ONE of the country’s leading home and lifestyle trend forecasting agencies has appointed Anna Woods, of Bishop Auckland, to its team as a senior trend strategist.

She will manage a team of researchers and analysts at Newcastle-based Trend Bible, which is predicting future trends for major brands and manufacturers in the UK, USA and the Nordics.

She has 15 years’ experience in the industry and was previously studio manager at creative agency Tigerprint and design manager at greetings card firm Hallmark.

Her insight and experience will be valuable as Trend Bible expands into the US.

The agency sells its trend reports to major retailers and brands such as Marks & Spencer, Moonpig, Ronseal and Lego, giving them future insight to inform their strategic, product and marketing decisions.

Joanna Feeley, founder and chief executive, said: “Anna’s background will help strengthen our trend services to clients in the gift and greetings sector, where we work with companies who manufacture everything from birthday cakes and greetings cards to hampers and potted plants.

“As more and more industries start to recognise the benefits of identifying future consumer needs, we’re seeing new industries request our services.

“The celebration sector is a growth area for us, due to things like an increasingly culturally diverse audience, and new life event celebrations such as baby showers.

“We’ve been keen to bolster our team’s expertise in this sector to respond to increased demand.”