System1 Group Regulatory News (SYS1)

19 Jan 2009 07:00



BrainJuicer Group PLC

("BrainJuicer" or "the Company")

Pre-Close Trading Statement 

Strong Full Year - Results Ahead of Expectations

BrainJuicer Group PLC, (AIM: BJU), a leading global online market research agency, is pleased to announce the following pre-close trading statement for the financial year ended 31 December 2008.  

Highlights:

The Company's revenue growth (which was entirely organic) reflected strong trading performance across each of the groups' regions, and enabled the Company to continue investing in its technology platform and to start paying dividends (the 2008 interim dividend was 0.5p per share and the Company paid an additional special dividend of 1.7p per share).

2008 saw the Company increase its geographic expansion, opening an office in Switzerland and signing a strategic licensing agreement in Australia, as well as continuing to grow its existing businesses in the UK, US and Holland. The Company has continued to innovate and deliver new and creative products to its blue chip client base. The Company announces today that it is continuing its new product development and geographic expansion by launching a Research Community product and establishing a presence in Germany and Canada, both important territories in terms of existing and potential multinational clients.

The Company's research community product (the JuicyBrains Community) is an innovative offering, and has been successfully piloted with 3 large multinationals. Research Communities are one of the fastest growing sectors in the industry.

On the back of strong demand from multinational clients, the Company is opening an office in Germany, the 3rd largest research market in the world [ESOMAR Industry Report 08]. The company has appointed Jonathan Gable as Managing Director of BrainJuicer Germany, based in Hamburg.  Jonathan has over 15 years of market research and marketing experience predominantly in multinational FMCG organisations (including Colgate-Palmolive and General Mills).

The Company has also signed a licence agreement with High Level Research Inc (HIGHLevel), a new Canadian market research agency under which it will provide the Company's products in this region. It has also been agreed that the Company will acquire HIGHLevel once pre-agreed financial targets have been achieved for a total consideration of C$900,000, providing that such targets are met by 2013. HIGHLevel is headed by William (Bill) Ratcliffe, PhD, who previously managed Millward Brown Canada and most recently served as Global Head of Consumer Insights at MediaCom. John Kearon, CEO of BrainJuicer, commented: "In the current economic conditions, we are pleased to have delivered ahead of expectations and to announce the launch of another innovative product and further geographic expansion of the business to service our growing number of large multinational clients. We are also delighted to welcome research professionals of the calibre of Jonathan to our team and Bill to the BrainJuicer network.  We believe HIGHLevel will be a great partner and we're looking forward to working closely with Bill as the relationship develops."

A full update will be provided at the Company's Final Results on 19th March 2009. An analyst briefing, given by John Kearon (CEO) and James Geddes (CFO), will be given at 9.30am on 19th March 2009 at Abchurch Communications, 5th Floor, 100 Cannon Street, London, EC4N 6EU.

- Ends -

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Notes to Editors

BrainJuicer carries out quantitative online research using innovative, bespoke software to produce insightful market research for large, multinational companies, including 24 of the world's top 200 companies (FT 500 September 2008).

BrainJuicer operates in a growing sector of the US$25bn global research market, namely quantitative online research. BrainJuicer's main competitors are large traditional market research providers who have dominated the market for off-line market research, such as AC Nielsen, Millward Brown, Research International, IPSOS, GfK and Taylor Nelson Sofres.

Whilst the largest traditional research companies have developed their own online capability, BrainJuicer has a number of key attributes which have contributed to it achieving rapid growth and winning contracts with prestigious clients, including:

• Research platform that delivers greater diagnostic insight. BrainJuicer has developed tools and award-winning techniques that enable it to provide a greater level of qualitative diagnostic insight within quantitative market research. These techniques enable clients to enhance their understanding of consumer preference and help them make decisions on the best way to develop their products and services.

• Speed. BrainJuicer's automated research techniques enable it to conduct complicated studies very quickly. BrainJuicer's rapid deployment and results production, even on multi-country studies, provide clients with a speed to market advantage in the development of new products and services.

• A scaleable online-only business model. Unlike the traditional research companies who maintain both on and offline data collection capabilities, BrainJuicer is able to focus on operating a scaleable online-only business model.

To date the Group has conducted projects in over 50 countries and more than 30 languages and has established a presence in the UK, the Netherlands, the US, Switzerland and Germany.

Further information on BrainJuicer can be found at www.brainjuicer.com .