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US: Performance Food to buy rival Reinhart for $2B

By  |  July 2, 2019

Performance Food Group said on Monday it would buy privately held rival Reinhart Foodservice for $2 billion, as the distributor of goods to restaurants seeks scale to counter rising transportation costs that have pressured the industry.

Food distributors are facing shrinking margins as transportation costs have surged in recent years, with drivers preferring to work in the construction and manufacturing industries in an expanding US economy.

“We need all the people, so it’s a good situation… Drivers would be the biggest difficulty, hence our need for all the drivers,” Performance Food’s Chief Executive Officer George Holm told Reuters.

The acquisition of Reinhart, the second-largest privately held food distributor in the United States, will create a company with $30 billion in net sales and add independent restaurants to Performance Food’s current customer base that includes Subway, Bloomin’ Brands Inc and Restaurant Brands International Inc’s Burger King.

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