Sysco is pausing or delaying service in selected geographic areas of the United States due to labor shortages.
Sysco Manager of External Communications Jerry Hereden told SeafoodSource the interruption in service is due the nationwide labor shortage. Hereden declined to say which areas of the country have been impacted by the disruption.
“Sysco regrets that we have had to delay or pause service for a limited number of customers in various locations. This is mainly due to unprecedented labor shortages in the industry,” Hereden said.
Schools and restaurants in the U.S. state of Kansas have reported service-disruption notices from the Houston, Texas, U.S.A.-based company, which is one of the largest U.S. broadline food distribution firms. Last week, several Wichita, Kansas-based restaurant operators told KSN.com they were notified by Sysco representatives the distributor would need to pause service to them temporarily. Sysco has also paused deliveries to some school districts in Kansas.
“I’m sorry … We’re having issues. We are having problems in the warehouse. We are having problems with our drivers; our new staff is not very well-trained,” a Sysco representative told Los Cocos Restaurant Owner Luis Alfaro, according to the TV news station.
"Many businesses across the country are dealing with labor shortages and supply chain disruption,” Sysco said in an email to KSN.com. “Our associates are working hard to maintain service levels to the greatest extent possible, and we have generally maintained higher levels of service compared to our competition. For example, we continue to make deliveries every day (Monday-Saturday), while many other distributors have canceled some delivery days.”
In his comments to SeafoodSource, Hereden did not say how long the service disruption would continue.
‘“We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our customers. We expect this to be a temporary situation,” Hereden said. “[We are] aggressively recruiting delivery partners and warehouse associates, and our goal is to restore service to our impacted customers as soon as possible.”
Sysco will release its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 earnings on 10 August.
Its fiscal third-quarter sales, reported in May, declined 13.7 percent versus fiscal year 2020 and 19.3 percent versus fiscal year 2019.
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