US Foods announced that effective March 1, Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores will be rebranded as US Foods CHEF’STORE. US Foods acquired Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores in April 2020 to accelerate growth in the cash and carry market. This change will combine the power of the US Foods brand with the assortment, pricing and customer service of Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores and pave the way for an enhanced customer experience.

Sysco introduced nine innovative concepts through its Cutting Edge Solutions platform. These new and differentiated products are available exclusively from Sysco and provide foodservice operators with unique menu offerings, innovative meal solutions and environmentally friendly cleaning and beverage products.

Sysco has announced the addition of a Holiday Toolkit to its Foodie Solutions platform. The Holiday Toolkit is the latest in a series of carefully curated tools to help foodservice operators respond quickly to shifting business requirements and trends resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

LTI, Inc., a leading manufacturer of serving counters and technology, has expanded its line of compact, mobile serving counters with the new Dual-Temp Hot/Cold ExpressLine Compact, which serves as two units in one, offering two bays for hot foods and two bays for cold foods. This offering makes it possible for schools, offices or other busy operations to serve hot foods from one side of the unit and cold foods or drinks from the other side, providing total meal flexibility in one convenient unit.

US Foods announced the launch of its Fall Scoop 2020 catalog, titled “On Point With Off-Premise – Designed To Make It.” This special edition of Scoop features 14 products designed to address trends within off-premise dining such as labor-saving products perfect for DIY meal kits, and products that will help ease diner safety and hygiene worries, including tamper-evident packaging and sanitation items.

In the upcoming September issue of Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, we highlight the pandemic pivots made by Sysco and US Foods in 2020 due to COVID-19 and its effect on foodservice clients like restaurants, hotels, caterers, stadiums, and other volume venues. While putting that story together, we also had a chance to speak to another foodservice distribution giant, Golden State Foods (GSF) and its Chairman and CEO, Mark Wetterau.

This year, when the baseball season looks a little different, HEINZ is bringing you the next best thing to sitting in the stands and cheering on your favorite team: the HEINZ Stadium Ketchup Kit. Each HEINZ Stadium Ketchup Kit has everything fans need to bring the ballpark home, including an iconic HEINZ stadium-style ketchup dispenser filled with delicious HEINZ Tomato Ketchup. Fans will also receive a coupon for a free package of OSCAR MAYER Hot Dogs, hot dog trays to serve up the perfect stadium hot dog, napkins, and a HEINZ red foam finger to help them cheer on their favorite team.

“The average restaurateur makes about 4 cents for every dollar, and now with decreased traffic and increased costs, it’s even more challenging for them,” says Jim Osborne of US Foods--one of the giants of foodservice distribution to restaurants, hotels, catering, schools and more. On the latest From the Cold Corner Podcast, I talk with Osborne about US Foods’ latest initiative—the Restaurant Reopening Blueprint—to help restaurateurs navigate new guidelines for service, staffing, and customer behavior due to coronavirus.