Food Distribution
Functioning as the logistical solution or middleman, this industry acquires food products in bulk from manufacturers and transports them to grocery stores, restaurants, and institutional cafeterias.
Why it exists
To move food efficiently from producer to retailer and restaurant.
Why it’s necessary
Without wholesale logistics, modern grocery and foodservice scale simply collapses.
Key components
Warehousing & cold storage
Transportation fleets
Supplier aggregation
Order & billing systems
How to evaluate businesses
Volume throughput, margin per case, route density, spoilage rates, and customer concentration define health.
How the industry could be improved
Predictive logistics, dynamic routing, real-time pricing, and automated fulfillment systems tied directly to POS data.