Distribution is the segment of the Hospitality industry that basically moves food and related products from huge plants, warehouses, and farms to places like grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, and sporting venues where these products will actually be used. These companies are very important to the industry since they promote, sell, and deliver the products that food and beverage manufacturing companies make.
A large distribution company, like Sysco or US Foodservice, usually delivers customers' orders by truck (often refrigerated trucks) and faces the challenge of providing customers with billions of dollars worth of products quickly (frozen French fries that are still frozen, not thawed) and of high quality (who wants limp lettuce?).
Distributors work with companies that run cafeterias, such as Compass, and directly with restaurants and hotels, to deliver the food and related products needed to keep the Hospitality industry's millions of customers happy.
There are many jobs related to transportation - from driving trucks to managing delivery routes or keeping up with the latest technology developments that allow these companies to know exactly where there products are at any minute. The sales and marketing jobs are challenging as there is a lot of competition and the customers are very large companies, who are used to getting what they want. When people talk about the "real world", this is about as real as it gets. It is where, quite literally, the rubber meets the road! |