Discovery Founders Sell Firm to Management

Ken and Trish Parker, the founders of qual specialist the Discovery Group, have retired after selling the business to four company directors. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

The husband and wife team set up the group in 1995, after Ken had spent more than seventeen years as Joint MD at RSL (Ipsos) and Trish had worked as a Researcher at Pegram Walters. They are both fellows of the MRS, Ken was previously Chair of the AQR, and Trish set up the latter's mentoring scheme. In addition, they jointly ran the MRS AQR University Roadshow, which aimed to improve the image of market research among students.

Discovery comprises three businesses: full service agency Discovery Research; London and Leeds viewing facilities provider Spectrum; and The Thinking Shed, a tool designed to enhance and improve the online respondent-researcher experience. Ken and Trish, who have now sold the company to Alan Hathaway, Ben Parker, Donal Kelly and Kate McEnery Evans, said of the handover: 'We are delighted to leave the Discovery Group in the hands of such a capable management team. Discovery's directors have many years' experience with us, they know the business inside out, and have such an impressive skill set that we are totally confident they will continue to thrive while maintaining the ethos and values of the company'.

Hathaway, who joined the firm as its first graduate trainee and is now CEO, added: 'We would like to thank Ken and Trish for creating such an amazing company. From its incarnation to the evolution of the brand as we know it today it has always been bright, innovative and much loved. These are values that we are all extremely proud to be taking on into a new chapter'.

Web sites: www.discoveryres.co.uk , www.spectrumview.co.uk and www.thethinkingshed.co.uk .