Wholesale, Distribution and Transportation
The supply chain for products comprises of various process. Del Monte, like other manufacturing companies has to disseminate its products from the point of manufacturing to the final customers. The process of disseminating products involves various aspects such as distribution of products and dispersion of work among others. Dispersion of work such as administrative functions as well as other departments has to take place in the business environment. In the distribution process, the key features include conveyance of people and physical dissemination of products to various locations.
The distribution system takes into perspective players such as manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers as well as consumers of the sold products. The introduction of market mediators such as wholesalers into the market reduces the number of business transactions that take place immensely. The mediators take products from the manufacturers and then disseminate the products to the consumers instead of each of the retailers contacting the manufacturers directly. The agents also e quip other market players with essential information regarding the market conditions (Kapoor and Kansal, 2003).
The process of distributing products requires careful selection of a distribution channel. The distribution channel chosen for a particular product depends on various characteristics that a company has to consider before settling on the dissemination channel for their products. The first is the industry condition. This includes aspects such as customer purchasing trends and consumption trends in the market. The particular item features also have to be considered while settling on the most appropriate distribution channel. Items that are more costly or perishable among other characteristics require shorter distribution channels. In addition to this, organizations with greater resources also tend to select shorter dissemination channels for their products. Other factors that are considered for product distribution include the aggressive elements of marketing.
The second part of the conveyance system for products entails the physical distribution of the products in question. The availability of many participants in the physical distribution networks for products has resulted in the reduction of distribution costs greatly. For instance, through wholesalers, preprocessors and retailers, the transportation costs that have to be incurred by consumers are reduced greatly leading to the accessibility of products from various locations. Wholesaling can take place through various strategies. It involves bulk acquisition of products from manufacturers and then selling the same products to retailers as well as other sellers. Wholesalers only sell a minimum amount of products directly to the consumers.
The wholesaling outlets can be company owned, they can also be independent working intermediaries who deal with a variety of products. A full work dealer is a vendor wholesaler who gives a complete administration of services to various retailers (Rolnicki, 2009). Wholesalers can also be operator wholesalers or trade wholesalers in case they operate autonomously. Mediators and dealers on the other hand perform fewer administrative roles in comparison to wholesalers (Willis, 2004).
Physical dispersion also involves the aspect of transportation. With regards to transportation, an organization has to engage the services of transport companies to offer distribution services. Various transport organizations exist in the world today. Organizations such as contract shippers offer services to the companies in need of distribution on contract basis. The transport organizations use various means of transport in service to the company for which they work. Transport media such as railroads, trucks and pipelines are used by different companies to handle the physical distribution needs of any organization.
Reference
Kapoor, S.K. and Kansal, P. (2003).Basics of Distribution Management: A Logistics Approach. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Rolnicki, K. (2009). Managing Channels of Distribution. New York: AMACON.
Willis, H.E. (2004). Power Distribution Planning. Second Edition. New York: CRC Press
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