Market researcher aims to break the £1m barrier

Feb 3 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A MARKET researcher which has boosted its turnover by 85% in just two years is opening a second office to handle its growth.

Newcastle-based Explain Market Research is investing £40,000 to equip a specialist call centre in Jesmond to make more room for additional staff at its headquarters near St James’s Park.

The company’s turnover is on course to hit £725,000 in the year ending in March, up from £392,000 in 2006/7, and it aims to break the £1m barrier in 2010.

Managing director David Shiel said: “We are busting a gut to keep up with the amount of business we have, so for that reason we are breaking the mould a little bit for service companies.

“The size of our business has almost doubled in just under two years and is growing at such a rate at the moment, we are literally as full as a gun in here. I can’t get any more people in this office.”

The consultancy carries out research across the utilities, financial, retail and public sectors for clients including Northumbrian Water, Yorkshire Building Society and the region’s health trusts. It also researches new product development.

“The public sector is incredibly important to us and is probably the single biggest growth area at the moment. Health service work is absolutely phenomenal with a particular segment of the market called social interventions. For instance, we provide them with information about the mindset of people who suffer from obesity and what they see as the barriers to leading a healthy lifestyle,” said Mr Shiel.

“We are very much the backroom engine for a lot of the major clients that we work for.”

Explain is now targeting health trusts in Yorkshire and Lancashire with similar services. If successful, the contracts could be worth up to a £250,000.

It has also won larger contracts from existing clients such Scottish Power, which is increasing its budget by 25% next year. The business, which was set up 16 years ago, has grown at a rapid rate in the last five years after broadening its reach.

Mr Shiel said: “We can’t rest on existing client business and our worry is that our retail sector business might deteriorate in the next 12 to 18 months because some clients may well be chalking down their budgets.

“We have five or six balls up in the air – we are in 10 times as strong a position now because if something drops back like retail, the public sector is probably going up.”

Fourteen of Explain’s 26 staff are moving to the new Jesmond office in April and One North East grant has provided a £25,000 grant to increase employment.

“We’re not talking about a flood of jobs here, we are talking on the basis that we would probably employ two to three new people each year.

“We’re quite proud that we’re a 26 person company and if we get up to 29 people and then 32 people, we think that’s absolutely fantastic,” Mr Shiel said.