Fractional CFO for distribution companies: turn inventory, freight, and working capital into clearer decisions
I help wholesale and product distributors see how purchasing, landed cost, freight, fleet, and inventory combine to create - or consume - cash and profit. I spent a decade inside a wholesale-and-retail distributor, ending as the CFO and CTO who took it public.
30+ years
as a CFO
MBA
in Marketing
CPA
Georgia State Board of Accountancy License #CPA012637 (inact)
Trusted by leaders at
Growth can look profitable while consuming cash
A distributor can report higher sales and still feel increasing financial pressure.
Inventory is purchased before revenue is collected.
Freight, discounts, shrink, and delivery costs distort headline gross margin.
Fast-moving products can be underpriced; slow-moving inventory can trap cash.
And if your model includes reverse flows - cores, defects, returns to vendors - the logistics get genuinely hard.
A useful CFO view connects the P&L, balance sheet, inventory system, fleet, and operating decisions.
Questions the financial model should answer
01
Which products, customers, and locations create contribution profit?
Move beyond reported gross margin to understand landed cost, freight, delivery cost, discounts, rebates, and service requirements - by product line, customer, and branch.
02
How much cash is tied up in inventory?
Track turns, aging, stock coverage, purchasing commitments, and demand assumptions. Inventory is where a distributor’s cash actually sits - and fill rates are where the sale is won or lost.
03
Can the business fund the next stage of growth?
Build scenarios that connect sales, purchasing, lead times, receivables, payables, financing capacity, and seasonal demand.
04
What do fleet and logistics really cost?
Delivery routes, driver safety, vehicle costs, and reverse flows carry real margin impact - and real insurance exposure. These costs sit between finance, operations, and HR, which is exactly why nobody owns them.
05
What should management act on each week and month?
A short operating scorecard: cash, working capital, inventory turns, fill rates, margin, shrink, and forecast variance.
What I can support
13-week cash and working-capital forecasting.
SKU, customer, location, and branch profitability.
Landed-cost and margin analysis.
Inventory turns, aging, purchasing, and cash-release priorities.
Fill rates, lost sales, and markdown discipline.
Fleet, last-mile, and reverse-logistics cost visibility.
Workers’ compensation, insurance, and loss-control economics.
Pricing, discount, and rebate economics.
Seasonal and growth scenario planning.
Lender reporting, financing readiness, and acquisition support.
Recommended starting point
Distribution CFO Decision Diagnostic
In 10 business days after receiving complete data, I develop:
1
A 13-week cash and working-capital view.
2
A profitability map using the best available product, customer, or location data.
3
A prioritized 90-day action plan for inventory, margin, cash, reporting, and decision ownership.
Planning investment: $3,000-$5,000, confirmed after a fit call.
Case study: a controller who earned the CFO seat, then doubled the business
I joined Ace Auto Parts in late 1989 as controller. It was a wholesale and retail automotive-aftermarket distributor that lives on last-mile logistics: about 300 delivery trucks and 15 tractor-trailers running out of a 100,000-square-foot distribution center, with nightly deliveries to every store - and roughly 20% of volume flowing back as cores and defects.
It had real potential but a substandard financial foundation and too much debt. I earned the CFO and CTO seats, and the mandate wasn’t to keep the books. It was to transform the foundation so the company could raise real capital and acquire competitors.
$90M
peak sales at 20% EBITDA - 50 locations, 600 employees
3.0
inventory turns across the stores and the distribution center
98%
fill rates, with lost sales down 10% and markdowns down 50%
1.2 → 0.8
workers’ compensation experience modifier, over about three years
What I led
Transformed the financial and inventory foundation
Real budgeting, forecasting, and controls - and ownership of inventory across the stores and the distribution center. Inventory turns rose to 3.0, fill rates to 98%, lost sales fell 10%, and markdowns fell 50%.
Removed an existential cost
Insurance costs had grown severe enough to threaten the company’s survival. I rebuilt loss control and claims management around the last-mile delivery exposure and, over about three years, brought the workers’ compensation experience modifier down from 1.2 to 0.8 - saving millions in annual premiums together with property-and-casualty savings and a partially self-insured medical program.
Rebuilt HR, training, and culture
Every employee on a monthly incentive plan, the company’s first store-manager financial training, new driver lifting and driving tests, and quarterly executive visits to every location - with a roughly 10% sales lift in the month before each visit.
Modernized the technology backbone as CTO
An ERP conversion that became the rails for integrating acquisitions cleanly.
Led the capital markets and the deals
In 1996 I led our NASDAQ IPO - a ~$10M offering that took excess debt off the balance sheet and gave us acquisition currency. I co-authored the S-1 with SEC counsel, put an $18M M&A line and a $2M vendor PIPE in place, and we completed seven acquisitions.
The result: we doubled sales to a $90M peak at 20% EBITDA - 50 locations, 600 employees - with perfect SEC compliance throughout, and sold to Carquest, the second-largest competitor in the country, at a 14% premium.
This describes Bob’s roles as Controller, then CFO and CTO of Ace Auto Parts (1989-1999), not a Fractional CFO client engagement.
Best-fit companies
Wholesale distributor, multi-location dealer network, or product distributor with physical logistics.
Approximately $5 million to $50 million in revenue.
Material inventory or working-capital exposure.
Usable accounting and inventory data.
A decision involving purchasing, pricing, cash, financing, growth, acquisition, or exit.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need perfect SKU profitability data?
No. I begin with the data that exists, identify what can be concluded, and define the minimum improvements needed. The analysis won’t pretend that incomplete landed-cost data is precise.
Can you help negotiate financing?
I can prepare forecasts, lender reporting, scenarios, and management materials, and coordinate with lenders and advisors when included in scope. At Ace I put an $18M acquisition line and a vendor PIPE in place. I don’t act as a lender or guarantee financing.
Will you recommend reducing inventory?
Only after considering service levels, lead times, supplier constraints, demand, margins, and growth. The goal is better inventory productivity, not indiscriminate cuts - fill rates won the sale at Ace as much as turns freed the cash.
Our insurance and fleet costs keep climbing. Is that a CFO problem?
Yes. At Ace those costs had become an existential threat, and fixing them was finance work: claims data, loss control, broker negotiations, and hiring practices. That’s a leak I always look for in logistics-heavy businesses.
See where growth is creating profit - and where it is consuming cash
Or text me directly at (727) 455-9905.