Types of Wholesalers

Types of Wholesalers

1. Manufacturer wholesaler

Manufacturer wholesaler undertakes manufacturing of goods in addition to wholesale business. He sells not only the goods manufactured by him on wholesale business, but also goods manufactured by other producers.

2. Retail Wholesaler

This type of wholesaler carries on both wholesale and retail trade. He purchases goods in bulk from manufacturers and sells them directly to consumers through his own retail outlets.

Ex. Super Bazaar.

3. Merchant Wholesaler.

A merchant wholesaler neither manufactures goods nor sells them directly consumers. He is the ‘wholesaler proper’ or ‘pure wholesaler’. He buys goods in bulk from manufacturers and sells them in small lots to retailers. Merchant wholesalers can be further classified into three categories on the basis of degree of specialisation.

a.        General merchandise wholesalers.

b.        Single line wholesalers

c.         Speciality wholesalers

a. General Merchandise Wholesalers: This type of wholesaler deals  in  a  wide range of goods such as groceries, electrical equipment, medicines, cloth etc. The importance of this type of wholesaler has heightened due to increasing specialisation in trade.

b. Single Line Wholesalers: This type of wholesaler deals in only one line of goods and distributes different brands and variety of the particular line. For example, a wholesaler may deal in refrigerators produced by different manufacturer.

c. Speciality Wholesalers: This wholesaler specialises in a single product. For example, a wholesaler may deal only in Tata tea and nothing else.