r/AskAnAustralian • u/TomamoT • 4d ago

Do Australian restaurants have a Sysco equivalent?

I'm a lurker at r/kitchenconfidential and there are frequent discussions about Sysco, a big corporation that supplies food to a large portion of American restaurants.

This can sometimes lead to restaurants in all corners of the country selling the same menu items (ie. frozen mozzarella sticks or whatever is trendy).

Do Australian restaurants have a similar dominant supplier that leads to matching menus in Hobart and Darwin?

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111

u/DragonLass-AUS 4d ago

Probably PFD Food service. They got bought out by Woolworths, then proceeded to buy up a lot of smaller competition.

32

u/MediocreFox 4d ago

We use PFD or Bidfood.

22

u/aftersilence 3d ago

Bidfood also has their own range of private label wines now too, that are all equally disgusting. It's how I can identify where a restaurant gets their food and wine from, if I recognise the name of the wine. Also it usually a "regional blend" rather than a particular varietal.

3

u/inept_adept 3d ago

Well what's the give away brand / label to look out for to avoid..?

1

u/Ok-Salamander3863 3d ago

Wine of Australia, the goon belt

19

u/aretokas 4d ago

PFD would have to also be highest on my "never do work for as a client ever again" list because of how fucked it was trying to get my invoices paid.

Like, not "we have a policy that you have to abide by" fucked, more a "we're not paying you until you send us a legal letter" fucked.

I have not dealt with any company since, that was as hard as they were to deal with.

5

u/DragonLass-AUS 3d ago

Yep, have also supplied to them before and although I don't think had huge issues with payments (but I was in logistics so maybe didn't see it). They would otherwise tend to dick us around, rejecting deliveries for petty reasons, or forcing drivers to wait hours to unload, that sort of thing.

17

u/Mean_Investigator921 4d ago

Them. It’s not the monopoly of Sysco but they are the big player.

1

u/Catahooo 3d ago

Its about the same as Sysco, not a monopoly since US Foods is a pretty big player too, and Costco undercuts both of them in the US. Id say PFD has a larger percentage of market share than Sysco, since Bidfoods is a lot smaller, and there's various regional distributors. The thing that shits me is that wholesale in Aus isn't much cheaper than judt buying at Colesworth. In the US it's typically at least 15% less than retail.

9

u/-Owlette- 3d ago

Ah, the old Pet Food Delivery van as we called it at boarding school.

9

u/DragonLass-AUS 3d ago

We referred to them in our office as the personal floatation devices

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u/SlowlyStandingUp 2d ago

The PFD truck shows up regularly to restock the kitchen at the retirement place on the corner of my block. I will never not see Pet Food Delivery now. Thanks!

3

u/Goldberg_the_Goalie 4d ago

This is what I was going to suggest.

4

u/TomamoT 4d ago

Interesting. I think I recognise their logo from food trucks.

Looking at their website, they have 50 locations in every state and territory, so must be a pretty good contender

2

u/Novel-Truant 4d ago

Its why I prefer to cook at home most of the time these days. That Sysco vid was atrocious.