CHICAGO, May 6, 2026 — Pressure is building on federal regulators to block Sysco’s $29.1 billion acquisition of cash-and-carry market leader Restaurant Depot.
Sources ranging from state officials to zealous advocates of free-market principles are imploring the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Justice to prevent the merger. All contend the combination will put independent restaurants in greater peril by ultimately raising their food costs, the predicted outcome of Sysco increasing its pricing leverage.
Sysco CEO Kevin Hourican has been on a media blitz to counter those assertions, promising outright that prices at Restaurant Depot and sister wholesale chain Jetro Cash & Carry will not be raised.
He contends the merger will help the independent market by significantly increasing the number of Restaurant Depots serving the sector. Sysco intends to add 125 branches to the 160 currently open and to expand beyond the 35 states that now feature an outlet. The plan is to open five or six stores during each of the next 25 years.
“The transaction will also give smaller operators access to a broader assortment of products by making certain Sysco products available through Restaurant Depot stores,” a Sysco spokersperon added. “Together, the companies—already significant purchasers of locally sourced products—will be able to expand the reach of tens of thousands of local farmers and producers by bringing their products to a wider customer base.”
“Our two companies are better together, and our end customers will benefit,” Hourican told financial analysts during Sysco’s most recent earnings call.
The agriculture commissioner of Georgia, Tyler J Harper, isn’t buying it. He sent a letter this week to the FTC and the Justice Department, imploring them to gauge the negative effects a Sysco-Restaurant Depot merger would likely have on pricing and competition.
“This proposed acquisition will dramatically reshape America’s food supply chain, making it more fragile and increasing costs on American restaurant operators and their customers,” Harper wrote in his letter. “American consumers cannot absorb another price shock in our food supply chain.”
High menu prices are regarded as a key reason why consumers are purchasing restaurant meals less often. Charges have risen by at least 34% since 2020, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Fears of further menu inflation is also a key reason free-trade advocate American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) is asking the FTC to block the merger.
“At a moment when food costs are already pushing independent restaurants to the breaking point, the last thing the FTC should allow is a merger that hands Sysco unchecked power over the supply chain,” Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy for the AELP, said in a statement. “Sysco’s takeover of Restaurant Depot is not about efficiency, it’s about control.”
The group also voiced concerns about the possible effects on the supplier community.
“While Sysco claims the deal will lower prices through 'purchasing efficiencies,' those savings are more likely to reflect increased leverage over suppliers, not benefits passed on to restaurants or consumers,” it contended in its request to the FTC.
Food manufacturers have voiced fears the acquisition will supercharge Sysco’s promotion of its proprietary food brands, which tend to be lower in price yet more profitable to the distributor than big-name brands. Right now those in-house Sysco brands are presumably not available in Restaurant Depot or Jetro stores.
The Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) has been urging its members to lobby against the merger almost from the moment it was announced. The trade group has posted a form on its website that independent restaurant operators can use to voice their disapproval of the deal to the FTC.
“In this environment, competition among suppliers is not a luxury; it’s the difference between staying open and closing for good,” the form reads.
Even individual operators are doing what they can to halt the deal. Michael Woodhull, co-owner with his wife of Yinzer’s Amazing Cheesesteaks in New Orleans, posted contact info for the FTC on a site for Big Easy restaurateurs of all stripes. The post urges fellow operators to voice their objection to the purchase, “which will effectively be the death knell for many small independent restaurants.”
The food-away-from-home industry has been awash in speculation about how the FTC or another federal agency might rule on the proposed purchase, which Sysco anticipates completing within a year.
In late 2013, the company revealed plans to acquire arch-rival US Foods for about $8.2 billion. But the FTC refused to okay the merger of the two largest foodservice distributors, citing anti-trust concerns. The merger was officially called off in 2015.
Estimates of Sysco’s current market share have ranged as high as 20%.
Sysco asserts in effect that it’s done its legal due diligence this time around.
“As recognized by the Federal Trade Commission and federal court in 2015, broadline and cash‑and‑carry distributors operate in distinct markets serving different customer needs, a dynamic that will remain unchanged and highly competitive following the transaction,” the Sysco spokesperson commented.
The acquisition of Restaurant Depot and Jetro would swell Sysco’s customer roster by about 750,000 foodservice locations, most of them independent restaurants.
The two cash-and-carry chains had revenues last year of about $16 billion.
Sysco posted sales of $81.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 25, 2025.