Our trade data from HMRC helps you to understand a company's import and export activity.
The handy graph at the top of the page offers insights into the number of commodities imported and exported dating back several years.
Further down, you can drill into the specific categories of products that the company is most frequently trading in, helping you to identify their core focus.
What a company trades is a great way to identify what industry it operates in; particularly useful for those with a limited public presence!
What this data doesn't show:
While HMRC published information on which specific commodities companies are importing/exporting, there are a few things which are NOT published including:
WHERE the company was importing from/exporting to (i.e. which foreign country is involved in the trade)
HOW MUCH of the commodity was traded, both in terms of monetary value and volume/mass.
For these reasons, we recommend using The Commodity Trade dataset to identify which companies have some form of regular international export/import, and whether they are trading certain niche/specific items, e.g. raw materials, high-tech components, fresh food etc.
More resources:
For a walkthrough of how to search for companies based on their trade activity, please see our dedicated page in the Advanced Search section!
You can find a full list of classifications on the HMRC website: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/browse
Or you can view the A-Z of Classified Goods here: https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/a-z-index/a