Worldpanel to Merge into Numerator

Kantar is combining its Numerator and Worldpanel divisions to form a new company which it says will provide verified first-party consumer data representing almost five billion consumers globally. The new company will take Numerator's name and be led by its current CEO Eric Belcher.

Numerator, which was formed just over six years ago and was acquired by Kantar in 2021 for $1.5bn, provides proprietary first-party consumer data and technology in the US and Canada, while Worldpanel provides consumer data in 49 countries outside North America - Kantar says the majority of the top 100 global FMCG manufacturers and retailers already get consumer behavior data from one company or the other (or both). Uses include audience creation and ad measurement, predictive analytics and training of AI models to forecast trends, identify opportunities and provide personalized experiences at scale.

The new combined company will be headquartered in Chicago and have around 5,800 employees worldwide - c.2,000 from Numerator and 3,800 from Worldpanel. Guillaume Bacuvier, current CEO of Worldpanel, will continue to lead the International business outside of North America, now reporting to Belcher.

'Brands, retailers, economists and Wall Street analysts rely on permissioned, differentiated data to stay ahead of consumer trends' comments Belcher (pictured). 'Numerator and Worldpanel capture over one million global shopping trips daily, and we use patented methodology to process them. Our ownership of this data ensures that it is complete and unrestricted, meeting the growing demand for domain-specific data to fuel AI models'.

Web sites are at www.numerator.com and www.kantarworldpanel.com .