The Hindu Business Line : Hansa Research to set up office in US

"The US is the biggest market and close to 40 per cent of the world's MR spends happen in this country. There are already a huge number of MR outfits with different specialisations existing in the US." Plans an outsourcing hub in Chicago

Mumbai , March 28

Spreading its operations in overseas markets Hansa Research is setting up an office in the US. The market research company promoted by the RK Swamy family is starting operations in Chicago, initially as an outsourcing hub.

Mr Ashok Das, Managing Director, Hansa Research, told Business Line: "The purpose behind getting into outsourcing is primarily to pay up for the start-up cost. In due course, we plan to set up a full service research agency in the US."

The US is considered to be the largest market for market research and Hansa Research is expected to be the first Indian entity in this space to enter the US.

Added Mr Das, "The US is the biggest market and close to 40 per cent of the world's MR spends happen in this country. There are already a huge number of MR outfits with different specialisations existing in the US.''

Hansa Research specialises in media and customer satisfaction measurements and in the country, it offers services across industries to companies such as Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Petrochemicals, ICICI Bank, Birla Sun Life and Coca-Cola. It has already set up branches in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi with almost 17 offices across the country.

Having registered a turnover of Rs 14 crore, Hansa Research has taken up new projects such as the national outdoor measurement survey across 11 cities. Providing a planning and buying database for the outdoor medium, Hansa Research is hoping to increase the effectiveness of viewership of outdoor media for its clients through its new offering.

Meanwhile, the Rs 500-crore Indian MR industry is now dominated by multinationals such as AC Nielsen, IMRB International and Research International and has been growing at nearly 15-20 per cent on a year-to-year basis. "Today almost 80 per cent of the MR spends are with the international chains.

"In fact, most of them have already bought out the local partners and there are barely any Indian companies left. However, Hansa Research has no plans as yet of being bought out," states Mr Das, who himself has a 35 per cent stake in the agency which he acquired four years ago.

The agency also offers syndicated research and recently released a celebrity track record study. Growing from a small base, Hansa Research expects to clock a growth rate of 50 per cent this year.