Buckingham Research founder returns with new agency Insitas

UK— The founder of Buckingham Research Associates (BRA) has returned to the research game with a new agency, Insitas.

Maggie Drye has launched the consumer-focused business in partnership with Lisa Hart, the CEO and founder of professional services research firm Acritas.

Drye and Hart previously worked together at BRA in the early 1990s. Hart began her career there as a trainee analyst before moving on to law firm Denton Wilde Sapte.

She set up Acritas in 2002 – the same year Drye sold BRA to the EQ Group (which, in turn, has since been bought by Optimisa).

Drye retired from BRA in 2005. A year later, she was reading about Acritas in Research magazine and decided to give Hart a call to find out how things were going.

“She asked me whether I was enjoying my free time and the answer was ‘yes and no’,” recalls Drye. “I felt like maybe I was missing something since leaving BRA, and it was then that we started talking about doing something together.”

Out of that conversation came Insitas, which officially opened for business two days ago. Drye is managing director and majority shareholder in the agency, with Hart owning what Drye called a “not insignificant stake”.

Hart has been appointed non-executive director of the company, whose team of five researchers also includes two other former BRA executives Sandra Halstead and Duncan Fergusson.

Together, Acritas and Insitas have formed the Acritas–Insitas Group and the two aim to work jointly with clients who have both b2b and consumer stakeholders – insurance companies for instance, said Hart.

Separately, though, Acritas has already landed projects from two “high-profile FMCG clients”. The first is a study of shopping dynamics and the second is a multi-country usage and attitudes survey for a new brand.

Drye says she is unfazed about starting a new business in the current economic climate, pointing out that the mood was as glum – if not more so – in 1988 when she set up BRA, as well as in the first few years after.

“There is work out there,” she said. “Maybe not quite as much because of budget cuts – but if you are the best, you will get the work.”

Author: Brian Tarran

Related links:

Optimisa misses targets in ‘extremely difficult’ first half

Professional services firms ‘research sceptics’

Buckingham Research MD to leave next month

Buckingham Research promotes Isaacs to replace Drye