Who are a company's actual (not potential, or possible) suppliers and customers? Sometimes this is easy to find, sometimes not.
Problems you may encounter:
To find supplier information, you will most likely have to scour and skim through trade magazines and other publications. It is often in articles that you will find information on new contracts, lost contracts, joint ventures, etc. The databases below, are your best options for searching for supply chain information.
When searching use lots of keywords, such as the ones noted above. Also use expert search strategies as explained here.
Scholarly business journals covering management, economics, finance, accounting, international business and company information, company SWOTs, market research and country data.
Weekly magazine of business and economics news and reports.
Provides data and analysis of the industries, including supply chain information
Use the Company Dossier search to find complete public and private company profile "packages" that include articles, corporate structure, financials and stock data, intellectual property and other legal information, and investment analyst reports (private company profiles will typically not include financial data or investment analyst reports).
OneSource Global Business Browser
OneSource Business provides comprehensive company and industry information, as well as information about company executives. About17 million companies, including international companies, are profiled, as well as 25 million company executives.
To find information about supply chain, you will have to try a variety of keywords in different combinations. Below are some keywords which you may find useful while searching the databases.
Supply Chain | Materials |
Suppliers | Materials Handling |
Customers | Materials Management |
Distribution | Procurement |
Distribution Channels | Purchasing |
Inventory | Raw Materials |
Inventory Control | Transportation |
Logistics | Warehousing |
Public companies are required to name the companies that they deal with if, and only if, the relationships with those companies may place the reporting company in jeopardy. For example, the reporting company would be in jeopardy if one of their major suppliers, or customers, were having problems or trouble. This is usually discussed in the 10-K report in the Management's Discussion & Analysis section. If the partner company gets into trouble mid-year, it may also be reported in an 8-K report.