Sysco Acquires Two Hispanic Food Distributors

Sysco Corporation announced it has acquired J & M Wholesale Meats and Imperio Foods, Inc., two Hispanic food distributors based in California with approximately $44 million in combined annual sales.

J & M Wholesale Meats and Imperio Foods, sister Hispanic companies based out of Modesto, California, operate throughout northern California and Oregon.

“We are excited to welcome J & M Wholesale Meats and Imperio Foods into the Sysco family of businesses,” said Greg Bertrand, Sysco’s executive vice president, U.S. foodservice operations.

Founded in 2003, J & M Wholesale Meats specializes in wholesale meats and serves food service customers and small retail locations in the Hispanic segment.

Imperio Foods was founded in 2014 and carries dry Hispanic retail-pack canned good products.

“The acquisition of these businesses is a complementary adjacency to our existing California area business and provides Sysco with the opportunity to further extend our reach into the Hispanic customer segment,” added Bertrand.

J & M Wholesale Meats/Imperio Foods executives will continue to manage the Hispanic business, including owner and operator, Maria Jimenez. According to public records, J & M Wholesale Meats employs a staff of approximately 35 and Jaime Jiménez appears as company president.

The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions expanding Sysco’s reach at home and abroad.

In the past year, Sysco has acquired Doerle Food Services, a Louisiana distributor and Kent Frozen Foods, a U.K.-based distributor. In January, Sysco announced plans to acquire Illinois-based Waugh Foods, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Sysco is a global food service distribution company with over 67,000 associates. The company operates approximately 330 distribution facilities worldwide and serves more than 600,000 customer locations.

For fiscal 2018 that ended June 30, 2018, the company generated sales of more than $58 billion. Last Friday, Sysco shares were up more than 1 percent at $68.82, after the announcement of the acquisition.