Sysco CEO: Restaurant recovery is here 

Sysco BB #:105962 CEO Kevin Hourican says the post COVID restaurant recovery is moving fast, with restaurants tracking ahead of 2019 numbers, and even into double-digits.  

Hourican was a guest on CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer.  

“We’re running increases to 2019,” Hourican said on the show. “I would say fully reopened markets are running double digit increases to ’19.”  

Hourican expects the numbers to improve as more major metropolitan areas open fully.  

The National Restaurant Association reported restaurants lost as much as $240 billion in 2020, compared to sales expectations, with as many as 110,000 restaurant locations temporarily or permanently closed.  

Cramer asked Hourican about the closures and he had a more optimistic outlook:   

“The data that we have is that fewer than 10% of the unique restaurants that were open pre-COVID are now closed,” he said. “I would submit that’s actually a better number than most pundits had speculated.”  

Hourican expects strong business going into the summer.  

“Consumers want to go back out to eat, they have food-at-home fatigue, and the doors that remain open will see higher productivity,” he said.  

Watch the full interview here:  

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