 89 distribution centers, each of which is run by a business team who understands the local markets and the particular needs of its customers and who is empowered to make decisions on how best to serve them.
The Foodservice segment markets and distributes food and food-related products to independent restaurants, chain restaurants, and other institutional food-away-from-home locations. Independent customers predominantly include family dining, bar and grill, pizza and Italian, Hispanic, and fast casual restaurants. The company seeks to increase the mix of its total sales to independent customers because they typically use more value-added services, particularly in the areas of product selection and procurement, market trends, menu development, and operational strategy and also use more of the company’s proprietary-branded products (‘Performance Brands’), which are the company’s higher margin products. Chain customers are multi-unit restaurants with five or more locations and include fine dining, family and casual dining, fast casual, and quick-serve restaurants, as well as hotels, healthcare facilities, and other multi-unit institutional customers. The company’s Foodservice segment’s chain customers include regional businesses requiring short-haul routes, as well as national businesses requiring long-haul routes, including many of the most recognizable family and casual dining restaurant chains. Sales to chain customers are typically lower gross margin but have larger deliveries than those to independent customers.
The company offers its customers a broad product assortment that ranges from ‘center-of-the-plate’ items (such as beef, pork, poultry, and seafood), frozen foods, refrigerated products, and dry groceries to disposables, cleaning and kitchen supplies, and related products used by the company’s customers. In addition to the products the company offers, the company provides value-added services by enabling the company’s customers to benefit from the company’s industry knowledge, scale, and expertise in the areas of product selection and procurement, menu development, and operational strategy.
The company’s products consist of Performance Brands, as well as nationally branded products and products bearing the company’s customers’ brands. The company’s Performance Brands typically generate higher gross profit per case than other brands. Nationally branded products are attractive to chain, independent, and other customers seeking recognized national brands in their operations and complement sales of the company’s Performance Brand products. Some of the company’s chain customers, particularly those with national distribution, develop exclusive stock keeping units (‘SKU’) specifications directly with suppliers and brand these SKUs. The company purchases these SKUs directly from suppliers and receive them into the company’s distribution centers, where they are mixed with other SKUs and delivered to the chain customers’ locations.
Convenience
The Convenience segment is one of the largest wholesale consumer products and foodservice distributors in the convenience retail industry. Convenience offers a full range of products, marketing programs and technology solutions to customer locations, including traditional convenience stores, drug stores, mass merchants, grocery stores, liquor stores and other specialty and small format stores that carry convenience products in the United States and Canada. Convenience's product offering includes cigarettes and other nicotine products, candy, snacks, food, including fresh products, groceries, dairy, bread, beverages, general merchandise and health and beauty care products. Convenience operates a network of 39 distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada (excluding two distribution facilities it operates as a third-party logistics provider). There are 35 distribution centers located in the U.S. and four located in Canada.
Specialty
Specialty (formerly Vistar) is a leading national distributor of candy, snacks, beverages, and other food items operating a network of 27 Specialty distribution centers.
Specialty has successfully built upon the company’s national platform to broaden the channels the company serves. Specialty distribution centers deliver to vending and office coffee service distributors, as well as direct to customer locations including theaters and retail locations. The distribution model also includes ‘pick and pack’ capabilities utilizing small parcel third-party carriers to deliver direct to consumers for the company’s supplier partners and to its customers whose order sizes are too small to be served effectively by the company’s truck network. These capabilities, in conjunction with the breadth of the company’s inventory, are differentiating and allow the company to serve many distinct customer types. Specialty's scale in the channels it serves enhances the company’s ability to procure a broad variety of products for the company’s customers.
Trademarks and Trade Names
The company has numerous perpetual trademarks and trade names that are of significant importance, including Performance Food Group, Performance Foodservice, Core-Mark, and Vistar. The company also has registered or applied for trademark protections for the company’s Performance Brands. These trademarks and the Performance Brands on which they are used are widely recognized within the foodservice industry.
Regulation
The company’s operations are subject to various laws and regulations relating to, among other things, the manufacturing, processing, packaging, storage, distribution, advertising, and labeling of the company’s products, including regulation by state and local health departments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the ‘USDA’), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the ‘FDA’), which generally impose standards for product quality and sanitation and are responsible for the administration of bioterrorism legislation affecting the foodservice industry.
The FDA has finalized FSMA regulations for implementation, which have significantly expanded the company’s food safety requirements. The company has established and continue to maintain comprehensive, prevention-based controls across the food supply chain that are both verified and validated, as required by the FDA regulations implementing FSMA. The company’s seafood operations are also specifically regulated by federal and state laws, including those administered by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Shellfish Sanitation Program, established for the preservation of certain species of marine life, including fish and shellfish. The company’s distribution and certain manufacturing facilities must be registered with the FDA and are subject to periodic government agency inspections by federal and/or state authorities. The Federal Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, which specifies standards for the sale, shipment, inspection, and rejection of agricultural products, governs the company’s relationships with its fresh produce suppliers with respect to the grading and commercial acceptance of product shipments. The company is also subject to regulation by state authorities for the accuracy of the company’s weighing and measuring devices.
The company’s customers include several departments of the U.S. federal government, as well as certain state and local governmental entities. These customer relationships subject the company to additional regulations applicable to government contractors.
The company’s operations are subject to a variety of federal, state, and local laws and other requirements, including employment practice standards for workers set by the U.S. Department of Labor. The company is also subject to the National Labor Relations Act, which governs the process for collective bargaining between employers and employees and protects the rights of both employers and employees in the workplace; the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes minimum wages and overtime standards, among other requirements; various laws that prohibit discrimination in employment based on non-merit categories, including but not limited to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and other laws relating to accessibility. The company’s workers’ compensation programs are subject to regulation by the jurisdictions in which the company operates.
The Surface Transportation Board and the Federal Highway Administration regulate the company’s trucking operations. In addition, interstate motor carrier operations are subject to safety requirements prescribed in the U.S. Department of Transportation and other relevant federal and state agencies. The company must comply with the safety and fitness regulations promulgated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, including those relating to drug and alcohol testing and hours of service. Such matters as weight and dimension of equipment are also subject to federal and state regulations.
History
Performance Food Group Company was founded in 1885. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 2002.