Houston food distribution giant Sysco said Monday that it agreed to acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot for $21.6 billion cash and 91.5 million common shares, representing a total enterprise value of about $29.1 billion based on Sysco’s closing price of $81.80 on Friday.
Jennifer Kaplan Schott is Sysco’s Chief Legal Officer and Eve McFadden is General Counsel.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison served as outside legal counsel to Sysco with a team led from New York by James Langston and Andrew Krause along with lawyers outside Texas. Jones Day provided antirust counsel to Sysco with a team led by Washington, D.C., Partners Craig Waldman and Aimee DeFilippo and Peter Wang who works from Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
Jetro Restaurant Depot was advised by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as lead counsel with Macfarlanes providing U.K. counsel. Latham & Watkins served as outside counsel to Leonard Green & Partners, one of Jetro’s largest shareholders, with a team led by New York Partners Paul Kukish and Michael Vardanian.
Jetro Restaurant Depot is based in the Whitestone section of Queens, N.Y., across Flushing Bay from LaGuardia Airport. The company, which reported revenue of $16 billion in 2025, operates 166 warehouse stores across 35 states and said it serves more than 725,000 independent restaurants and foodservice operators.
Sysco CEO Kevin Hourican said the deal creates “a preeminent multi-channel foodservice distribution platform.” Sysco operates 337 distribution centers, in 10 countries serving about 730,000 restaurants, hospitals, schools and hotels. The company reported sales of more than $81 billion for its fiscal year ended June 28.
“Together, Sysco and Jetro Restaurant Depot will enhance value for small independent restaurants and the consumers they serve by expanding access to more affordable, fresh food products and delivering more choice and convenience,” Hourican said. “Jetro Restaurant Depot will benefit from access to Sysco’s best-in-class foodservice supply chain and logistics capabilities and Sysco will benefit from new ways to serve local customers.”
Jetro Executive Chairman Stanley Fleishman said the company’s founder Nathan Kirsh set the Restaurant Depot cash-and-carry vision 50 years ago: “to support independent shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and people running independent food businesses who depend on one-stop food service shopping at low prices seven, days a week.”
Fleishman, who will join the combined company’s board, also said Sysco is the best possible partner “because they share our growth mindset and bring the systems and national and international supply logistic capabilities to help us grow across the U.S. and beyond.”
Sysco said Restaurant Depot has maintained a 30-year track record of earnings growth. Jetro shareholders are expected to own about 16% of the combined company’s common stock. Sysco used Goldman Sachs and TD Securities as financial advisors, while Evercore is exclusive financial advisor to Restaurant Depot and JPMorgan acted as financial advisor to major shareholders of the company.