India Buy-out Follows Banner Year for Nepa

In an interim report, Sweden-based Voice of the Customer specialist Nepa AB has announced a 'fantastic year', including net sales growth of 25.3% in Q4. Full year 2016 net sales increased 19.4% SEK 184.4m ($US 20.6m). The firm has also recently acquired the outstanding 20% of shares in its sales subsidiary Nepa India.

Last April the Stockholm brand tracking researcher Nepa announced the launch of an IPO to fund the global roll-out its ActionHub platform, as well as adding Cint founder Bo Mattsson to its Board of Directors. More recently, the firm promoted Lindsay Parry (nee Cowan) to MD in the UK following the departure of Johnny Caldwell and the purchase of the outstanding 9.9% of Nepa UK Ltd. In October it partnered with social media channel Tailsweep to launch the 'Bloggpanelen', analysing readers' opinions about blogs.

Chief Executive Fredrik Östgren (pictured) said the IPO with its promise of multinational expansion had been 'an amazing moment for Nepa and everyone that has worked for its growth, but also a stepping stone for a new growth journey'. The funding has driven growth in existing international markets Denmark, Finland, India and Norway; further investment in the UK, 'Europe's largest and the world's second largest [MR] market'; the opening of a first office in the USA (New York); the building of more scalability into the proprietary product platform ActionHub; and investment in the expansion teams 'needed to start up increasingly big client projects'.

Sales increased steadily through the four quarters of 2016 - and indeed have risen every quarter since 2006. Gross profit has risen (14.8% in Q4) but should rise faster, matching sales growth, with changes in product type, while EBIT remains low due to heavy investment. Sales growth was especially strong in Finland (+37%) and the UK (+31%).

The company is online at www.nepa.com .