Inventory Days Benchmark — Wholesale & Distribution
How many days of inventory does a typical Wholesale & Distribution business hold? This page tracks the listed companies in this segment — inventory days (DIO), the spread between the fastest and slowest quartile, and where Australian and American peers diverge, built from company filings, not survey responses.
Explore the full interactive tool, filter by segment, or enter your own numbers →Across 21 listed Wholesale & Distribution companies reporting in 2024, the median inventory position was 76.4 days of cost of goods sold sitting in stock. The fastest quarter of the panel held 31.9 days or fewer; the slowest quarter held 130.3 days or more.
By listing venue
Published separately because the two panels aren't measuring the same thing until a venue clears a minimum of four reporting peers — below that, a "median" is an anecdote, not a benchmark.
The named companies
Each row is that company's own latest reported fiscal year — not all companies report on the same calendar, so years vary by row.
| Company | Exchange | Latest FY | Inventory days | Trend | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nufarm NUF | ASX | 2024 (30 Sep 2024) | 191.6 days | ASX filing | |
| Supply Network SNL | ASX | 2023 (30 Jun 2024) | 191.5 days | ASX filing | |
| Bapcor BAP | ASX | 2024 (30 Jun 2025) | 183.7 days | ASX filing | |
| LKQ Corporation LKQ | US | 2025 (31 Dec 2025) | 143.8 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Genuine Parts Company GPC | US | 2025 (31 Dec 2025) | 137.7 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Fastenal FAST | US | 2025 (31 Dec 2025) | 137.3 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Pool Corporation POOL | US | 2025 (31 Dec 2025) | 134.7 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Reece REH | ASX | 2024 (30 Jun 2025) | 131.0 days | ASX filing | |
| SiteOne Landscape Supply SITE | US | 2025 (28 Dec 2025) | 101.3 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Watsco WSO | US | 2025 (31 Dec 2025) | 97.1 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| W.W. Grainger GWW | US | 2025 (31 Dec 2025) | 78.5 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Henry Schein HSIC | US | 2025 (27 Dec 2025) | 76.6 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Elders ELD | ASX | 2024 (30 Sep 2024) | 71.9 days | ASX filing | |
| EBOS Group EBO | ASX | 2024 (30 Jun 2025) | 44.2 days | ASX filing | |
| GrainCorp GNC | ASX | 2024 (30 Sep 2024) | 42.8 days | ASX filing | |
| Builders FirstSource BLDR | US | 2025 (31 Dec 2025) | 39.8 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Metcash MTS | ASX | 2024 (30 Apr 2025) | 33.2 days | ASX filing | |
| United Natural Foods UNFI | US | 2025 (2 Aug 2025) | 28.3 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Sysco SYY | US | 2024 (28 Jun 2025) | 26.7 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| Sigma Healthcare SIG | ASX | 2024 (31 Jan 2025) | 24.2 days | ASX filing | |
| Performance Food Group PFGC | US | 2024 (28 Jun 2025) | 23.5 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) | |
| US Foods USFD | US | 2025 (27 Dec 2025) | 18.7 days | 10-K (SEC EDGAR) |
What this means
Distributors exist to hold the inventory so their customers don't have to — a plumbing wholesaler like Reece or an auto-parts distributor like Bapcor carries thousands of SKUs precisely so a tradesperson or workshop can get a part same-day rather than carrying that stock themselves. That's why inventory days sit meaningfully higher here than in retail: the buffer function is the business model, not a sign of poor turnover.
How this is calculated
Inventory days (DIO) is calculated as 365 × average inventory ÷ COGS, with the balance averaged against the prior year where one exists so a single year-end stock date can't distort the figure. US figures come from each company's own 10-K, pulled from the SEC's XBRL company-facts API. Australian figures come from each company's statutory accounts as rendered by Yahoo Finance, linking through to the company's ASX page — a weaker chain of custody than the US half, one step removed from the primary filing rather than pulled from it directly. Australian coverage runs three benchmark years (2022–2024) against eight for the US, because only a handful of fiscal years of ASX data are obtainable this way.
If your inventory days sit in the top quartile, that gap is cash.
Kairo Analytics runs a full SKU-level optimisation across your portfolio — ABC/XYZ classification, optimal stock modelling, and a prioritised action list showing exactly which lines to cut and which to hold. Four weeks, fixed fee, with a minimum 4× return on the engagement or we keep working.
See what's trapped in your portfolio →