Hartford Business Journal

20 Hartford Business Journal • June 1, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com W hen Gov. Ned Lamont ordered restaurants to temporarily suspend indoor service more than two months ago in response to the COVID-19 pan- demic, Jim Charbonneau's business instantly dropped off by about 40%, enough for him to start offering on- line ordering and curbside pickup. But Charbonneau doesn't run a res- taurant. He's co-president of Hartford Provision Co., a South Windsor-based food distributor whose customers are mostly restaurants, as well as cafete- rias at K-12 schools and colleges. "A very big part of our customer base is closed," said Charbonneau, whose company does business as HPC Foodservice. "It's starting to open gradually, but it closed, and it closed very abruptly." Meantime, food distributors that serve retail customers like grocery stores have the opposite problem, said Wayne Pesce, president of the Con- necticut Food Association, which rep- resents about 270 member companies mostly in retail food distribution. "Anybody whose business is delivering to grocery stores, they're busier than they've ever been," Pesce said. "It's a much dif- ferent problem." The coronavi- rus has created major disruption in the food industry in recent months, and although grocery stores and restaurants have garnered much of the public's attention, food distributors — which serve everything from eateries and supermarkets to college and grade-school cafeterias — have also seen significant upheaval. And while the pandemic has hit Connecticut food distributors in a financially uneven manner, supply chain issues continue to mar the industry, even as the state economy slowly reopens. In the early weeks of the restau- rant and school closures, Branford- based Carbonella & DeSarbo Inc. saw business drop off by about 80%, said Vice President Maria DeSarbo. The downturn has leveled off to an ex- tent — the company is now making about 20% less revenue compared to normal times — but the impact has been significant, she said. The company mostly sells pro- duce, and about three quarters of its customers are restaurants, DeSarbo said. Carbonella & DeSarbo has been able to redirect some bulk items like peppers and squash to retail custom- ers. But it's not enough to make up for all the lost business. DeSarbo said she isn't wor- ried about her company going under, but if a lot of restaurants close their doors permanently in coming months it won't come out unscathed. An analyst for Swiss multinational investment bank UBS recently estimated that up to 20% of U.S. restaurants may close for good as a result of the coro- navirus shutdown. "I think we're going to see quite a few restaurants close their doors and there will be a domino effect," DeSarbo said. She's not alone in that thinking. Florida-based marketing firm Acosta Sales & Marketing is pre- dicting a slow recovery for the food service industry. Supply Chain Disruption Coronavirus leaves the state's food distribution industry in flux Wayne Pesce, President, Connecticut Food Association An HPC Foodservice employee at the company's South Windsor warehouse. HBJ PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEVER Hartford Provision Co., a South Windsor-based food distributor that does business as HPC Foodservice, is among Connecticut food distributors grappling with COVID-related business downturns.

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