# Catch weight

A term used when buying food distribution.

An item of variable weight, such as cheese or meat, billed on what the piece actually weighs.

It sounds like a billing detail and it is really a systems question. Catch-weight items have to be weighed at pick, priced at the weighed figure and reconciled against the purchase, and a house whose software cannot do that is losing margin quietly on every case. In diligence it is a useful probe of operational maturity: ask how catch-weight lines are picked and invoiced, then look at the gross margin on those categories against the rest. A gap usually means the process is manual.

Part of: Buying a Food Distribution Business (https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-a-food-distribution-business)

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/guides/buying-a-food-distribution-business/terms/catch-weight