Applied Language Solutions
was founded in 2003 by Gavin Wheeldon (that's him on the right)
who ran the business from his spare bedroom doing everything
himself; sales, programming, project management, general
administration - you name it, he did it.
As the customers numbers began to increase it was clear that he
couldn't do everything himself, so in 2004 Gavin began to recruit
an operations team in the UK. With the team in place the company
was able to focus on obtaining key accreditations such as
ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO18001,
DIN and Investors in People, all of which helped
move the company and its service standards to a new level.
As a result of impressive sales growth the office was soon filled
with talented and enthusiastic staff, but to achieve steady
international growth and provide a truly 24/7 service it was clear
that the business needed to expand overseas. Offices were opened in
the US, Bulgaria, India, Guatemala, France, Spain and Germany.
To help our translators and to ensure excellent project management
from any Applied Language Solutions location, we designed and
launched Talkbase.net. This dedicated web portal
allows staff and customers a secure way to keep track of the
projects they are working on and, just as importantly, ensure that
costs are accurately recorded and our translators are paid on
time.
A huge part of the company's success is down to the
16,500 highly qualified translators we have based
around the world.
The global growth of Applied Language Solutions, both in terms
of an international customer base and employees around the world,
was recognised in April 2010 with a prestigious Queen's Award for
Enterprise. In the same year we also secured investment of
£1.4million to fund our international expansion further.
The hard work recognised
All the hard work from the team across all of our offices has
been recognised times and time again. Since late 2005 the
company has been awarded:
- The National Winner of the HSBC Startup Stars Award
- Exporter of the year from UKTI
- Credit Suisse 'Entrepreneur of the Year' for the North East of
England and with the Institute of Directors
- The website is an official Honoree in the Webby
Awards
- Small to medium Business of the year with the National Business
Awards
- Six awards from the British chambers of Commerce including
Customer Service
- North West Business Insider 42 under 42
- Sunday Times Fast Track 100 - in 2009 and 2010
- Queen's Award for Enterprise 2010: International Trade
The Expansion Continues
The company today employs more than 120 members of staff
worldwide, provides language solutions to customers in over 90
countries, in at least 150 different languages - and all of
it...with a smile!
The work doesn't stop there. We have even more plans in the
pipeline for expansion into Australasia and South America through a
combination owned offices and sales agents.
This will ensure that Applied Language Solutions stays well
placed to provide accurate, high-quality language solutions,
regardless of your global location, time zone or language.
Applied Language Solutions was registered in the UK on 07 May
2004.
Company registration number: UK 5122429