System1 Group Regulatory News (SYS1)

1 Feb 2010 07:00



BrainJuicer Group PLC

("BrainJuicer" or "the Company")

Alex Batchelor Appointed COO

Key Industry Leader Joins BrainJuicer® to Support Global Expansion 

Fast growing, international online market researcher, BrainJuicer Group PLC, today announced the expansion of its management team, appointing Alex Batchelor as Chief Operating Officer.

Alex started his career at Unilever where he worked in the UK and Austria before joining Saatchi & Saatchi as a planning director. He then joined Interbrand and ran their Brand Valuation team before becoming Managing Director - helping them add international offices and grow from 60 to 300 people in six years. He was Vice President Global Brand at Orange as it became part of France Telecom and launched the brand in 10 countries, before becoming Marketing Director of the Royal Mail as it faced competition for the first time in its 350 year history. He was most recently CMO at TomTom and is the current Chairman of the Marketing Society.

Based in London, Alex will be running BrainJuicer®'s established but fast growing offices in Europe and America together with the Company's operations, allowing the CEO, John Kearon to expand the Company's geographic network, keep building the innovative suite of Juicy products and work with global clients towards mandate opportunities.

Commenting on his appointment, Alex said: "I am a huge fan of BrainJuicer® and have been an investor in the Company since it floated in 2006. John Kearon founded a remarkable company with the vision to change the way market research is done. I am delighted to share that vision and I am looking forward to developing the company into a genuine competitor to large, more traditional research firms like Millward Brown and TNS."

He added: "BrainJuicer® has some game changing products like Predictive Markets, for concept screening, Insights Validator® for quantitative screening of insights and CommScan® offering a challenger brand emotional model of pre-testing. It has already established a reputation for research excellence among clients and the industry alike and won many awards. The commitment to innovation in market research, exemplified by the BrainJuicer® Labs group, requires an agile and adaptive operational core.  I look forward to building on the current achievements to bring customer understanding and consumer insight onto even more boardroom agendas around the world."

John Kearon, Founder and 'Chief Juicer' of BrainJuicer®, commented: "Alex is a hugely talented senior executive whose experience with large clients and fast growing agencies will make an enormous contribution to BrainJuicer®'s ambition of becoming a top 10 global agency.  Alex brings business acumen, creativity and enthusiasm, a deep understanding of market and organizational needs and superb leadership skills. He will help the business continue to grow strongly and successfully serve the interests of our teams, our clients and our shareholders."

On 19 January 2010, the Company reported in a trading update that it anticipates 26% growth in revenues, and profitability up by more than 25% to meet market expectations for the year ended 31 December 2009. The Company now works with 11 of the world's 20 largest buyers of market research, up from nine in 2008, and saw a 70% growth in its innovative Juicy products.

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