SYSCO, based in Houston, Texas, is the largest food marketing and distribution company in North America. SYSCO sells annually over $30 billion of food, related products, and services to over 400,000 customers through 157 separate profit centers which employ in total 46,000 employees. The magnitude of SYSCO's operations is mind-boggling. It sells over 300,000 products to over 400,000 customers and on a daily basis delivers almost 4 million cases of food and related foodservice products to 360,000 customers, 99% on-time and defect-free. Over one-half of SYSCO's 46,000 employees are hourly warehouse and delivery people, and it employs 12,000 sales and business development employees.

SYSCO's industry – food distribution – is a low-margin industry. None the less, SYSCO's financial statistics are impressive. Historically, SYSCO's annual sales growth has outpaced the foodservice industry growth by two to three times. The company's twenty-year compounded annual growth rate through 2004 was 14.6%. Fiscal year 2004 sales increased 12%, while net earnings were up 17%. The company has consistently paid a dividend since its inception and has increased the quarterly cash dividend thirty-six times in thirty-five years. Return on equity, which was 22.2% in fiscal 1998, reached 38.7% in fiscal 2004, while return on average capital steadily grew from 15.0% to 24.9% over the same time period. During the last six fiscal years, SYSCO returned approximately $3.6 billion to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases.