For food and beverage distributors, control of the supply chain has never mattered more. Restaurant and foodservice operators depend on predictable replenishment, safe product handling, and accurate inventory movement to keep kitchens running. The warehouse sits at the center of all of it.
What happens inside a warehouse now influences nearly every downstream outcome, from freshness to fill rates to a restaurant’s ability to enter retail. Few leaders have pushed the industry toward a more connected, technology-first model than Carl Wasinger, founder of Smart Warehousing.
Wasinger grew up in the supply chain world, long before real-time visibility or cloud systems were common. In college, the early days of online banking caught his interest. “I was fascinated with what the Internet could do,” Wasinger said. “You could check your bank balances and see things instantly, and I remember thinking, I bet you could do the same thing with inventory.” That idea, he added, is what sparked the roots of Smart Warehousing.
He worked for years in traditional warehousing, watching familiar problems repeat themselves: slow information, limited visibility, and inconsistent processes that left distributors blind to what was happening with their own inventory. “Clients needed more information to make better decisions, but I couldn’t get the company I worked for to invest in the technology,” he noted. After enough frustration, and a nudge from his wife, he left to build the solution himself.
Smart Warehousing launched in Kansas City with only a few thousand square feet but with the belief that the warehouse should function like a connected operating system. “We started doing some coding to help clients actually see their inventory,” Wasinger continued. Over the next two decades, that approach shaped a warehouse network that now spans nearly 40 facilities and more than 15 million square feet of dry, ambient, refrigerated, and frozen space.
The company’s growth mirrored the complexity of food and beverage distribution. Early work was mostly for dry goods—pasta, cereals, bulk items—until Smart Warehousing moved into cold storage in 2012. “We applied what we’d already built for e-commerce and direct-to-consumer into the cold chain,” Wasinger detailed. As online ordering accelerated, especially after 2020, cold-chain fulfillment became a bigger part of the company’s workload. Orders that used to move only between distributors and retailers now also moved straight to consumer doorsteps.
That expansion pushed Smart Warehousing to refine the pairing of physical operations and software. “Our performance has always depended on how closely we can align the tech solution with the physical world,” Wasinger outlined. He believed the warehouse should operate with the same precision as a digital system: every pallet tracked, every order timestamped, every handoff visible.
Smart Warehousing’s proprietary systems—SWIMS, the company’s warehouse management system, and Smart Visibility, its real-time visibility platform—grew out of this belief. Together they create a single source of truth for clients, offering real-time inventory tracking, transaction-level insights, and integrations with retail systems, ERPs, e-commerce platforms, and transportation partners.
As AI capabilities expanded, Smart Warehousing built them directly into its workflows. “We were already an AI-first company before it became a buzzword,” Wasinger said. He described a model of “digital coaching,” where AI pulls order-specific details straight to the warehouse floor. If an order needs different packing instructions or less dry ice, the system flags it at the moment it’s being picked. “That lets us be hyper-configurable instead of using set-it-and-forget-it rules,” he added. These micro-adjustments reduce waste, speed fulfillment, and help distributors manage narrow temperature and time windows—critical for food safety.
Food safety is where warehousing now plays one of its most important roles. Every additional touchpoint introduces risk, and Wasinger has long pushed the industry to reduce unnecessary handling. “Every time you touch a case of fries or protein, there’s a chance something gets delayed, damaged, or compromised,” he noted. Better warehouse placement, fewer moves, tighter controls, and stronger integrations all reduce that exposure. Smart Warehousing designed its sites—AIB-audited, temperature-controlled options, and specialized cold-chain facilities—to maintain consistent environmental integrity from inbound check to outbound ship.
Labeling, a simple detail often overlooked, is another area where Wasinger sees avoidable waste. Many restaurants receive cases with date codes printed so small that kitchen staff can’t quickly see what needs to be used first. “We kept encouraging operators and distributors to improve labeling so they can visually manage expiration,” he continued. “If all you can see is a tiny code, you grab the wrong case, and before you know it you’re throwing away product.” He views better labeling, combined with warehouse-managed lot tracking, as one of the fastest ways operators can reduce spoilage.
For broadline distributors, Smart Warehousing plays both traditional and strategic roles. During seasonal spikes or rebate-driven buys, distributors often need overflow space. Smart Warehousing handles those needs, but Wasinger believes the future lies in deeper collaboration. “The industry is going to move toward fewer touches,” he said. Instead of bringing every truckload into a distributor’s facility, some products may ship straight from an upstream warehouse or even bypass traditional steps entirely—mirroring the distributed model used by large e-commerce marketplaces.
Smart Warehousing has already partnered with distributors exploring this approach. With real-time visibility, integrated data exchange, and unified systems, the company can hold inventory closer to the point of demand and move it with fewer handoffs. For frozen and refrigerated food, that creates measurable improvements in both quality and safety.
The right warehouse footprint can also act as a launchpad for brands trying to break into retail. Joe’s Kansas City BBQ—a well-known restaurant brand—worked with Smart Warehousing to expand beyond foodservice and into consumer packaged goods. Smart Warehousing handled inventory planning, order fulfillment, and cold-chain management, helping the company scale without carrying excess stock. With the right sequencing and placement, Smart helped Joe’s enter new markets and move into national distribution. “We looked at how much inventory they were sending every month and helped them reduce it dramatically,” Wasinger detailed. “They didn’t need to tie up that capital. They could put it back into their business.”
That kind of planning is where distributors can gain the most. The first step is understanding inventory movement at the SKU level. Carrying costs—the silent drain on many food businesses—come from over-ordering, slow turns, mismatched forecasts, and poor placement. Smart Warehousing often begins a partnership by analyzing historical patterns and designing min-max levels that reduce the amount of capital sitting in storage. For food and beverage distributors, the savings frequently show up within weeks.
Technology also makes expansion easier for brands that supply restaurants. With Smart Warehousing’s nationwide warehouse network, companies can place inventory closer to regional demand, avoiding long-haul freight and increasing ship-speed reliability. The company’s replenishment tools and real-time reporting give brands confidence to scale without building out their own infrastructure.
As restaurant supply chains keep shifting—faster delivery expectations, more frozen and fresh SKUs, and a mix of foodservice and DTC channels—the warehouse becomes the operating backbone. It shapes speed, safety, forecasting, and cost. And with AI-powered tools and integrated visibility, it becomes an active control point rather than a storage facility.
For operators, distributors, or growing brands looking to strengthen their supply chain, Smart Warehousing offers live support and an easy first step. “Connect with us through our website or by email, and a Smart team member will be in touch,” Wasinger concluded. “We want to learn more and see if we can help.”
To reach Smart Warehousing, visit their website at https://www.smartwarehousing.com/ and connect with the team to discuss next steps.
