Markus United Inc., a soap manufacturing company, maintained strategic advantage over other companies by retaining profits in a unique way. The company bought a few distributors in order to improve efficiency and cut down transportation costs while distributing its products to retail stores. The company generated more profits than its competitors this way. This is an example of .

forward integration

Explanation:

This is an example of forward integration. This is because in forward integration, the company implementing this tends to buy other business that are already perfoming tasks for the as third party contracts in which the required tasks are being outsourced to them. Therefore, by buying these business' the company no longer needs to outsource and is handling the tasks themselves, therefore, improving efficiency. This is exactly what Markus United Inc. is doing by buying the transportation company to whom they previously outsourced all of their transportation needs.

answer; ( prices are sticky);