Surplus stock
Good material a business no longer needs — distinct from obsolete, damaged or distressed stock.
What is a surplus stock?
Surplus stock is material a business holds but no longer needs, which remains fit for its intended use. It arises from ordinary manufacturing conditions: over-ordering against a minimum order quantity, a forecast that did not materialise, a formulation or supplier change, a discontinued product line, or the remainder of a completed production run. Surplus is not the same as obsolete stock, which can no longer be used for its intended purpose, nor the same as distressed or damaged stock, where the material's condition is itself in question. The distinction is commercial rather than semantic. Surplus material is sold because its holder has no use for it, not because there is anything wrong with it, so its documentation is typically intact and its value is close to its replacement cost less the buyer's cost of qualifying it. Treating surplus as liquidation stock systematically undervalues it.
How Surply uses it
Surply lists surplus from verified Australian manufacturers with its documentation attached, and states the reason it became surplus. It is a procurement channel rather than a liquidation channel, and material trades as-is with its paperwork.
Also known as: excess inventory, surplus vs obsolete stock, slow-moving stock.