"We used to break our own rules and broke into boxes for retailers who wanted three pieces rather than a full case count of 12," Topco Sales public relations rep Desiree Duffie told XBIZ. "There are extra costs involved in that: labor, time, extra shipping. We realized that as much as we're trying to help people and support the smaller businesses, for the industry as a whole, it's not really benefitting anyone. We incur more costs and we're hurting the distributors, who are good at taking cases and breaking them up — that's what they do. So we decided to streamline things across the board."
Citing increasing manufacturing costs and gasoline prices, Topco said that the new policy will buffer price increases for distributors and help Topco handle its inventory efficiently, ship faster and control inventory costs.
"Ultimately what we are doing is streamlining the supply chain and making it more efficient," Topco CEO Scott Tucker said. "Our full-line distributors are our partners in this initiative and as we support them with better service and reasonable prices, they will be better able to support their customers: the retailers."
Retailers who can't order full cases can get Topco products from wholesale distributors.
"Topco Sales' products will be available to retailers just as they always have been," Topco Chief Financial Officer Gabriel Scally said. "Full-line distributors are going to see an increase in sales as more retailers and chains come to them for the entire Topco Sales line of products."
Distributors who are interested in becoming full-line should contact their Topco Sales account executive for more information.
For more information, visit the Topco Sales website.
