Our History

DRG was established in 1996 offering clearly costed services with quick turn-around times. It’s a simple premise that has served us, and our clients, well for over 20 years. We continue to find creative solutions to research problems; making research a profit generator not a cost centre. Take a look below to see some of the key dates and events in our company’s history.

Timeline

1996

Company founded as partnership by John and Fiona Raglan, servicing small projects for media and agency clients from family home near Allendale, Northumberland

Apr 2003

Launch of telephone interviewing operation from head office

Sept 2003

Company incorporated to become ‘Dipsticks Research Ltd’

Jan 2004

Media research division launched ‘Other lines of enquiry’

Feb 2004

Purchase of new telephone interviewing facility (The Mill) in Hexham, housing up to 80 seats

April 2004

Board of Directors formed

May 2005

Public sector focused research division launched ‘Public Knowledge’

June 2005

Online consumer panel division launched ‘Panelbase’

Nov 2007

Head office relocation to The Mill, Hexham

2008

Panelbase open for external business

Jan 2008

radioGAUGE product launched by ‘Other Lines of enquiry’ in conjunction with the UK’s Radio Advertising Bureau

Oct 2009

Panelbase reaches 100,000 members

Nov 2010

Fieldwork only division launched ‘Field & Fab’

Apr 2011

Ivor Knox promoted to Managing Director

Oct 2011

New office space secured in Hexham for Operations team and CATI

Apr 2012

Panelbase joins the British Polling Council (BPC)

July 2012

Dipsticks Research wins the 2012 Culture for Success Award for best medium sized business

Jan 2013

Panelbase reaches 200,000 members

Aug 2013

New 3000 sq. ft. CATI office opened in Hexham

June 2015

Panelbase’s 10th birthday

Sept 2016

DRG is 20 years old

Sept 2017

DRG’s 21st Birthday Party at SUSHISAMBA, London

March 2018

DRG exhibit at the Insight Show at Olympia Central, London

September 2018

Launch of DRG’s data science team

February 2019

Panelbase reaches 300,000 members

November 2020

Paul Wealleans becomes Managing Director of Panelbase and DRG

November 2021

Eleanor Finnon becomes Research Director at DRG

September 2022

Our 2022 client thank-you party at SUSHISAMBA, London