UK. International Marketing & Sales Group Limited (IMSG) has acquired specialist consultant and airport expert Pragma Consulting for £5 million.
For the past 20 years, Pragma’s team of business development consultants and customer behaviour specialists have provided companies in airports, retail, property, leisure, travel and service sectors with help in strategy development, driving revenues and customer spends.
The firm has completed in excess of 650 projects for over 250 clients, including Vodafone, Autogrill, Inchcape, Starbucks, P&O Cruises, RAC, Network Rail, Hamleys, Pets at Home and Jane Norman, and has advised many of the world’s leading airports including Kuala Lumpur, Zurich and the new Berlin Brandenburg flagship airport.
The company also conducts commercial due diligence on behalf of private equity funds, most recently advising Bridgepoint on its acquisition of Fat Face, the UK’s leading active lifestyle brand. The Pragma team comprises 16 consultants with competences across a wide range of specialist strategic, research and operational areas.
Pragma has a long history of consumer research at airports, where it has helped advise many locations on optimizing commercial revenues.
During the year ended 31 March 2007 Pragma generated a turnover of US$4.4 million and pre-tax profits of US$560,000. Currently, 80% of revenues are derived from repeat business.
Pragma was founded by Roy Palmer and Monica Lucas in 1987, who will continue to manage the day-to-day running of the business, reporting to IMSG Executive Chairman, Gregory Thain.
Commenting on the acquisition, Thain said: “IMSG’s strategy to develop a genuine through the line service has been bolstered by today’s acquisition. Pragma has built an excellent reputation in the UK and worldwide across an impressive client list. With their expertise in retail and brand strategy and our experience and contacts in the emerging markets we believe we will be able to offer a distinctive service to both new and existing clients, in particular a number of opportunities in India.”
Roy Palmer, Director of Pragma, said: “Over the last 20 years we have built a highly successful international retail and brand consultancy business, which has considerable potential to continue to grow, both at home and in new markets. Being part of the IMS Group will enable us to leverage our skills and accelerate the development of the business in some of the most rapidly expanding consumer global markets. It is a very exciting opportunity for Pragma and we look forward to a very successful and close working relationship.”
About IMSG
IMSG was founded in 1996 by its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gregory Thain. Clients include multinational and first tier local companies operating in FMCG, telecommunications, retail trade, banking and finance, automotive, consumer electronics and pharmaceutical industries.
IMSG currently has 21 offices in emerging markets: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Krasnodar (Russia), Kiev (Ukraine), Almaty, Astana (Kazakhstan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Istanbul (Turkey), New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chenai, Kolcata, Hyderabad (India) and Budapest (Hungary).
