<p>Sysco has revealed its financial results for its 13-week fourth fiscal quarter, and its 52-week fiscal year ended June 29, 2013. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The company reported fourth-quarter profit fell 8.5% from $309 million to $283 million. Adjusted earnings per share were 50 cents for the quarter. Sysco's net sales rose 5% to $11.6 billion, compared to $11 billion in the year-ago quarter. Operating income decreased 0.8%, from $515 million to $460 million, year over year. Food cost inflation was 2.0%, as measured by the estimated change in Sysco's product costs, driven mainly by inflation in the dairy and poultry categories, according to a press release.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">In addition, sales from acquisitions in the last 12 months increased sales by 2.1%, and the impact of changes in foreign exchange rates for the fourth quarter decreased sales by 0.1%. Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $2.0 billion, an increase of 1.2%, compared to the prior year period. Operating income decreased 10.8% to $460 million in the fourth quarte.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>"Fiscal year 2013 was a year of transition for Sysco where we made good progress on our multi-year business transformation initiatives. With that said, our financial results announced this morning fell short of our expectations as weak restaurant traffic continued to challenge many of our customers," said Bill DeLaney, Sysco's president and chief executive officer. "While overall sales grew acceptably by about 5 percent for both the fourth quarter and full fiscal year and our cost per case metrics improved as the year progressed, we were unable to grow our gross profit at planned levels due in part to ongoing competitive pressures and a shift in customer mix. Looking forward to fiscal 2014, our earnings performance trends should gradually improve as we realize more of the benefits of our business transformation initiatives and further leverage the capabilities of both our strengthened senior management team and our 48,000 customer focused associates."</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Net earnings for the fiscal year were $992 million, a decrease of $129 million, or 11.5%, compared to the prior year. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.sysco.com/supplier-partnerships.html" target="_new"> Sysco <hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"></a></p>
