Successful translation for Yorkshire business

A West Yorkshire company is sweeping the board at business ceremonies across the country.

International translation company Applied Language Solutions, based in Huddersfield, is the brainchild of Gavin Wheeldon, who started out working from home. Just three years later, the company has a staff of 55 and offices based in Bulgaria, California, Guatemala, Paris and Barcelona – with further offices in Hong Kong and mainland China due to open in January 2007.

With their website registering 40,000 visitors per day, the company has access to more than 6000 in-country translators who can translate into over 140 languages.

The company’s phenomenal success has not gone unnoticed in the business world. In October, Gavin won the HSBC Start-up Business of the Year award as well as the Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In November he was a European finalist in the Entrepreneur of the Year competition, organised by National Business Awards.

Recent projects for Applied Language Solutions have ranged from translating Robbie Williams' website into German prior to his tour of Germany and promotional material for Aston Martin cars into Japanese. Other customers include global names such as Rolls Royce, Johnson & Johnson and Reuters.

The company is also identifying further unusual business opportunities, which now include prestigious – and lucrative – contracts obtained through the United Nations.

Gavin said: "It's great to see that all our hard work has paid off – and it's a great honour as well to have our achievements recognised through these awards. The company has experienced near vertical growth since we set up, and now we're going to concentrate on steady expansion into new markets overseas – with the help of UK Trade & Investment."

The business took another step forward in early 2006 when representatives met UK Trade & Investment’s (UKTI’s) Philip Kelly. As the regional procurement and funding adviser, Philip suggested they look into registering their services with the UN in New York as a way of working with its many agencies. The company had already won a contract to translate for one UN agency, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), and spreading their net wider in the UN pool seemed like an obvious step.

With a long track record in international funding, Philip brought his expertise in this specialised area to UKTI three years ago. Since then he has helped companies across the Yorkshire and Humber region successfully apply for international aid-funded projects.

Philip said: "An organisation such as the UN can appear to be daunting, but it has numerous procurement personnel who need to source new suppliers of products and services that enable the UN to operate worldwide. By contacting my colleagues overseas and guiding local companies towards the correct personnel within the UN, I can ensure that they only deal with a handful of relevant contacts.

"After talking with the company about the possibility of registration with the UN, I worked closely with Gavin's team to submit all the required information in just the right format. Some weeks later, Applied Language Solutions was accepted as a potential supplier to the UN family of agencies. It was then over to Gavin and his team to convert that first opportunity to tender into an actual contract."

Philip was also able to give the company useful contacts with UKTI staff at the British Embassy in Washington and the Consulate in New York.

Gavin said: "The staff in New York and Washington have been fantastic. They were able to put us quickly in touch with key people on the ground, such as the chief procurement officer at the UN. It felt like we were tapping into a great support network that was already in place.

"The help we've had from UKTI has been invaluable – without that there is no way we could have come so far, so quickly. I'd recommend UKTI's services to any company looking at doing business overseas."