Distribution in the Food Industry

A) What are the possible types of retailers where you might sell your product? (Hypermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, department stores, specialty stores (sporting goods, liquor, etc.), bars, restaurants, kiosks, etc.)

A company which provides both food and non-food products is called a foodservice distributor. Such a company sells its products to a wide range of retailers. The biggest retailers include cafeterias, restaurants, hospitals, industrial caterers and nursing homes (“Foodservice distributor”).

B) What are the names of the stores in each relevant category?  How many stores are there?  Where are they located?

There are various types of restaurants found in the USA today.  Some of these include fast casual restaurants, fast food restaurants, family style restaurants, casual dining restaurants, and fine dining restaurants. In 2006, the United States had approximately 250,000 limited service restaurants and 215,000 full-service restaurants that were located countrywide.

Cafeterias on the other hand are not as substantial in number as restaurants.  In the USA, there are approximately five running cafeteria chains. Manny’s and Sloppy Jo’s lunchroom are in Illinois while MCL Cafeterias are in Indianapolis. Other notable chains include Piccadilly Cafeterias and Luby’s.

The other retailers of the fast-food distributors can be found all over the country. There are numerous nursing homes and hospitals countrywide providing food services.

C) What intermediaries or distributors are there in the country?  How big are they and what do they do?

The foodservice industry consists of two main intermediaries namely:  a system distributor and a broad line distributor. A system distributor stocks a small variety of products meant for specific customers like restaurant chains. On the other hand, a broad line distributor provides service to a wide array of accounts and products (“Foodservice distributor”).

Various companies have fragmented the US industry capturing the market to a certain percentage. They include Sysco controlling 17%, US Foods controlling 9%, and PFG controlling 5% (“Foodservice distributor”). Smaller regional players capture the rest. These groups offer distributor members agreement procurement capabilities that rival the purchasing powers of the largest distributors. In addition to this, they also provide private label brands to their distributor member groups together with quality assurance services (“Foodservice distributor”).

Work Cited

“Foodservice distributor.” wikipedia.org. n.p. 24 Nov. 2014. Web. 4 March 2015.