I also think 'inventories' has that meaning here, but what about 'carry a lot of inventories'? does it mean 'keep a lot of inventories' or 'bring a lot of inventories from one place to another'?
In your sentence, I understand "carry a lot of inventories" to basically mean "keep many goods in stock".
I would say that the verb "carry" has absolutely nothing to do with carrying/moving/shipping goods from the company to the customer in the context of your sentence. Instead, the sentence refers to the fact that if the company maintains high inventory level