If a client is someone we sell to, what do we call those we buy from?

We say client list or customers for people we offer our goods or services, but what word should I use for the company I buy the goods from?

Is that also a client?

Solution 1:

I guess 'vendor' defined by google as

A person or company offering something for sale, esp. a trader in the street: "an Italian ice cream vendor".

Definition of vendor from oxforddictionaries.com

noun a person or company offering something for sale, especially a trader in the street: an Italian ice-cream vendor /also ˈvɛndɔː/ Law the seller in a sale, especially of property.

Solution 2:

As @GEdgar says if you buy goods in order to sell them on (regardless of whether you do anything to enhance them or not), you get them from your suppliers.

You'd only normally refer to your company's vendors if you don't actually sell direct to end-users. Check a few instances of our vendors have in Google Books, where they're invariably referring to people who buy our product in [large] wholesale quantities, and sell it on [in smaller amounts] to many more people.