A unique approach to gathering data means that the UK Supply Chain Directory is one of the most accurate business search tools on the market – and it’s completely free.

The Directory has been launched this year by the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVM Catapult) and The Data City to provide a quick, easy to use one-stop-shop for organisations to find and connect with suppliers across the country.

Described as ‘Yellow Pages for the ChatGPT generation’, the Directory is a powerful, cloud-based tool that aims to improve the resilience of the UK manufacturing supply chain, and improve its ability to cope and respond even during major global disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the Directory brings together hundreds of thousands of UK manufacturers and suppliers, across numerous sectors, into one user-friendly location, it’s the quality of the data provided that makes it truly one-of-a-kind.

Unlike similar tools on the market – both free and paid-for – HVM Catapult has used a combination of methods of populating data to ensure the supplier information in the Directory is accurate, up-to-date and more extensive.

How we do it

The first, and most basic, way of collecting supplier data is also the one most commonly used by other resources and services on the market – publicly available Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.

These five-digit codes are chiefly used by government agencies and authorities – including Companies House – to identify and categorise the core business activities of UK companies.

SIC codes can be useful for providing basic, high-level information on a business. But, unlike other resources, the Directory doesn’t stop there.

Harnessing the power of AI machine learning, our Directory is populated with data gained through web scraping – scouring the internet for as much information as possible for each listed supplier.

This data is gathered from companies’ own websites, as well as many other relevant sites including CreditSafe, RedFlagAlert, and Dealroom.

Together, these data collection methods help provide a more complete company profile, including company size, location, specialty, contact details, directors, financials and more besides. But that’s not all.

Taking ownership

While the quantity and quality of data provided by other tools can vary greatly, what really sets our Directory apart is the ability for companies to ‘claim’ their profile – free of charge – and add as much further information about what they do as they like. 

Not only are they given a platform to properly showcase their capabilities, but doing so also means they will appear more accurately in searches.

These searches are another key feature of the Directory. Our specialists have developed a bespoke taxonomy – specific manufacturing and industrial search terms – that helps provide far greater and more accurate insight into companies and the services they provide.

We firmly believe that our Directory, and the quality of data it provides, has an important role to play in strengthening UK manufacturing, and helping it to mitigate and overcome major disruptions to the country’s supply chains.

Register for the UK Supply Chain Directory, and claim your company’s profile.