Mergent Intellect

Mergent Intellect includes Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) records for over 500 million active companies around the world, of which over 5 million are in Canada. The records tend to be fairly brief — you might get only industry codes, number of employees, rough sales estimates, and a location for many of the smaller private companies — but the extreme breadth sometimes makes up for the lack of depth.  

Start by selecting Advanced Search, then check the box next to "Include Canadian Companies" and uncheck the default "Include U.S Companies" before exploring the other criteria. This blog post explains some of the other content available in Mergent Intellect.

Canadian D&B business records are also available in our SimplyAnalytics database, which provides an additional ability to show the business locations on maps along with demographic, spending, and psychographic data on Canadians by neighbourhood. See this blog post for more about SimplyAnalytics.

Nexis Uni

Nexis Uni contains a large number of directories from around the world, often with valuable added details such as the approximate sales revenue and number of employees at each company. See, for instance, its LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations source containing detailed information on the executives and subidiaries (corporate hierarchy) of thousands of firms.

For the broadest (international) search, use the Menu option in the top corner of the database's homepage to choose Company Dossier.

• To search for only Canadian companies, consider one of the following sources within Nexis Uni:
  • Company Profile Canada
  • Canadian Manufacturer's Database
  • Scott's Directories Corporate Database
  • Report on Business Company Profiles (Globe & Mail)

Nexis Uni is not a simple database to use.  There is some help available within the database, but please do not hesitate to ask for help using our Ask a Librarian services.

General directories

If you are looking for lists of companies nationally or in particular provinces/cities, one of the many general "Yellow Page" style directories on the web may work for you.  Try such sites as:

• CanPages.ca
• YellowPages.ca

There are other Canadian business directory sites on the Internet that offer more details than the average "Yellow Page" site, although they may not be as comprehensive.  The following is just a sample.  Ask a librarian for help finding other sites if necessary.

• Canadian Trade Index 
  Canadian companies with contact information, product/brand names, export regions, and more.
• Frasers Canadian Trade Directory 
  Canadian suppliers of industrial products and services
• Canadian Importers Database
  Canadian importers by location, product, or country of origin. Uses Canada Customs and Revenue Agency data.

Additional resources

Search for a relevant industry association (Life Sciences BC or BC Tech) and check to see if they have a directory of members.

Other starting points for this type of research include these SFU Library guides:

• Company Information
• Annual Reports
• Associations
• Industry Surveys

Finally, please do make use of our Ask a Librarian services if you are having trouble.  We can often suggest other resources or approaches once we know more about what you need.