Peach appoints head of research

She will have day-to-day responsibility for managing and developing both Coffer Peach Business Tracker, the sector's leading sales monitor, and Peach BrandTrack, the consumer-based brand benchmarking survey.

"Lesley brings a wealth of both quantitative and qualitative research experience to the role, and will enable us to expand our research scope, including providing more bespoke insight projects for client companies," said Peach director Christine Martin.

Previously, Muir was research director at Dennis Publishing delivering customer and market insight for magazines including Maxim, Men’s Health, Auto Express and The Week. She also worked on new product development and acquisition strategy with the senior management team. Her most recent role was working on new business development & strategy for Dennis Butler & Tanner – a high end book printer purchased by Dennis.

Muir said:"I'm thrilled to be joining Peach Factory and am looking forward to helping build the research arm of the business. In a dynamic and ever changing food and drinks industry, we are hoping to give companies even more ammunition to drive better business and achieve greater customer insight."

Coffer Peach Business Tracker currently provides weekly and monthly sales data for a syndicate of 23 companies in the pub and restaurant sector, including the likes of Mitchells & Butlers, Whitbread, Pizza Hut, Gondola, Spirit, Tragus, Marstons and Novus Leisure.

Peach BrandTrack is now used by a growing number of brand owners, including Wetherspoon, PizzaExpress, Wagamama, Stonegate, Greene King and Caffe Nero, to benchmark brand performace and develop brand strategy.

Other insight partners include Rank, Haven, Ecolab, Enotria, 3663 and McCain's.