Warren warns against Sysco-Restaurant Depot merger

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) on Sunday warned against a merger between Sysco and Restaurant Depot, arguing it could lead to an increase in restaurant prices .

“Watch out: going out to eat at your favorite restaurant could become even more expensive,” Warren wrote on the social platform X . “The Trump administration might approve a merger between Sysco and Restaurant Depot — threatening higher supply costs for small businesses and higher prices for you.”

Warren is the top Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and she is in line to chair the panel next year if her party takes control of the upper chamber in November.

Sysco, a multinational food distributor, agreed in March to purchase Restaurant Depot, which supplies food to independent operators.

Under the $29.1 billion deal, Restaurant Depot shareholders will receive $21.6 billion in cash proceeds and 91.5 million Sysco shares. The two companies anticipate closing by the third quarter of fiscal 2027.

Officials from the two companies said in March that the deal would give the combined entity access to Sysco’s higher-volume customers, which include restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities and sports stadiums, and Restaurant Depot’s independent restaurants and businesses.

Under federal law, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) review mergers for antitrust concerns. The Hill has reached out to the department and the FTC for comment on the review of the Sysco-Restaurant Depot merger.

Restaurant Depot would operate as a standalone business within Sysco. Kevin Hourican, the CEO of Sysco, has also insisted his company will not raise Restaurant Depot’s prices upon closing the deal.

“It would harm the Restaurant Depot business if we did that,” he said in an August release , referencing raising prices. “We would lose share if we did that.”

Hourican added there “was no economic incentive” to raising prices.

Prices for food away from home, as measured by the consumer price index, increased by 0.2 percent from August to September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported last week.

The price of food away from home was up 3.5 percent year-over-year last month, while annual inflation for food at home was 1.8 percent, according to the BLS.