Hello again, Vinaysheel!
I'm sorry this has taken so long. There is a great deal of
information available to those who know where to look; but
unfortunately there's a lot of tedious drudgework involved in
narrowing that information down to what's pertinent.
Of course there are many companies in Canada that import products like
yours. Some of them are high-volume outlets, and purchase in vast
quantities. Others are significantly smaller. I will provide you
with both, and also some tools to locate more prospects.
I will begin with a few obvious selections. These are among Canada's
leading retailers; and if you are able to provide your products in
large quantity you may find some interest here.
The Hudson Bay Company is Canada's oldest corporation and one of the
largest retailers (over 500 stores), with a storied history dating
back to the 17th century. At one time, this private company held 1/12
of the earth's landmass by way of a charter from the British crown.
Today, HBC operates three retail chains in Canada. Their flagship
chain, The Bay, is similar to and competes with Sears in the Canadian
market. Their discount department store chain, Zellers, is similar to
and competes with Wal-Mart. Finally, their Home Outfitters chain
("Bed, Bath, and Kitchen Superstore") competes in that specific area
with many niche marketers. All three of these chains retail the type
of product you are describing, with Zellers occupying the low end of
the market and the other two encompassing the mid-upper range.
To contact HBC Global Sourcing, please follow this link:
http://www.hbc.com/hbc/about/contacts/#4
Canadian Tire, as their name suggests, began as a retailer of tires
and automotive accessories. Over the decades, however, they have
evolved into Canada's highest-volume hardgoods retailer (over 450
outlets). They now carry an extensive selection of housewares, and
have even launched a bridal registry in recent months. They sell a
variety of items such as candle holders and wall sconces, and during
the summer months they also stock a variety of decorative metal items
for the patio and yard.
Unfortunately, they are not considerate enough to provide us with a
direct link to their purchasers, as HBC did. I would expect, however,
that this gentleman's staff could put you in touch with the correct
people:
http://investor.relations.canadiantire.ca/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=ctr.a.to&script=120&layout=-6&item_id=66737
Their head office address is:
Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited
2180 Yonge Street
P.O. Box 770, Station K
Toronto, ON M4P 2V8
Home Hardware is another highly visible Canadian chain, with over 1000
stores nationwide. While household metal wares would not be a high
percentage of their sales, they are still worth contacting. As with
Canadian Tire, patio/yard items would be a strong seasonal interest.
Their head office address is:
Home Hardware Stores Limited
34 Henry Street West
St. Jacobs, Ontario, N0B 2N0
I was unable to locate a contact name for you.
I will provide you with two more major retailers, before we move on.
These are Canada's two primary supermarket chains, which may seem
somewhat incongruous. These stores, however, carry a great deal of
general merchandise in addition to their food-oriented core product
line.
Loblaw's operate a number of chains across the country, some of them
immense "big-box" outlets. All of their stores carry a variety of
non-food merchandise, including candle holders and similar gift items.
Their head office address is:
Loblaw Companies Limited
Corporate Office
22 St. Clair Avenue East
Toronto, Canada
M4T 2S7
Tel.: (416) 922-2500
Fax: (416) 922-4395
http://www.loblaw.com/en/abt_corprof.html
This link lists David R. Jeffs (Executive Vice President) as having
responsibility for "non-food sourcing and procurement." As with
Canadian Tire, an inquiry directed to his office should provide you
with the appropriate contact person for your product line.
http://www.loblaw.com/en/abt_operdir.html
Sobeys, of Stellarton NS, began in 1907 as a one-man butcher shop in a
remote small town. Today, it is a nationwide chain with $10b CDN in
retail sales, and is Loblaw's only national rival. Again, non-food
merchandise is not a huge part of their overall business, but because
of the sheer number of outlets they operate even a small portion of
their business is worth pursuing. The company's head office address
is:
115 King St
Stellarton, NS, B0K 1S0
http://www.sobeys.com/
Unfortunately, they do not list a purchaser for non-food merchandise.
Now then, let's turn our attention to some more-focused research. A
good place to start is the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association:
http://www.cgta.org/
While many of their services require the purchase of a membership,
their website does offer a means of searching the member database for
specific products. I tried searching by various keywords, and
eventually hit on the combination of "metal" "candle holder" "sconces"
"vase" "paperweight," which returned 96 hits.
I winnowed through these, eliminating companies who manufactured their
own product or who buy it within Canada. This is the resulting list,
with telephone numbers (I apologize if the formatting is a bit off, we
have no way to do tables in the GA answer box):
A.T. Storrs Ltd. 604-734-3211
800-561-5800
Abbott of England Ltd. 416-789-7663
800-263-2955
Alpha & Omega Gifts and Imports Inc. 519-744-8750
800-245-1529
Artika Collection Inc. 416-661-9606
800-661-9606
Axicon World Imports Inc. 604-946-5587
800-946-5587
Bogart Inc. 905-829-0088
877-565-8900
Candle Passions 519-271-8470
800-201-8125
Carousel Canada Inc. 905-760-8330
800-387-0338
Carsim Trading Inc. 450-424-3635
800-671-3635
Concord Candle Corp. 705-436-3243
800-263-9025
Crystal Clear 201-440-4200
D & W Canasia Trading Inc. 905-565-5880
Decorating Details 905-564-3358
Design Directions 416-489-9498
877-861-8952
DMW Celebrity Int. Inc. 905-754-0001
866-369-2003
DMW Giftware & Accessories 905-513-5720
800-286-0453
Echohome Inc. 905-564-2377
888-909-3246
Encanes Int. Development Corp. 905-388-8570
888-517-7055
Enotriart 905-760-0889
Floridus Ltd/Design Images 905-670-7272
800-268-4902
Furmir Agencies Inc. 514-342-3755
Ganz 905-851-6661
Garuda Jewellery And Craft 604-298-0487
877-450-1687
Gateway Distributors 905-564-1847
Golden Globe Imp. Exp. Co. 519-739-0578
800-786-9307
H & H Innovations Inc. 604-572-2742
888-572-7966
Harrogate House 613-723-2489
800-267-3108
Hi-Line Gift Ltd. 905-564-2815
Idle Fancies 705-322-0114
866-322-0114
Imperial Design 905-513-8394
In Line Venetian Art 416-444-6020
Indaba Trading Ltd. 250-248-2796
800-746-3222
Index Gift Imports Ltd. 403-291-2906
800-555-9651
Infinity 416-609-0025
International Emporium Inc. 250-384-4432
877-384-4430
J & T Import and Wholesale 519-471-2727
800-387-2069
JJ Tech Enterprises Inc. 604-515-1118
877-855-8324
Komme International 905-282-0708
888-566-6388
La Serre De Soie 514-935-5396
800-565-7643
Leopards & Roses Trading 604-873-5111
Limited Addition 416-783-0230
800-268-9724
Mares Business 2 Business 519-763-1567
Mayhew`s Wholesale 604-432-9809
800-663-5672
McLidon International Trading 905-763-9522
800-625-4366
N.C. Cameron & Sons Ltd. / Enesco Div/Signature Coll/Portfolio Plus 905-673-9200
800-263-7095
Nature`s Expression 604-278-6403
800-723-6403
Northdale Trading Ltd. 905-731-9535
800-263-3093
Old Country Design 888-212-2110
877-212-2110
OPICE 905-985-9744
800-263-1994
Port-Style Enterprises Inc. 905-470-7971
800-268-1029
Pottery Lane Imports 613-678--5888
888-577-2448
Premier Gift Ltd. 905-795-9380
800-387-1282
Rainbow`s End Gifts 905-738-8838
800-615-5556
Rainee Manufacturing Prod Ltd 905-660-7373
800-771-2573
Silver Star Crystal Ltd. 604-875-9767
Silverchine Inc. 905-670-1995
Silvio Trading Inc. 514-256-3631
Steiga Limited 905-731-6266
Sun Impex Ltd. 905-565-7066
800-617-6668
Super Gifts Company 416-663-9880
Torre & Tagus Designs 604-273-4777
800-423-4417
U.B.I. Trading Co. 416-736-0399
W2 Trading Co Ltd 905-508-8855
Wellco Inc. 905-461-0166
888-462-5232
Wizard Gift II 613-443-6363
800-267-4981
I have looked at the profile for each of these companies one by one,
and they all correspond to at least one of the products you'd
specified. Unfortunately there was no way to capture their addresses
en masse from that lookup screen. To see the full profile for each
company, follow the link below and click "search by company" in the
upper right-hand corner. You may then cut-and-paste each company's
name into the search box. Alternatively (and more efficiently) you
might choose "search by keyword" and repeat my search, as listed
above. This will bring you to the original list of companies, from
which you may see each profile by clicking on the company name.
http://www.cgtapl.com/ProductLocator/
Another major resource is the Strategis website operated by Industry
Canada, a federal government department. The Canadian Importers
Database on the site is searchable by "Product Code" (also referred to
as "HS Code"), which is a series of numbers the government uses to
classify imports and exports. This is the link to the search page:
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/cgi-bin/sc_mrkti/cid/cid_e.cgi?func=start_search&search_type=by_product
I have browsed through the various product codes and isolated the
following category codes as potentially being of interest (you may
wish to look into some of the others as well):
732391, cast iron household articles, not enamelled
732392, cast iron household articles, enamelled
732393, stainless steel household articles
732394, household articles of stainless steel or non-cast iron, enamelled
830621, statuettes and other ornaments, plated
830629, statuettes and other ornaments, not plated
830630, photograph, picture, or similar frames and mirrors
831000, letters, numbers, signplates, and similar articles
For each category, simply cut and paste the six-digit code into the
search box labelled "HS Code" and then click "Search." On the
resulting screen, click on the button labelled, "Generate report for
selected product." This will bring you to a screen containing
containing some statistics, and further down the page a list of "major
importers" within that category. The eight categories I've listed
above will return a total of over 400 listings, some of which are
duplicates.
Unfortunately the search results are generated dynamically, which
means that I am unable to provide you with a functioning link to them;
you'll need to generate each search yourself. The listings provide
the name, location, and postal code of each company; with this you'll
be able to locate them through a directory such as these:
http://www.canada411.com/
http://www.superpages.ca/
I turned up two other sites which you may find useful, although they
are less directly pertinent. The first is the Trade Facilitation
Office Canada, a department/website our government has established to
assist overseas exporters in gaining access to the Canadian market.
This is their English-language home:
http://www.tfoc.ca/tfoc/about_us.htm
After a free (and thankfully brief) registration, you will have access
to all of the TFOC's documents, and will be able to add your company
to their database. The documents will provide you with information on
all pertinent government regulations, forms, and fees/tariffs. The
database is, essentially, a "matchmaking service" between Canadian
importers and overseas suppliers.
TFOC also offers fee-based services, including several CD-ROM
tutorials to help guide you through the Canadian import/export
process.
A second resource you may find useful is the Canadian Association of
Importers and Exporters, found here:
http://www.importers.ca/index.htm
Note that their 2003/2004 member directory is now available at half
price ($79.95 US plus shipping) and should prove a useful resource for
you. The membership includes shipping companies and customs brokers
as well as importers; so you should be able to make any additional
contacts you need to successfully get your product into the country.
Search strategy:
I have used the Strategis database many times before, and that is
where I start any search pertaining to Canadian business. I located
the CGTA from a link at Strategis, and just mucked around with it
until I found what I wanted.
I found the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters by
assuming that there was such a thing, and using Google to find it
(keywords: canadian importers association).
A link on their site led me to the TFOC website.
I also used Google to find the contact information for the major
retailers listed at the beginning of the answer by searching on their
respective names.
This should give you a running start at the Canadian market, and lots
of leads to follow up for the future. Best of luck to you in your
endeavour!
-Chromedome |
