Member Article

Interview: MD of Cheadle Hulme-based The Translation People

The Translation People provides business-to-business translation and related language services to companies from a wide range of sectors including healthcare, engineering, manufacturing, insurance and finance.

The company directly employs 32 people but has a global network of more than 4,200 professional translators that work on projects such as websites, brochures, software, technical manuals, legal documents and videos.

The Translation People provides more than 300 language combinations and uses specialist technology to increase productivity and streamline processes.

Its client base spans more than 25 countries and ranges from small and medium-sized businesses and government departments to multi-national corporations.

Revenues rose last year from £3.5m to £4m and it has recently invested £450k into its technology.

The Translation People has its headquarters in Cheadle Hulme in Greater Manchester and offices in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Paris, Bonn and Boston, USA.

Managing director Steve Wilde, spoke to Bdaily, he said: “We have an operational structure akin to larger companies in our sector and invest heavily in productivity-improving translation technology, yet we have flexibility in our processes typical of that offered by smaller firms.

“There are two main challenges. The first is ensuring we stay ahead of the field in terms of technology and use it to increase productivity while maintaining our quality of service.

“The second is convincing our clients of the value of them getting involved personally in the translation process, such as by validating corporate or technical terms.

“Translation can be a complicated process, with many elements to consider, but the results of our work and the benefits for our clients bring great satisfaction.

“While setting up overseas and winning clients abroad can prove challenging for some companies, we have successfully gone down the export route ourselves, establishing operations in France, Germany and the US.

“This has been made easier by the international trade experience of our senior managers.

“We are always seeking suitable acquisitions, and there remains a great deal of scope to strengthen our foothold in our existing geographical markets and among UK businesses which are embracing export opportunities or have overseas operations.

“Most staff are multilingual and have direct experience of language issues. This means they are in a perfect position to understand the challenges which clients may face when exporting.

“As well as this, everyone is very focused on how technology can be used to improve quality and increase productivity.

“Our team is extremely client-focused, and staff will go out of their way to devise attractive solutions for all clients and projects, regardless of size. We pride ourselves on going the extra mile to ensure projects run smoothly, and on delivering exceptional response times.

“We are a company that understands the challenges our clients face, we have the operational structure to deliver even the most demanding of projects, and we have a team willing to go the extra mile to make things run smoothly.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .