The US wholesale distribution industry today consists of more than 300,000 companies and employs nearly one out of every 20 Americans, providing merchandise to retailers, commercial, and institutional users and others in the wholesale industry.
Traditionally, wholesalers have focused on distributing products from manufacturers and suppliers to retailers. But in today's market, this is no longer enough. Vendors see less benefit in having a middleman if all the distributor does is ship products.
The wholesale distribution industry has never been so challenging and complex. Customers and suppliers have become more demanding. More products are becoming commoditized, and margins are shrinking. As a result, wholesalers are taking a more active role in supply chain management. Relying on distributors to handle supply chain management and technical support has driven vendors to seek national wholesale operations. The need to operate on a national level has driven industry consolidation.
Our client is a world-wide leader in the distribution of products for maintenance and repair for industrial companies of all sizes.
Our client's customers include more than 1.7 million businesses and institutions across North America and China. While each customer has a unique facility to operate and a different problem to solve, each shares the same requirement: when they need one of our client's products, they often need it right away.
With more than 16,732 knowledgeable employees, our client and its associates works closely with their customers to better understand their challenges and provide cost-saving solutions. Client employees serve customers more than 115,000 times every day through multiple channels.
With 2005 sales of $5.5 billion, our client is a Fortune 500 company and a perennial member of Fortune magazine's Most Admired Companies list.
Our engagement was focused on four major deliverables with the following results:
The increase in inventory turns alone was responsible in freeing more than $100 million in cash flow.
Thomas Group offers a strong and reliable network of dedicated industry experts. Our mission is to help our clients extract value from their distribution operations, to develop a competitive advantage throughout the value chain, and to ensure that all corporate stakeholder expectations are recognized and met. Helping you build brand trust, growth, and effectiveness within your organization is the purpose of our practice. We use a variety of tools such as Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), Hoshin Karni, and Lean tailored to fit your unique situation.
Our methodology assists our clients to generate:
Thomas Group is helping distribution companies around the world create differentiating, value-added solutions while reducing the overall cost of holding and shipping products. A relentless customer focus as well as a drive to bring efficiency to the entire supply chain creates value and higher margins for those companies willing to be proactive.
Thomas Group works with distributors throughout the world to help them achieve high performance at lower cost.