About Us

Founded over 25 years ago as Alpha Publishing, we began by creating specialised product card packs for a wide range of industries—distributed at more than 50 major trade shows across the UK.

In June 2004 we launched Find the Needle (findtheneedle.co.uk), moving our extensive industry database online. The name comes from the phrase “looking for a needle in a haystack” — a memorable nod to making hard-to-find products and suppliers easy to discover.

Since then, Find the Needle has grown into one of the UK’s largest and most-visited B2B directories. Over 165,000 companies have subscribed since 2004. Our team has expanded from five people in Hertfordshire to 50+ colleagues working across Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, with additional team members overseas.

We’ve always aimed to lead rather than follow, introducing features that many online trade directories later adopted.

Our 2023 rebuild delivered faster performance, on-screen editing and new functionality. Since then, we’ve continued to roll out updates that improve usability, speed and results—without adding extra charges. We believe every company, whatever its size or budget, deserves a fair chance on Find the Needle. That’s why we randomise search results for product queries to keep things fair.

We thrive on customer feedback. Many of our best ideas start in conversations with users. If there’s something that would help your business or enhance your Find the Needle experience, please get in touch with our team—we’d love to hear it.

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