references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . november 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . january 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message us foods type public traded as nyse usfd industry food industry founded 1989 headquarters rosemont illinois united states number of locations 60 area served worldwide key people pietro satriano president & ceo products prepackaged and frozen foods fresh produce services foodservice distribution revenue us 23 billion number of employees 25 000 website www.usfoods.com index.html footnotes references 1 us foods formerly known as u.s. foodservice is one of the usa s leading foodservice distributors . with 23 billion in annual revenue us foods was the 10th largest private company in america until its recent ipo . many of the entities that make up us foods were founded in the 19th century including one that sold provisions to travelers heading west during the 1850s gold rush . the company used the name u.s. foodservice until 1993 . us foods offers more than 350 000 national brand products and its own exclusive brand items ranging from fresh meats and produce to prepackaged and frozen foods . the company employs approximately 25 000 people in more than 60 locations nationwide and provides food and related products to more than 250 000 customers including independent and multi unit restaurants healthcare and hospitality entities government and educational institutions . the company is headquartered in rosemont illinois and jointly owned by funds managed by clayton dubilier & rice inc. and kohlberg kravis roberts & co. 2 in october 2011 the company launched a new brand identity reflecting its strategic focus on creating a better food offering and service experience for customers . since us foods has introduced more specialized products brands and services to help drive customer growth . the company s new tagline is keeping kitchens cooking . 3 on 9th december 2013 sysco corp announced it would buy us foods for 8.2 billion 3.5 billion plus 4.7 billion of debt 4 but in june 24 2015 us federal judge amit mehta ruled that the combined sysco us foods would control 75 % of the u.s. foodservice industry and that will stifle competition . on june 29 2015 sysco terminated its merger with us foods . 5 6 contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 post world war ii 1.3 the 1960s 1.4 the 1970s 1.5 the 1980s 1.6 the 1990s 1.6.1 u.s. foodservice 1.6.2 the reemergence of u.s. foodservice 1.7 the 2000s 1.7.1 u.s. foodservice taken private by investment funds 1.8 the 2010s 1.9 acquisitions 1.9.1 u.s. foodservice becomes us foods 2 speciality divisions and companies 2.1 north star foodservice 2.2 next day gourmet 2.3 stock yards 3 references 4 external links history edit early history edit several of the entities that comprised what is now us foods started in the 19th century . monarch foods for example traced its roots to reid murdoch co. a dubuque iowa company founded in 1853 to provision wagon trains heading west . reid murdoch was a major sponsor of the the teenie weenies comic strip . john sexton & company began as a retail tea and coffee merchant in chicago il in 1883 . john sexton soon discovered hotels and restaurants were his biggest customers . by 1887 sexton closed his four chicago retail locations to focus on his institutional customers . by 1891 sexton began manufacturing private label pickles salad dressings preserves and jellies as well as roasting coffee in downtown chicago . in addition sexton established a food testing laborartory to guarantee that his products had a uniform high level of quality . sexton also developed an extensive national institutional sales force in all major metropolitan areas as well as a catalog mail order grocery business . all national orders were shipped via rail or parcel post from sexton s chicago warehouse . chicago delivers were by sexton horse & wagon fleet and after 1924 sexton electric and diesel truck fleets . by 1930 sexton dropped the catalog mail order business and concentrated on the institutional customers throughout the united states . in 1933 sexton opened a warehouse and truck fleet in brooklyn ny to support the new york sexton salesforce . by 1949 john sexton & co. was operating branch warehouses and truck fleets in atlanta chicago dallas detroit long island city philadelphia and pittsburgh to support the sexton national salesforce . in 1962 john sexton & co. was listed as a public company on the over the counter stock market with 79 million in sales and 2 million in profits . in 1968 john sexton & co. had 90 million in sales which represented 5 % of the total institutional foodservice industry . in 1968 sexton warehouses and truck fleets were located in atlanta boston chicago cincinnati dallas detroit los angeles new york orlando philadelphia st. louis and san francisco with a regional salesforce covering the majority of the united states . this gave sexton a coast to coast distribution and sales network to service their 79 000 customers . in late 1968 john sexton & co. was purchased by beatrice foods for 37.5 million in beatrice preferred shares and assumption of sexton debt . . 7 beatrice foods operated sexton as an independent division until 1983 when beatrice sold sexton to s.e. rykoff & co of los angeles ca for 84.5 million . 8 9 l. h. parke company started in 1889 as a partnership of louis h. parke and william p. m. irwin . the partnership took over the small provision pushcart business of samuel irwin a civil war vet . who had lost his arm in the battle of winchester virginia . parke started as a seller of coffee tea and spices . the company grew to be a major institutional wholesale seller of canned goods and had five locations philadelphia pittsburgh washington dc albany new york and richmond va. by the time it sold out to consolidated foods in 1962 . donald irwin jr. president of parke became the first president of monarch institutional foods at that time . los angeles based s.e. rykoff & co. was established in 1911 and the mazo and lerch families started their business in northern virginia in 1927 . most of these wholesalers tended to specialize selling items to local grocery stores . in the early 1930s distributors including mazo lerch company began offering frozen foods primarily frozen french fries and orange juice . post world war ii edit foodservice distributors served institutional clients that provided food away from home unlike retail distributors who sold to grocery stores . the first distinction between the two groups came about in 1951 with the formation of the association of institutional distributors . with fighting going on in korea the federal government reinstituted price controls including a 16 percent ceiling on food distributors gross profits . about a dozen companies met in chicago to respond to that action . because it cost more to distribute to their institutional customers than to grocery stores the distributors wanted to be considered separately from grocery wholesalers and to have their ceiling raised to at least 21 percent . they were successful in their lobbying efforts . the federal government also helped open up foodservice markets . five years earlier in 1946 the u.s. congress passed the national school lunch act . suddenly large numbers of schoolchildren were eating cooked meals away from home and school cafeterias became the first institutional mass market . one of the few distributors to focus on schools was the pearce young angel company pya in the carolinas . that same year consolidated foods corp. the precursor of sara lee corporation acquired monarch foods . by the late 1950s most distributors had added frozen foods to their product lines . in 1958 mazo lerch held the first food show and was one of the first distributors to offer both custom cut meats and beverage dispenser programs . the diversification trend continued over the years as foodservice distributors provided disposable items such as paper napkins and tablecloths followed by china and glassware then light and heavy equipment . the 1960s edit in 1965 americans spent just 20 cents of every food dollar for food away from home . total distributor sales that year were an estimated 9 billion and the average institutional distributor had an annual volume of 1.5 2 billion . institutional distributor in its first survey of the foodservice distribution industry found that the average order size of respondents was 80.40 and the average number of customers was 572 . the survey also found that nearly half of the respondents sold to both grocery and institutional customers . in 1962 john sexton & company went public and its shares traded on the over the counter stock market nasdaq with 79 million in sales and 2 million in profits . the 1970s edit the decade of the 1970s saw the move to broadline multi branch organizations . consolidated foods bought the old pearce young angel distribution network in 1971 and merged it with its monarch foods subsidiary to form pya monarch . sysco was established in 1970 by combining five independent wholesale grocery companies . sysco went public in 1970 with 115 million in annual sales and shares were traded on the nyse . continental coffee company established in 1915 by the cohn family cfs continental went public in 1970 . s.e. rykoff & co. was generating 1.9 million in profits with revenue of 75.9 million and went public in 1972 . 10 in 1973 continental coffee company changed their name to cfs continental inc. to reflect the growing importance of foodservice to their traditional coffee business . 11 by the end of 1979 sysco of houston tx has sales of 895 million . cfs continental of chicago il had sales of 775 million . pya monarch of greenville sc had sales of 614 million john sexton & company of chicago il had sales of 350 million . s.e. rykoff & co. of los angeles ca was generating 320 million strictly on the west coast . 12 the 1980s edit the distribution industry went through a difficult period during the early 1980s with companies under pressure as a result of inflation and economic slowdown . however people still needed to eat and much of the pressure was from competition . speakers at national conferences focused on customer service productivity and professional development . computers were playing a greater role in the business enabling a distributor to provide customers with information to help control inventory determine menu costs and analyze profitability . as distributors became more professional restaurant chains such as marriott and howard johnson folded or reduced their self distribution activities and focused on their restaurant operations . by 1982 institutional foodservice distribution was a 69 billion industry . the five companies considered national distributors were pya monarch john sexton & company 360 million in sales a division of beatrice foods sysco corporation of houston 1 billion in sales cfs continental inc. 1 billion in sales and kraft foodservice . the five companies had a total of 168 distribution centers covering major portions of the country . despite the geographical dominance these five multi branch distributors reported combined sales in 1982 of 4.8 billion 7 percent of the total foodservice industry . over the next several years the big distributors made major acquisitions . s.e. rykoff & co bought john sexton & company in 1983 for 84.5 million from beatrice foods in what was then the largest acquisition in the industry . the renamed rykoff sexton took fourth place among foodservice distributors with 800 million in sales . cfs continental inc. purchase of