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Strong Q3 Growth, Senior Hire for GfK
GfK has announced organic sales growth of 6.7%., and a sales increase of 5.5% to EUR 833.9m for the first nine months of the year. Meanwhile Dr Derek Allen is joining the group in the US as EVP of the GfK Research Center for Excellence.
Third quarter results exceeded those achieved in the prior year, with consolidated total income climbing 12.7% to EUR 51.2m. The firm said that its Retail and Technology division was particularly successful with sales increasing by 9.9% to EUR 189m. The Media division increased its sales by 6.5% to EUR 89.5m, and organic growth doubled compared with the prior year to 9.9% (prior year: 4.8%).
Custom Research - which came in below expectations in the second quarter - outperformed the prior year in the third quarter with sales growth of 3.7% and a year-on-year rise in income of 16%. Sales in the Consumer Tracking division rose by 2.3% to EUR 74.9m, with nearly all of this growth being organic.
With sales of EUR 92.5m, the HealthCare division fell short of the prior year's figure of EUR 95.7m, although there was a slight improvement in the division's income and margin.
Western Europe/Middle East/Africa remained the top performing region in terms of sales with EUR 342.6m: a rise of 3.9% compared with the same period in 2006. Organic sales growth accounted for 3.4%, with acquisitions adding 0.6%.
For the full financial year, GfK still expects to increase its sales by more than 5% in organic terms. It also intends to increase the number of full-time employees to more than 9,000 by the end of financial year.
Dr Allen joins the Center for Excellence at GfK Custom Research North America to manage the Sampling & Design, Online Strategy and Marketing Science divisions. He leaves Research International where he held the position of SVP Marketing Science for the past three years (www.mrweb.com/drno/news3559.htm ). Prior to this, he served for more than 10 years as SVP and Director of Research for Market Probe. His marketing research experience also includes several years client side with both Kohler and General Electric.
Allen is the author of three books on customer satisfaction research and analysis. His fourth, to be released next year, is titled Cross-Cultural Psychometric Issues in Marketing Research. He holds a PhD. in Business Administration/Mass Communication Research from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a BA in Communication from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication.
Based in the firm's New York office, Allen replaces Simeon Chow who is now Director Trend Scanning & Research Methods Philip Morris USA.
Web sites are at www.gfk.com and www.gfkamerica.com.
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