Profit Margin
4.0%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4244
NAICS 4244 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$67,878/yr average annual pay, with 2,429 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4244.
- 4.0%
- Net margin
- 872K
- Workers employed
- $67,878/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4244
Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers runs a 4.0% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 35K establishments employing 872K workers.
- 4.0%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 872K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $67,878/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers
Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade at a 4.0% net margin (below the national median), $637.5B in aggregate receipts across 36,995 returns, averaging $17.2B per establishment.
34,928 establishments employ 872,150 workers (25.0/location) at $67,878/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$637.5B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$25.4B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
872,150
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$67,878/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
34,928
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 25,187; establishment count increased by 76. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers revenue goes
Workforce scale
Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers margin vs national reference points
Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers net margin 13.3%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
36,995 returns 100%
Margin: 4.0% · Receipts: $637.5B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 36,995
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $17.2B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $59.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 25.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Confectionery Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42445 | N/A |
| Dairy Product (except Dried or Canned) Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42443 | N/A |
| Fish and Seafood Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42446 | N/A |
| Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42448 | N/A |
| General Line Grocery Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42441 | N/A |
| Meat and Meat Product Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42447 | N/A |
| Other Grocery and Related Products Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42449 | N/A |
| Packaged Frozen Food Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42442 | N/A |
| Poultry and Poultry Product Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42444 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 121,141 |
| Texas | 68,782 |
| Florida | 64,187 |
| New York | 55,266 |
| Illinois | 44,538 |
| New Jersey | 42,096 |
| Pennsylvania | 39,420 |
| Washington | 27,458 |
| Georgia | 26,267 |
| North Carolina | 22,817 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
2,429
Total Loan Volume
$1.8B
Avg Loan Size
$723K
Jobs Supported
24,555
Program Breakdown
7(a) 2,133 (88%)
504 296 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
261 loans in this industry
New Business Share
18.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 282
2021 357
2022 345
2023 426
2024 436
2025 504
2026 79
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers?
$637.5B in total annual receipts across all Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers businesses. Average per business: $17.2B.
How profitable is Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers?
4.0% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers?
34,928 business establishments. Together they employ 872,150 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers?
$67,878/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 25.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers employment?
California leads with 121,141 workers. Texas (68,782) and Florida (64,187) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 2,429 SBA loans totaling $1.8 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $723K. These loans supported 24,555 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers reports a higher net margin than 36% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 84% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers
- Net margin: 4.0% vs sector. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 34,928 establishments, 872,150 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 2,429 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 4244 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.