Vainu's Nordic databases offer two differing approaches to filter companies by their industry classification: our own Vainu Custom Industry and the official industry filter. This article focuses on how to use the official industry filter.
Note that you can use both industry filters in conjunction. In this example Vainu makes sure that all listed companies fulfill both criteria.
The data behind the official industry filter
The official industry filter follows standardized industry classifications. The used classifications per country are:
💡 All the classifications are largely based on the classification of economic activities (NACE) used in the European Union, and therefore the filters are mostly similar in all four country databases. It should nevertheless be noted that some minor differences do exist.
On a company-level, official industry data always comes from official sources. Most often, companies have themselves defined the industries to which they belong. In some cases, companies have multiple industries and one or several of those industries might be listed as their "main industries". The official industry filter, however, considers all industries equal. In other words: if you are looking for companies within a specific industry, Vainu will show you companies who list that industry - no matter if it is a "main industry" or not.
The official industry taxonomy contains multiple levels. The main categories are identified by the category name and a capital letter, whereas each subcategory can be identified by the category name and a numerical code. The number of digits in that code indicates the level of the subcategory.
For example, in the Finnish official industry taxonomy the letter C belongs to a top-level category called "Manufacturing". That category has multiple subcategories, including one called "Manufacturing of food products (10)". You could continue this tree all the way down to a subcategory called "Processing and preserving of poultry meat (1012)".
Using the official industry filter
The official industry filter not only allows you to pick multiple industries, but also to focus on any level of the taxonomy. In the example below, the user is looking for all companies listed under the "Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (D)" category, but wants to focus specifically on the "Development of building projects (411)" subcategory under "Construction (F)".
In addition, the filter can be used both to include or exclude specific industries. If you are more interested in closing out irrelevant industries, you can turn the filter upside down as seen above. The color of the filter contents on the list page indicate if the filter is currently operating as an including (green) or an excluding (red) filter.
If you are looking for a specific industry, it might get tedious to locate the correct industry by scrolling through the entire industry taxonomy. In most cases, you might benefit from using the search function situated in the top-right corner of the filter. Note that you can use both words mentioned in the category names and the category numbers when searching for the correct subcategory.
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