BrainJuicer plans Chinese expansion

CEO John Kearon said launching in China is “not for the faint-hearted, but we’ve just got to be there”.

The firm has identified a Chinese national – not yet named – with experience at a major US manufacturer.

The Chinese office will open “as soon as we can fight our way through the legal realities of setting up a research business with a licence in China, which might take us quite a few months,” said Kearon.

The company has met with Chinese divisions of the various multinationals it is already working with, including Unilever, Kraft and Diageo. “China is all about innovation at the moment,” he said. “They can’t launch new things fast enough. So they love our tools.”

As BrainJuicer presented its interim results for the first half of 2009, which showed revenue up 22%, Kearon said the firm is gradually increasing the proportion of its business that comes from its “Juicy” proprietary products. In the first half 54% of revenue came from Juicy sales, and the firm aims to get this up to 60% for the full year.

The firm is also considering further international expansion, with Brazil in its sights, but Kearon said “we’ll take a rain check on that one”.

Sales for the first six month of this year were £4.85m. Revenue declined by 5% in the UK but growth in the US, Germany and Switzerland helped make up the shortfall, the company said. Operating profit was up 18% to £231,000.