Distribution in Biratnagar and the Koshi Province: How to Organise It

Biratnagar is one of the country's established trading and industrial towns, with road links to nearby plains markets and onward to the eastern hills. Distribution in Koshi therefore means serving several kinds of customer from one base: town-based retailers and wholesalers, highway market towns, farming communities across the plains, and hill outlets whose supply depends on weather and road condition. A single flat plan will not work across all of them.

This guide shows how to lay out the region, what to standardise and where to flex.

Understand the region as layers

• Biratnagar and nearby towns: high outlet density, many wholesalers, strong competition for shelf space.
• Plains market towns: moderate outlets, reachable by regular highway trips.
• Farming belts: outlets spread along smaller roads, serving households and agro users.
• Eastern hills: sparse, with slower replenishment and seasonal access.
• Border-adjacent markets: prices and availability can be influenced by cross-border options; observe it in your own order and return data.

Decide which layers you serve directly and which through dealers.

Choose a coverage model per layer

Layer	Suggested model	Why
Town core	Direct beats plus wholesaler links	High density rewards frequent visits
Market towns	Dealer with sales officer support	Dealer holds stock, officer builds shelf share
Farming belts	Dealer or sub-dealer with scheduled visits	Distances make direct visits costly
Hills	Dealer-held stock with planned fills	Reduces failed trips

For a deeper look at the dealer approach, see the super-stockist and dealer model.

Build a weekly schedule

1. Fix town beats on set days so retailers know when to expect you.
2. Group market-town trips into one or two highway loops per week.
3. Schedule hill-dealer fills on a calendar, with a contingency for road disruptions.
4. Place a collection day on the calendar for each dealer rather than waiting for them to pay.

Stock planning for the east

• Hold buffer stock sized to the longest realistic resupply gap, using your own past delivery times.
• Keep batch and expiry visible, especially for food, dairy and pharma lines.
• Plan returns pick-ups when your vehicle is already on a loop.
• Avoid sending slow sellers to the farthest dealers on the first order.

Handling wholesalers and dealers together

In a trading town, wholesalers may buy from you and resell to nearby retailers. Make rules explicit: price level, credit terms, and whether your own salespeople also call on those retailers. Conflicts between your direct visits and a dealer's territory cause friction, so define territories and dealer-to-shop links.

How to run it in gamitrack

1. Create territories and regions. Draw territories on the map for Biratnagar town, each highway belt and the hills; group them into regions.
2. Add parties by type. Create dealers, wholesalers and shops with GPS location. Price lists can be applied by override, then party type, then default, so wholesalers and shops can be priced differently.
3. Route the beats. Create routes with ordered stops for town beats and assign them to officers. Highway loops can be routes with fewer, larger stops.
4. Use supply mode. Choose direct or via dealers. In via-dealers mode, officers book secondary orders that dealers fulfil; dealer sell-out is recorded.
5. Set payment due days. Payment due days are counted from dispatch and fixed at that moment, which prevents disputes over terms.
6. Plan collections weekly. Weekly collection plans compare planned and actual, with payments allocated first-in-first-out.
7. Monitor with movement and alarms. Background GPS, the day movement map and anti-evasion alarms help you supervise long highway days.
8. Handle returns. Sales returns can be approved into a branch, restoring stock and issuing a credit note; shop returns in via-dealers mode go to the dealer to accept or reject.

For related setup, read retail outlet visit planning for FMCG in Nepal. Agro-input and building-material suppliers in the plains can start from agro inputs and building materials.

Review checklist for each month

• Which territories were visited as planned?
• Which dealers have the oldest unpaid invoices?
• Which products are near expiry at the Biratnagar branch?
• Which hill dealers are due for a stock count?
• Which outlets have had no order in a long time compared with their usual rhythm?

Pitfalls

• Using one beat length for both town and hill.
• Giving wholesalers and retailers the same terms with no rationale.
• Letting collections drift until a festival.
• Not counting stock at distant dealers.

A hypothetical example

Imagine Example Beverages (an invented name) selling bottled drinks and packaged foods in Koshi. It has one Biratnagar branch, a direct team on town beats and two dealers: one on the highway toward the hills and one in a farming belt. The manager reviews dealer stock counts monthly. In one month the highway dealer's closing stock is far higher than expected from sell-out, so the next fill is reduced and the officer is asked to look at which shops are not reordering. Meanwhile the town team's visit data shows two beats where the last four stops are rarely reached; the manager splits those beats instead of pushing people harder.

The lesson is that each decision came from a record, not a hunch: a stock count, a visit log, an order history. That is what makes a regional plan adjustable without arguments.

Questions to ask before expanding to a new district

• Is there a dealer willing to hold stock and pay on agreed terms?
• Can we reach the district in a normal week, including poor weather?
• Who will count stock there and how often?
• What is the smallest fill that makes the trip worthwhile?
• Which products should we introduce first to limit expiry risk?

Getting started

Begin with Biratnagar town beats and one or two dealers on the highway, measure for a month, then expand. See the pricing page for plan details when your team is ready.