In this article we are going to list the 15 biggest wholesale companies in the world. Before we go on discussing the wholesale industry as well as its importance in the global supply chain. Sometimes people get confused between manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers and their responsibilities in the supply chain from the creation of a product to its provision to the end customer. A manufacturer of course, is responsible for the creation of the product.
So for example, a pharmaceutical company such as Sanofi or GSK makes medicine based on years of research and finding out the optimum solution for diseases and hence, is a manufacturing concern. You can learn about these companies if you visit the 15 biggest manufacturing companies in the world. Then, these companies tend to sell to distributors whose job is to get bulk products from the manufacturer and then resell them to wholesalers. A wholesaler then works closely and has relations with both major and minor retailers to whom it sells the products, one again in bulk. Retailers are the one who provide the product to the end consumer i.e. you and me. You can learn more about the retailers which include the biggest company in the world by revenue, if you visit the 15 biggest retailers in the world. It is a long and intricate supply chain, and there are industries who skip a step or two. For example, I work for a multinational manufacturer and here, wholesalers are not involved in the operations as distributors directly provide the product to retailers.
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You might be wondering that if all wholesalers do is take product from distributors and provide it to retailers, isn’t that just an extra unnecessary step? Well, it’s extremely important because of the relationship that the wholesalers have with retailers which the distributors don’t have, improving and increasing the product’s reach and allowing the companies to get more market share, and hence increase their sales. Don’t believe me? The wholesale industry globally is worth around $48,478 billion in 2020, which seems massive but is actually a decline from 2019 when the wholesale industry was worth $48,761 billion. I’m sure you’ll know that the reason for this decline is the Covid-19 pandemic which has wreaked havoc across the world, and sent most countries across the world into either a recession or a depression. As travel was banned both domestically and especially internationally, the global supply chain was devastated which has led to a contraction in most industries and economies, and wholesalers of course are involved in most industries and hence, have had to face the effect as well.
Now that vaccines have been approved and mass inoculation is taking place at least across the Western world and soon will be true for developing economies as well, we might soon be seeing the end of the worst pandemic in a century. The wholesale industry is also expected to rebound and surge, and with a CAGR of 6% from 2021, is expected to reach $56,798 in value by 2023.
While wholesale is present everywhere, the biggest market for the wholesale industry is the Asia Pacific region, which is densely populated and actually accounts for more than half of the global market share. Meanwhile, North America was the second biggest market with around 15% of the total market share, while Middle East had the smallest wholesale market in the entire world.
The development of technology can be seen anywhere you look, and most industries which are growing are adopting technology, and the wholesale industry is no different. It is technology which has led to the industry improving its efficiency and has improved streamlining, which has also enabled a much better customer experience which is the most important thing of all for any company or industry.
Like I mentioned earlier, the wholesale sector is a part of several industries be it food, beverages, agriculture, and any other merchandise. Wholesalers either get products on discount or they get rebates as incentives to purchase and sell products from distributors. The biggest companies in the wholesale industries are absolute giants, with the top 15 biggest wholesale companies in the world had revenues of more than $1 trillion combined, with some companies earning more than $100 billion in 2019 alone. Their combined profits cross the $20 billion threshold while their total assets were around $940 billion, while providing direct employment to more than 1.2 million people, and probably indirect employment to millions more. To determine our ranking, we went to the Fortune 500 Global list of 2020, and selected all wholesalers. We then ranked them according to their revenue, assets, profits and employees, which meant some major companies including US Food Holdings (NYSE:USFD), Tech Data (NYSE:TECD) and Arrow Electronics (NYSE:ARW) missed out. So let’s take a look at the giants, starting with number 15:
15. Samsung C&T
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 26,396
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 901
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 39,700
Total employees of the company in 2019: 16,580
Samsung is one of the most well known corporation in the world for its electronics business but its also involved in wholesale, and is mostly involved in construction projects, fashion and trade and investment.
14. Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 28,711
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 90
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 39,224
Total employees of the company in 2019: 77,400
This may be the first Chinese company you see but it definitely won’t be the last, with the company being involved in the energy, automotive, home services and logistics industries.
13. Wuchan Zhongda Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 51,954
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 396
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 13,399
Total employees of the company in 2019: 20,332
The Chinese company is involved in the wholesale of various products which include automobiles, chemicals, rubbers, metals and ores.
12. Edeka Zentrale
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 39,824
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 381
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 8,844
Total employees of the company in 2019: 381,000
The company is a huge supermarket corporation in Germany, holding more than a fifth of the total supermarket market share in the country, and has around 14,000 stores.
11. Marubeni
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 62,799
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): -1,816
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 58,481
Total employees of the company in 2019: 49,515
Most of the companies in our list are from Tokyo and China, justifying the huge market share of wholesale that Asia Pacific holds, and Marubeni is one of those companies, hailing from Japan and being a major player in cereal and paper pulp. It is one of the biggest companies that aren’t profitable as well.
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Xiamen C&D
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 49,170
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 667
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 49,004
Total employees of the company in 2019: 26,732
Set up in 1998 by the C&D Corporation, Xiamen is one of the biggest wholesale companies in China and the world.
9. Trafigura Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 171,474
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 872
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 54,151
Total employees of the company in 2019: 5,106
Trafigura is a Singaporean company which is one of the most recent companies in our list having been founded 28 years ago in 1993. The company trades in base metals and commodities and had the highest revenue of any wholesale company in the world.
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8. Sysco (NYSE:SYY)
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 60,114
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,674
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 17,967
Total employees of the company in 2019: 69,000
The biggest wholesale company in America is Sysco, which distributes several products which include tabletop items, kitchen equipment and food products among others. The company has more than 600,000 clients.
7. Toyota Tsusho (NYSE:TM)
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 61,570
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,247
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 42,058
Total employees of the company in 2019: 66,067
The trading company of the famous Toyota Group, Toyota Tsusho has a presence in several countries across the world and has more than 150 offices, in addition to 900 subsidiaries! The primary purpose of the company is to support the automobile business of Toyota Group as well as other companies.
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6. Sumitomo
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 48,746
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 1,576
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 75,216
Total employees of the company in 2019: 72,642
It is by far the oldest company in our list and also one of the oldest companies in the world period, having been founded in 1615. That means it was founded 406 years ago! I knew Japan had old companies but this really takes the cake. The group of companies, including current and former members, have been involved in various industries including insurance, automobiles, glass, chemicals, information technology and many more.
5. Sinochem Group
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 80,376
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 473
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 78,799
Total employees of the company in 2019: 60,049
China and Japan absolutely dominate the top 5 of the biggest wholesale companies in the world, and is involved in the trading of fertilizer as well as the exploration and production of oil for both military and civilian purposes. The company like most major companies in China, is state-owned and is headquartered in Beijing. It was founded 71 years ago in 1950.
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4. COFCO
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 72,149
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 414
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 85,847
Total employees of the company in 2019: 110,896
COFCO is the biggest wholesale company in China, and is a food processing company which is state-owned. In fact, it is one of the biggest agribusiness companies in all of Asia, with headquarters being maintained in Beijing. The company has two main subsidiaries.
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3. Mitsui
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 63,327
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 3,601
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 109,247
Total employees of the company in 2019: 45,624
Mitsui is another major company in Japan, and the top three wholesale companies both belong to Japan. Mitsui is said to be a keiretsu, which refers to companies which have interlocking shareholdings and business holdings as well. It includes many major companies such as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Mitsui Fudosan and many more.
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2. Itochu
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 100,522
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 4,611
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 101,042
Total employees of the company in 2019: 151,430
Itochu is a Japanese company which is headquartered in both Osaka and Tokyo and is one of the most popular employers in Japan, being ranked the top employer the past two years. It is a general trading company which is involved in many different industries including energy/chemical, real estate, metals and textiles. Its predecessor business was founded in 1858 while the current corporation was established comparatively recently in 1949.
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1. Mitsubishi
Total revenue of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 135,940
Total profit of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 4,924
Total assets of the company in 2019 (in millions of dollars): 167,018
Total employees of the company in 2019: 86,098
Easily topping the list of the 5 biggest wholesale companies in the world is Mitsubishi, the giant Japanese conglomerate which has an involvement in several major industries at a global level which include telecom, shipbuilding, financial services, mining, chemicals, food and beverage among many others. The company was established 151 years ago in 1870 and is headquartered in Tokyo. While it was disbanded during World War II during the Occupation of Japan, but the group reunited since and is now among the biggest companies in the world with revenues of more than $135 billion.
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Disclosure: No position. 15 biggest wholesale companies in the world is originally published at Insider Monkey.
