LibGuides: Transport, Logistics, Supply Chain, Operations &amp; Business Analytics: Company information

Company & financial information

Company information includes company profiles, news, and annual reports and accounts.

All UK Public Limited Companies are required to publish their annual reports and accounts online - these can usually be found by visiting the company website. Other types of company such as Private Limited companies are not require to publish their accounts this way, so the information may not be freely available.

The resources on this page can help you locate such information.

Finding company information

Business Source Ultimate
In addition to journal articles, this database provides access to MarketLine company profiles including SWOT analyses. Click on 'company profiles' on the homepage to search for these.

Accessibility Statement
ABI/INFORM Complete
In addition to journal articles, this database provides access to a selection of company Annual Reports.

Accessibility Statement
Statista
Statista contains company profiles for major global companies - select the 'insights' tab, then 'company insights'.

Accessibility Statement

Companies House (UK Government)
Official register of UK publicly listed companies. Contains information these companies are legally obliged to publish including registered address and date of incorporation, current and resigned officers, limited accounts data. A good place to start if you want to find out if the UK company you are researching is publicly listed.

Company accounts

FAME

Provides accounts (10 years) for over 3 million companies in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Plus, company contact details, brand names, no. of employees, and names of directors.
Please note: FAME is licensed for education, teaching, tuition, training, instruction, learning, private study and/or research only. Use for university business processes (including Business Development, Marketing and Alumni Offices) are prohibited.

Accessibility Statement
Orbis VL

Orbis is Bureau van Dijk ’s global database which has information on over 450 million public and private companies including, banks, vessels, insurance, and industrial companies covering 220+ countries.

It is a tool that specialises in private company data, containing active and inactive companies with up to ten years of financial data available.

Our subscription provides data on very large companies (VL), defined as follows:
• operating revenue >= $130 million US (100 million EUR)
• total assets >= $260 million US (200 million EUR)
• number of employees >= 1000

Accessibility Statement

Company news

International Newsstream
Find recent and historical global newspaper articles.

Accessibility Statement

Financial Times - FT.com
See our guide to registering for your FT.com online account in the box on the homepage.

Websites

AnnualReports.com
The best place to find company annual reports and statements is on the company's own website, where they should be freely available. However, some students find this website useful in guiding them to annual reports. Please note the reports on here may not be the most-up-to date. If you are asked by this site to pay for a report, it should be available for free on the company's own website. If required, you can ask a librarian for help in finding these by emailing library@hud.ac.uk
Europages
A directory of over 1 million companies in Europe. Providing contact details, brand names, and web addresses.

Help with finding company information

Selected help guides are linked below. All the database homepages also have their own help pages which have the most up-to-date user guides and videos - we recommend you make use of these.

Getting started with business databases
Your Subject Librarians have made this guide to get you started in using our specialist business databases for finding market research and company information.

Getting started with Statista [Video]
IBISWorld overview [Video]
Mintel Reports quick guide [Video]
Mintel interactive databooks [Video]
Introduction to Orbis/FAME [Video]
Recording of a webinar from Moody's (supplier of Orbis and FAME)
Help from the British Library Business & IP Centre
Free downloadable guides to researching key industries.

How to use market research to enhance a business plan
(added with permission from Mintel)

Referencing tips: Market research and company reports

Choose the reference builder for reports.
You need to reference the author, year, report title, and URL. e.g. Mintel. (2023). Sustainability in food – UK – 2023. https://www.mintel.com
The author is often the name of the resource, e.g. FAME, Mintel. The author of Business Source reports varies - company and industry profiles are often by MarketLine. The author of information on Statista varies and will be found in the information on the webpage.
The year can usually be found near the title of the report. Check this is up-to-date enough for your needs before using. For financial data taken from FAME/Orbis VL, you can use the current year.