Canadian Publicly Traded Firms
19.1 Who are the principal customers or clients? Provide demographics.
19.2 If individuals, provide as much information as possible about top customers/clients or demographics of key customers/clients.
Identifying customers and clients is important when trying to understand how your target firm operates. Do they have many customers, or just a few? Are they highly identifiable clients such as Wal-Mart? In their campaign at Ravenswood, the Steelworks were able to prevent major beer and soft drink firms from using nonunion aluminum for the cans during their lockout.
Workers are the best source for identifying customers and clients. Some information may be found on the company’s Annual Information Form available at SEDAR, the company web site, or the company annual report.
Panjiva can also be used to identify customers. To find if your target firm receives any government contracts go to the Disclosure of Contracts over $10,000. Many Canadian companies also receive US government contracts, which can be found at USAspending.gov.
You might also learn about customers and clients from industry publications. Refer to Question 14.