BrainJuicer Reports 38% Revenue Hike

Online research specialist BrainJuicer has reported a 38% revenue rise to £16.36m for the 12 months ended 31 December 2010 (2009: £11.81m), with growth driven primarily by its UK and North America teams which represent 48% and 25% of business respectively.

For the year, pre-tax profit increased 34% to £2.21m (2009: £1.65m), while operating profit was up 35% to £2.21m. Gross profit, (the firm's main internal financial performance indicator), grew by 41% to £12.62m (2009: £8.93m) and gross profit margin rose to 77% from 76% in 2009.

In the UK, revenue rose by 42% and in North America it increased by 61%. Switzerland and Germany also performed well, growing by 62% (51% in constant currency) and 41% (47% in constant currency) respectively.

However the Netherlands declined by 12% (9% in constant currency), partly due to management changes in that office and partly due to declines in income from its largest client.

All BrainJuicer's account management teams were profitable, with the UK contributing £4.06m, North America £1.58m, and other countries £1.65m. The firm's two new markets, Brazil and China incurred a loss of £117k.

During the year, average headcount increased to 91 people (2009: 70 people), and as a result, admin expenses grew by 43% to £10.40m (2009: £7.29m). Staff costs represented 69% of total admin costs, and revenue per employee increased to £180k from £169k in 2009.

In a statement, the firm said it is 'crucially dependent' on the development of new 'Juicy' products, and is particularly excited about two new solutions - DigiViduals, which uses 'research robots' programmed to represent a particular target type of person, and SatisTraction, the firm's approach to measuring customer satisfaction.

In the last twelve months, the firm has also spent £1.6m on the development of a new software platform which it says increases its capacity and provides a 'more reliable and faster respondent experience'.

Chairman Ken Ford comments: 'BrainJuicer is well placed to deliver further growth in 2011 and beyond, and we will continue to invest heavily in our people, products and systems. Although the company punches above its weight in the world of market research, we are currently small in global terms. We continue to believe we have a tremendous opportunity to become one of the leading players in our industry.'

Web site: www.brainjuicer.com .