Accounting and Advisory Services for Distributors and Wholesalers

Rea’s distribution team has worked inside businesses like yours. They know the problems firsthand: margins that don’t add up, inventory that’s hard to track, and cash flow that doesn’t align with net income.

Connect with a Distribution Business Advisor

Years Serving Ohio Businesses

Talented Professionals Serving Clients

Offices Across Ohio and Florida

Built to Deal with the Challenges You Face

Running a distribution or wholesale business means managing problems that don’t show up clearly in a standard financial report. Margins are thin, cash timing is unpredictable, and business owners are often doing the work of a full C-Suite at once.

If you’re facing any of the following challenges, our professionals are equipped with the technical experience and real-world know-how to put you on a better path forward:

Profitability has softened but the cause isn’t clear
Your finance function hasn’t kept pace with the business and you have a bookkeeper managing what a controller or CFO should own
Multi-state shipping has created tax obligations in states where you’ve never filed
A generational change in ownership has surfaced gaps in financial structure, succession planning, or both

These are the situations Rea’s distribution practice is built to work through.

Meet Our Distribution and Wholesale Advisors

Rea’s manufacturing and distribution professionals have spent years working as controllers, VPs of Finance, and CFOs inside the industries they now advise. They’ve walked shop floors, run large operations, and made the decisions your business depends on. That experience shapes how they work with clients.

Mindy Gallman

Managing Director | Lima, Ohio

Mindy brings over 30 years of financial leadership inside manufacturing and distribution businesses, including roles as Controller, VP of Finance, and CFO across private, private equity, and public companies. She has led financial operations of a publicly traded Fortune 500 Company, managed a $350M multi-country operation and worked directly inside wholesale distribution — experience she applies daily to her work with Rea clients.

Connect with Mindy

Ryan Brickwood, CMA, MBA

Principal, Manufacturing & Distribution Industry Leader | Wooster, Ohio

Ryan has nearly 20 years of accounting and manufacturing experience, including time at a Fortune 500 consumer goods company working on cost analysis, ERP implementations, and lean operations. He joined Rea in 2022 and earned the firm’s 2023 Tim McDaniel Award for Innovation.

Connect with Ryan

Allison Stucke

Senior Manager, Manufacturing & Distribution

Allison brings nearly 30 years of hands-on manufacturing finance experience to her work with Rea clients, including senior plant finance and operational controller roles across the fertilizer and flavor manufacturing industries. Her background spans cost accounting, pricing and margin management, and supply chain analysis, giving her a ground-level understanding of the financial pressures manufacturers face every day.

Building the Financial Foundation for Growth

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Clarity on Margins and Profitability

Rea’s advisors benchmark your margins against businesses your size and identify where the gap is — pricing, product mix, customer terms, or cost structure.

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Tax Planning Built Around Your Structure

Most wholesale and distribution businesses are S-Corps or pass-through entities. Your personal and business tax picture are linked, and Rea’s tax team manages both proactively throughout the year, not just at filing time.

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Address Multi-State Compliance Before It Becomes a Problem

Shipping across state lines creates nexus exposure most businesses discover late. Rea’s State and Local Tax practice identifies your obligations and builds a compliance path forward.

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Finance Function Support at the Right Level

When the business has grown past what a bookkeeper can manage, Rea provides outsourced controller and CFO-level support: cash flow modeling, banking relationships, management reporting, and more, scaled to what your business needs.

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ERP and Systems Guidance with Real Context

Rea’s team has implemented a wide variety of ERP systems inside distribution businesses. When it’s time to evaluate or upgrade, they help you define what you need before a vendor gets involved.

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Transition Planning and Exit Readiness

Whether you’re planning a generational transfer or a future sale, the groundwork starts years in advance. Rea works alongside ownership to build the financial structure and documentation that makes a transition go smoothly.

Industries We Serve

Distribution businesses don’t all run the same — industry context shapes every recommendation we make.

Wholesale Distribution

Trucking & Freight

Consumer Products Distribution

Industrial & Commercial Supply

Manufacturer's Representatives

Value-Added Resellers

Automotive Parts & Supply

Food & Beverage Distribution

What Our Clients Say

Our clients come to us with financial questions. They stay because we help them answer operational ones too, and because the answers lead to decisions that actually move their business forward.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING

“The staff is very professional and knowledgeable. They are a great resource in many areas. I can always count on them to find the information that we need.”

– Susan Fearon, Carolina Stair Supply Inc.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING

“We engaged Rea across multiple segments of our business. Their expertise in payroll and ERP was evident, but what stood out was that their experts had a deep understanding of our entire business. This holistic approach allowed them to provide effective solutions to our challenges.”

– Mike Swartzentruber, Flextur

Serving Ohio’s Distribution and Wholesale Businesses

Rea serves wholesale and distribution businesses across Ohio, with offices in Columbus, Northeast Ohio, Northwest Ohio, and throughout the state’s manufacturing corridor.