Los Angeles, CA – Over the past five years, the Beef and Pork Wholesaling industry has had a hard time selling premium meats, especially during the recession. Though downstream customers generally maintained the quantity of meat they purchased, they often opted to buy lower-quality products, and the lower margins realized on such sales hurt profit growth; margins remained virtually flat over the five-year period. Besides financial limitations, health concerns have also challenged the industry. Increasingly, health-conscious consumers have sought to reduce their fat intake and lower their risk of heart disease. “Because red meat options are considered unhealthy, regardless of quality, consumers have been shifting toward protein sources outside of this industry, such as poultry and seafood,” says IBISWorld industry analyst Josh McBee.
Despite the changing nutritional landscape, high meat prices and stable downstream demand from retailers and food-service industries have helped offset declining beef consumption. IBISWorld expects revenue to decline at a marginal average annual rate of 0.5% during the five years to 2012, as recessionary losses offset previous and subsequent gains. Slowly recovering disposable income has increased demand from supermarkets and grocery stores, and revenue is expected to grow 1.9% in 2012 to reach $41.7 billion, McBee says. In the past decade, the business of wholesaling has undergone some structural changes. To begin with, a long-term trend toward wholesale bypass, in which processors sell their products directly to retailers to save costs, has suppressed industry growth. In addition, vertical integration between manufacturers and distributors has caused a decline in traditional wholesaling, making way for a new wholesaling generation made up of manufacturers' sales branches and offices (MSBOs). An MSBO in the Beef and Pork Wholesaling industry consists of a wholesaling division within a meat-processing company.
Through 2017, demand is projected to pick up, especially from food services establishments. Combined with rising prices for red meat, revenue is forecast to increase by 2017. Meanwhile, the MSBO structure will continue to solidify and benefit from economies of scale at the expense of traditional merchant wholesalers. Consolidation among the largest vertically integrated beef and pork processors and increased technological advances are forecast to reinforce healthy profit margins over the period. The concentration of ownership in the Beef and Pork Wholesaling industry is high. The four largest firms account for well over half of industry revenue, due in large part to increasing vertical integration and wholesale bypass. For more information, visit IBISWorld’s Beef & Pork Wholesaling in the US industry report page.
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