Exploring Goods Movement and Export Diversification for Niagara Region Firms

This report provides a detailed overview of the supply chain-oriented activities, domestically and internationally, for a sample of Niagara region firms from the manufacturing, wholesaling and agricultural/primary sectors. The information comes from the deployment of an in-depth online survey (median completion time: 30 minutes) which provided useful data for 103 firms in terms of full survey completions and an additional 98 firms in terms of partial survey completions.

The sample offers reasonable representation from a wide array of segments, including all municipalities within Niagara region. The sampled firms tend to be small but mature on average and with substantially more representation from manufacturing. 82% of respondent firms have annual revenues less than $25M. The vast majority of respondent firms have a Canadian head office and about half are localized in terms of the footprint of their operating facilities.

There is substantial evidence of a complex web of activities at many of the firms with most firms having many product lines/SKUs, export SKUs and supplier firms. 30% of firms have more than 100 SKUs and 8% of firms in the sample have more than 100 suppliers. About two-thirds report that they export at least one SKU. Many firms appear to have further potential to develop given that 60% generate zero sales via e-commerce and 12% remain as one-product firms.