Bay firm buys Aust call centre

Key Research Group managing director Michael Hooker. Photo / File

Tauranga-based Key Research Group has bought Research Panel, a Western Australian market research field services business with a 40-seat call centre operation, from QOR.

Research Panel was a competitor business to Key Research's Perth-based West Coast Field Services, a contract market research field resource specialising in outbound customer contacts.

Key Research emphasised it would continue to run the acquisition independently and autonomously and maintain its commitment to the Western Australian market.

"We are proud to have acquired a company with such quality staff, and a reputation for accuracy and on-time delivery," said Michael Hooker, Key Research Group's managing director.

"We have admired the performance of Research Panel for some time, and are delighted to bring the company into Key Research Group as we expand our presence in this market."

Key Research Group operates market research and call centre businesses. Its services include Pulse Business Solutions, a full-service call centre company with 85 Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) stations in Tauranga and Oamaru.

Key Research Group was founded in 1993 in Tauranga to provide strategic market research services for private and public-sector businesses, and has grown substantially since being bought as a small boutique company by Mr Hooker more than a decade ago.

It won the AUT Business School's Excellence in Support Award for companies in the $5 million - $10 million revenue sector last month.

The company said the acquisition further advanced the global expansion plans for the Key Research Group.

Research Panel has Western Australia's largest online research panel, CATI and face-to-face fieldwork offering and also provides panel group recruitment and facilities, said Key Research.

QOR was established in 2009 and is focused on providing consumer and business online panels for research purposes. Its chairman, Brian Fine, said although QOR's management of Research Panel had been relatively short, the company had helped improve the quality of the fieldwork and delivery of accurate data.

"The decision to sell was a difficult one as we had developed a strong emotional attachment to both the team at Research Panel, as well as the WA market."

The management team will stay in place. Research Panel became part of the Key Research Group from October 1.