FMI and its research partners engaged with more than 120 wholesalers, CPG manufacturers, independent retailers and technology providers to identify gaps and friction affecting performance enhancements for the wholesale supplier, independent retailer value chain.
By: Mark Baum, Chief Collaboration Officer & Senior Vice President, Industry Relations, FMI
The report The Whole Picture, What’s Next for Wholesalers and Their Retailer and Manufacturer Partners did not start with a framework. It started with a question: What is happening in the product supplier, grocery wholesaler and independent retailer operator supply chain?
To answer that question, FMI and its research partners, The Dialogic Group, Oliver Wyman and dunnhumby, spent nine months talking to more than 120 industry executives whose livelihoods depend on the success of the wholesale value chain. Participants included representatives from wholesalers, CPG manufacturers, independent retailers, sales and marketing agencies, and technology providers. The research methodology combined in-depth interviews and structured surveys, designed to surface insights from individual company practices and between trading partners on a multitude of topics, including costs to serve, technology requirements and investments, along with trust and transparency.
What came back was candid. Sometimes uncomfortably so.
Manufacturers described a wholesale channel where they struggle to see where their investment goes. "It is really hard to measure ROI on our investments with independent operators and wholesalers," one manufacturer said. Several noted that the multiple operating models within wholesale are genuinely confusing, not as a complaint, but adding complexity to business planning.
Independent retailers described persistent trust gaps around transparency on trade investments and charges. Nothing catastrophic. Just the kind of low-grade friction that compounds over time.
Wholesalers were clear-eyed about their own situation. 81% expect retail mergers and acquisitions to continue. 75% expect operating costs to rise. 92% say they are actively working on end-to-end collaboration — which is an encouraging number, but also a signal of how much ground there is to cover.
"The biggest disconnect in the wholesale value chain is a lack of communication. It is not a connected ecosystem."
— Technology provider respondent
The quote came from a technology provider. It captures something the research confirms across every stakeholder group: the problem is not that people do not know what better looks like. They can describe it clearly. The gap lies in the need for structural change along with shared commitments and investments that enable sustained improvement and growth.
The Whole Picture puts those structural requirements into perspective, along with individual benchmarks, stakeholder-specific action roadmaps and a framework built on what the best-performing organizations (in part, inspired by what adjacent wholesale sectors are doing within their supply chains).
Download the full report, including findings from every stakeholder group.
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