There’s more than one way to deliver steaks, spoons and strawberries to restaurants.

There’s the Sysco Corp. way, in which dozens of regional foodservice distributors are owned and managed by a central office in Houston, Texas. Sysco describes itself as the largest foodservice distributor in North America.

Then there’s the UniPro Foodservice Inc. way, which Busch, Slipakoff & Schuh partner Adam M. Slipakoff thinks is superior. UniPro is an Atlanta-based cooperative of more than 300 independently owned food distributors, such as pizza specialist Roma [photo, below right] and United Poultry. UniPro centralizes some purchasing and marketing functions at its Vinings headquarters and passes the savings on to its member-owners.

The UniPro way allows local distributors to maintain their identities and have better relationships with their customers, Slipakoff said.

UniPro boasts that it’s larger than Sysco and that it just got even bigger, thanks to two recent significant transactions, one of which closed last month.

In the recent deal, UniPro acquired Progressive Group Alliance LLC of Richmond, Va. for undisclosed terms from by Performance Food Group Co. Progressive Group was the subsidiary that handled purchasing for Performance Food Group, which is also known as PFG.

The earlier deal, which closed last year, involved PFG becoming a member-owner of UniPro. Terms of that deal also weren’t disclosed.

In effect, according to Slipakoff, PFG outsourced its purchasing functions to UniPro and PFG joined the UniPro network. The result is that UniPro’s total yearly revenue will jump to about $48 billion from $31 billion. In comparison, rival Sysco has yearly revenue of about $37 billion, according to its annual report. Arnall Golden Gregory is longtime outside corporate counsel to Sysco.

Slipakoff, who is UniPro’s general counsel, was corporate counsel to UniPro on both PFG deals. PFG General Counsel Joe Traficanti was primary counsel for his company, Slipakoff said. Bass, Berry & Sims advised Progressive Group Alliance on its sale to UniPro. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised New York private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, co-owner of PFG.

Slipakoff [photo, right] spends about two days per week at UniPro’s office and the rest of his time advising other clients on mergers and acquisitions and venture capital transactions. Slipakoff’s other clients have included Thomas Group Capital, Nova Engineering and Environmental Inc. and ADK Corp.

Slipakoff and Bryan E. Busch left their former firm, Taylor Busch Slipakoff & Duma, in October to form an eight-lawyer firm specializing in serving mid-cap companies.

UniPro in 2007 asked Slipakoff to become its full-time general counsel, he said. The company purposely keeps a low profile, in order to highlight the identities of its individual member-owners like Roma and United Poultry. UniPro’s members distribute meat, produce, condiments, paper products and other supplies to restaurants, schools, hospitals, the military and other large groups.