Blog Articles

The food distribution industry in the United States is a crucial link from farm to table, keeping Americans fed. Spanning more than 17,000 facilities anddelivering an average 33 million cases per day, inventory management is essential in a business with razor-thin margins.

Centralizing Your Inventory Control from Houston to the World

Growing a company can feel a lot like the leap from childhood to adulthood. A growth spurt is exciting. You are growing bigger, stronger, and more capable than ever before. However, rapid growth also brings awkward moments as coordination lags behind ambition, and small missteps turn into highly visible stumbles.

Walk through any grocery store or foodservice warehouse today, and one thing is clear: organic produce is no longer a niche category. It is a core part of how food is bought, sold, and distributed. For wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers, the rise of organic produce presents both opportunity and complexity. Demand continues to grow, customer expectations are rising, and margins depend on tight inventory control and accurate data.

How accurate costing drives stronger margins, smarter accounting, and long-term success.

You can’t win the game if you don’t know the score. 

In wholesale food distribution, the same principle applies: profitability depends on always knowing your true costs. 

As 2024 nears the midway mark, many consumers are grappling with the persistent issue of rising food prices. While inflation has been easing downward, many food prices remain stubborn or even continue to climb.

“In 2024, all food prices are predicted to increase 2.2 percent, with a prediction interval of 0.7 to 3.8 percent,” said the USDA Economic Research Service in April.

In today's fast-paced business environment, the effective management of warehouses plays a vital role in ensuring operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Warehouse management may be invisible to the average customer but can be the difference between success and failure for many operations.

“Any business that stores items in a warehouse knows that effective management is the difference between fulfilling customer orders quickly and accurately while keeping costs down versus hearing complaints about delayed or inaccurate shipments and higher operating costs,” says Oracle’s NetSuite.

Turkey, the traditional star of the Thanksgiving meal, may be expensive and tough to find in 2022 as the bird flu and other issues are affecting the supply chain.

Inventory management is important in every sector of the economy, but when it comes to the food industry, the proper inventory software in place can help manage supply chain logistics, ensure the timely delivery of perishables, and most importantly, safeguard consumers with beginning-to-end traceability.

Food supply shortages could last well into the upcoming holiday season thanks to a combination of supply chain bottlenecks, transportation woes, labor shortages, and product and packaging availability.

CNN reported on Oct. 10, 2021 that “many of the country’s biggest food makers are telling grocers that they will have limited quantities of a number of their products, including items such as Rice Krispies Treats, Sour Patch Kids, some Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors, McCormick gourmet spices and Marie Callender's pot pies because of labor, commodity and transportation constraints throttling supply chains, according to emails viewed by CNN and interviews with grocers.”