Performance Food Group Co.

12500 W. Creek Pkwy.

Year founded: 1987

Industry: Other

Post 200 Category: Top Companies Headquartered in Virginia

Revenue: $6.15 Billion

Net Income/Loss: $52.56 Million

Earnings per share: $1.11

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: $874.31 Million

Auditor: KPMG LLP

Stock: PFGC

Assets: $1.83 Billion

Market capitalization: $1.32 Billion

52-week high: 35.94 5/4/2004

52-week low: 20.99 9/8/2004

Chairman and CEO: Robert C. Sledd

CFO: John D. Austin

Employees: 11000

Local employees: n/a

Description: Performance Food Group is the nation's third-largest food distributor behind Sysco Corp. and U.S. Foodservice. It supplies more than 65,000 products to about 44,000 fast-casual restaurants, health care facilities, hotels and cafeterias, mostly in Eastern states but also to national casual-dining chains. The company has also been the biggest processor of bagged lettuce sold in supermarkets, although it has a deal to sell that unit.

Developments: The company said in February that it had to delay its fourth-quarter earnings report after it received anonymous allegations about accounting practices at one of its units, which led to a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry and an investigation by its audit committee. Performance Food said the allegations specifically charged that the unit may have made improper intercompany transfers of inventory to avoid internally established reserve requirements for aged inventory. Also in March, the audit committee completed its probe and found no basis for any change in its financial statements. A spokesman said the company is cooperating with the SEC in what he called an informal inquiry. In February, Chiquita Brands International Inc. said it planned to buy Fresh Express, a maker of bagged salads, from Performance Food Group for $855 million. The market in "convenience lettuce" is growing, as consumers increasingly reach for prewashed and cut greens instead of heads of lettuce. Fresh Express has about 40 percent of the fresh-cut salad market, which it estimates at $2.7 billion annually. The sale is expected to be completed in the second quarter, enabling the company to focus on its core distribution business, the spokesman said. Last July, Performance Food Group said its Broadline division won a contract to provide service to British food-service company Compass Group's locations in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Midwest. Performance Food already has about $50 million in sales with Compass Group's facilities in the Northeast and said it anticipated the contract would generate more than $200 million in additional annual sales.