Sector expertise
Wholesale & Distribution
We work with wholesale and distribution businesses to improve inventory, cash flow, customer mix and the operational foundations for sustainable growth.
Why this sector
Profit on paper.
Cash in the warehouse.
Your cash is sitting on shelves.
Every pound in stock is a pound you can't use. Slow-moving lines quietly become the largest asset — and the biggest constraint — in the business.
Thin margins punish small mistakes.
Distribution runs on volume and discipline. A pricing or purchasing error multiplied across thousands of units becomes real money fast.
Dead stock hides in plain sight.
Most distributors carry between 2% and 10% dead stock — and one in five has no visibility of it at all.
A few customers hold the business.
When a handful of accounts drive most of the revenue, losing one changes everything — and the pricing conversation is never equal.
We understand how wholesale and distribution businesses actually run — and why a profitable business can still be permanently short of cash.
How we help
Diagnostics built for wholesalers and distributors.
Five areas. One at a time. Each a fixed-price answer to a question you've been carrying.
Business Control
- Purchasing and replenishment decision rights
- Who owns stock levels when sales and buying disagree
- Warehouse-to-office information flow
- Key-person dependency on buyers and account managers
Financial Performance
- Margin by product line, category and customer
- Cash tied up in stock, debtors and dead lines
- Your true cash conversion cycle
- Whether your stock and margin numbers can be trusted
Growth Clarity
- Which product lines and customers deserve capital
- Pricing and discount discipline across the book
- Customer concentration and the risk it carries
- Where new accounts realistically come from
Funding & Capital
- Readiness before approaching a lender
- How stock and invoice finance is structured and priced
- Real headroom across cash and facilities
- Whether growth in stock is affordable to fund
Digital & AI Readiness
- Whether stock, sales and accounts systems connect
- Getting stock and margin data out without rekeying
- Where automation removes manual ordering and admin
- A sequenced plan, not a shopping list
Impact in practice
The numbers behind the pressure.
Distribution is a demanding sector to run profitably. These are the industry realities we help owners see clearly in their own business.
1 in 5
No visibility of dead stock
In a survey of 100+ wholesale distributors, one in five had no visibility of their dead stock — while 12% reported more than 10% of inventory sitting dead.
Reference: Phocas distributor inventory survey
20–30%
The annual cost of holding stock
Storage, insurance, obsolescence and opportunity cost typically consume 20–30% of inventory value every year.
Reference: Inventory carrying cost benchmarks
42%
Struggle with excess inventory
42% of small and medium-sized businesses in the sector report ongoing problems with excess inventory tying up capital.
Reference: SMB inventory management survey
Ready to improve performance in your wholesale or distribution business?
Book a discovery call to see how we can help.