Trying to determine the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) contract for one of a company's many products can be very difficult. Unless it is listed in the 10K, there are some circuitous measures you might employ.
The following ideas are in no particular order.
1. Telephone research may be the most direct way but whether the company would divulge this information could depend on why you want to know. A telephone researcher or firm that specializes in "Company Intelligence" often has the experience to uncover answers.
2. You could try finding articles in industry-specific trade journals and newsletters, from our business databases. However, if it's one of hundreds of products a company manufactures, it's a long shot.
3. A longer way around is to identify competing manufacturers and distributors and talk to their sales people to see what they know. This is pretty much a hunt and peck research project. You could query them about whether they themselves are serving as OEMs.
Sources include:
4. Regarding 10Ks, Exhibit 10 contains agreements and contracts and
depending on the EDGAR system you used, the exhibits are sometimes separate
from the 10K. With that in mind, it's necessary to make sure you
include Exhibit 10 in your search, if not in the 10K document.
5. To identify a company's suppliers, two relatively new sources are:
6. It depends on the product. For example, see these two articles about computer hardware;