Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the measures and issues regarding how food service wholesalers have been working to reduce procurement costs. We have come to the following three findings through literature investigation and case studies. First, concentration of the food service wholesalers industry has not greatly advanced as of 2007. Second, the case company attempted to reduce costs by group formation of wholesalers. Third, nonetheless, 'group formation of wholesalers' has its limitations in achieving economies of scale because, for example, there are a number of similar organizations. Therefore, it is difficult for group formation to yield further effect than it currently does.
