Speaking in mother tongues translates into a success story

The Telegraph - 19th May, 2009

In a global market it helps if you can speak more than one language. Lingo24, as you’d expect, speaks hundreds. That’s its job; and income is soaring. Last year’s turnover was £2.9m, this year the company is on track to hit £4m.

The seven year-old firm, which boasts 100 staff and a worldwide team of 3,000 freelance translators, has carved itself something of a niche translating often highly technical documents mainly between European languages. “We do a lot of work translating between the Nordic languages,” explains founder Christian Arno. “But the bulk of our work is from English into German and French.” The firm has also translated into Ndebele, a language spoken in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Demand is also rising for work in Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese and Russian, reflecting the growing moves into the emerging economies. “We have seen growth continue and the demand for translation is going up. I guess in uncertain times people need to communicate even more. Also international companies are looking to target the emerging markets. We also do a lot of work helping companies adapt their website for foreign markets,” says Mr Arno, 30. Marketing materials, legal documents and technical translations make up the bulk of the firm’s business, most of which is won via its website.

This year Arno, who speaks five languages, expects Lingo24 to make a profit of around £200,000 – something of a surprise as the predictions were to break even. “Our plan was just to build volume and turnover. But as it turns out we are making quite a lot of profit.”It is helped by rising sales but also lower costs, as the bulk of the staff are based in low-cost countries: 70 in Romania and 15 in Panama. “Romania is the second most multi-lingual country in Europe after The Netherlands,” he says. That office was established in 2005 and marked the start of Lingo24’s rapid growth.

The Panama office was opened to pick up business from South America. “There are a lot of large call centres based there for major US companies... That made it easy to recruit,” he adds. There are also offices in China and New Zealand. “We wanted to make sure we do genuinely operate a 24-hour business,” he says. The small UK head office is based in Edinburgh.

With a weak pound, those jobs quoted in euros last year, and payment received this year, have also helped turn a profit. However, with more than half the business coming from UK companies – paying in sterling – and most suppliers being based in the eurozone, Lingo24 has had to raise its prices and renegotiate with its linguists to cover the currency losses. “Any company that can sell over the web should currently be looking to increase the amount of euros they bring in,” he adds.

By Philip Smith

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