03. Facilities

3.1 List all facilities, locations, and operations.
3.2 What is the status of each company property? Are they owned or leased?
3.3 List any industrial development funds or other public monies used in construction, renovation, or purchase.

Com­pil­ing an inven­tory of the company’s facil­i­ties is cen­tral to under­stand­ing a firm’s oper­a­tions. Cou­pled with an under­stand­ing of their prod­ucts and ser­vices, it allows you to geo­graph­i­cally map out their activ­i­ties.  It is cru­cial in devel­op­ing a cam­paign to understand which facilities are responsible for which kinds of products/services. In what may be the first example of corporate research in the labor movement, in 1936 the UAW identified that GM was making body parts in only one plant in Flint, Michigan which became their strike target.   If any pub­lic monies are involved in build­ing or ren­o­vat­ing facil­i­ties, it raises the pub­lic pro­file of the tar­get firm con­sid­er­ably. What may have been an issue with a pri­vate com­pany now becomes a pub­lic issue.

Information on products and services is provided in the Annual Information Form at SEDAR. You should also consult the company web site and the company annual report.

The AFL-CIO maintains the UNICORE database that includes information on corporate facilities in the U.S. and Canada, their location and (if they are unionized) information on the union. This database is only available to AFL-CIO affiliates.

You can find information on industrial development funds or other public monies in the sources above, or by using a Canadian News Search.

Paid Resources (Subscription Required)

You can find information on facilities at  Business Source Complete (you will need to select Business Source Complete from the list). Basic information is available on “company information” tab or look under “company profiles” for the more extensive Datamonitor report. 

Mergent Intellect provides a comprehensive list of facilities. It also lists employees and sales by facility.  Use the Family Tree to explore corporate structure.

Mergent Market Atlas provides detailed company data on over 50,000 US and foreign companies, current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, ESG scores, economic time series data, industry analytics and reports, and more.