Unified Grocers ("Unified") is the largest grocery wholesaler in the western United States. Unified inventories millions of units of hundreds of well-known brands, and it distributes these products to retailers of all shapes and sizes. Golden Creme, Special Value, and Western Family are familiar names to consumers throughout the West.
Recently, Unified has unveiled a new addition to its private label offerings "designed to appeal to the growing consumer preference for natural and organic products." Unified will inventory natural and organic products, and market them to retailers under the Natural Directions brand. As it does so, it will work with multiple intermediaries in a number of distribution channels, coordinating with suppliers and retailers to offer products like fair trade coffee, organic applesauce, and acai aronia juice to consumers. But if Unified can source the products and sell them under its own private label brand, why not sell directly to consumers and cut out additional intermediaries?
Unified grows its inventory by purchasing from producers and then it distributes these products to retailers of all shapes and sizes. Which logistic function does this represent?
Materials handling
Warehousing
Inventory management
Order processing