Cooper Leaves Research Now as Revenue Doubles

In the UK, Andrew Cooper, Founder and Group MD of online panel firm Research Now, is to step down as part of a restructure designed to streamline management during the firm's next phase of growth and development.

Cooper, who will leave the Board at the end of October, plans to start up a new business from scratch. He will remain actively involved in the group until his departure, and says he has no current plans to dispose of any of his shares.

Group CEO Chris Havemann commented: 'Although we will be sad to see Andrew depart, he leaves an incredibly strong business that has grown from a start-up into the success it is today. He can certainly take pride in the major part he has played in our progress to date and we wish him well with his new ventures.'

The new structure will include three newly-appointed Regional MDs, each of whom will report to Havemann. The trio are:

• Europe: Phil Rance, currently UK Commercial Director, based in London
• Americas: Jeff Karry, currently SVP, North American Operations, based in Toronto and Co-founder of OpenVenue
• Asia Pacific: Jason Buchanan, currently MD of Australia/New Zealand, based in Sydney.

Further regional hires will continue to be made to the group finance function led by Group CFO Nathan Runnicles, to support the new management team.

Havemann will also be supported by a number of senior managers responsible for global functions including business and product development, marketing and information technology. In particular, John Visser, co-founder of OpenVenue, will take responsibility for global key account management as well as continuing to drive Canadian sales.

Alongside news of the re-shuffle, Research Now today announced a first-half pre-tax profit of £2.4m, compared with a loss of £244,000 a year ago. Revenue climbed 92% to £19.1m from £9.9m last year, while underlying revenue grew 50.4% in the first half.

'Research Now continues to grow dramatically, fuelled by the continued migration of the market research industry to online survey data collection and also by our high quality service proposition,' Havemann stated. 'The latter is delivering both high rates of repeat business and tremendous new client wins. Current proposal volumes are strong and I remain confident of the trading outlook to year end.'

Earlier, the firm's share price rose 9.57% to £3.15.

Web site: www.researchnow.co.uk .