New MD to Replace Synovate Retail Performance Founders

In the UK, Peter Luff has been appointed as Managing Director of Synovate Retail Performance (formerly SPSL), whose founders Paul Tombs and Dominic McGuiness will be leaving at the end of the year to 'pursue their entrepreneurial careers'.

Tombs and McGuiness set up SPSL in 1989. The firm, which is a division of Synovate Customer Experience, provides scientific footfall monitoring and behavioural analysis systems.

Synovate's core customer traffic measurement and analysis solution 'Shopper Count' is part of a retail customer experience measurement offering, which also includes mystery shopping and voice of the customer programmes (Synovate ViewsCast).

Luff joins with a professional services and management career spanning more than 20 years. For the past decade, he has worked for computer hardware firm Silicon Graphics; latterly as Professional Services Director responsible for the EMEA and the Americas regions. Prior to this, he held senior positions at FujiFilm, Crosfield Electronics and Electrolux.

In his new role, Luff is charged with capitalising on Retail Performance's UK base to extend its geographic footprint, and with building greater analytics capability to supplement the existing data collection tools.

He will report to Ged Parton, CEO Global Practices and Capabilities, who comments: 'Peter is highly knowledgeable, commercial, and sales orientated; ideally placing him to lead this exciting business into its next phase of growth. He has a strong understanding of all the potential routes to market, and I am confident that his appointment will bring impetus and energy to the Milton Keynes head office.'

Luff takes over from Tombs and McGuiness, who sold their business to Synovate in 2007.

Web site: www.synovate.com/retailperformance .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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