Sysco Corporation distributes food and related products to restaurants, healthcare facilities, schools and other institutions, the largest foodservice distributor in the United States. Its distribution business serves as a critical supply chain link between food manufacturers and the many restaurants and institutional food service operations that need reliable, efficient access to a vast catalog of food products and related supplies. Sysco's scale as a distributor gives it significant purchasing power and logistics efficiency, advantages that smaller distributors or individual restaurants couldn't replicate by dealing directly with numerous individual food manufacturers and suppliers. The company's revenue is tied to overall restaurant and foodservice industry activity, making it sensitive to consumer dining-out trends and institutional food service spending across the many restaurant, healthcare and education customers it serves.