ALS swoops for Translate4me

FAST-growing North West translation company Applied Language Solutions has bought a smaller Yorkshire rival as part of a plan to more than double turnover to £20m in the next 18 months.

Oldham-based ALS, which was founded by entrepreneur Gavin Wheeldon in 2003, has bought Harrogate company Translate4me in an undisclosed transaction.

The deal will add £750,000 to ALS’s turnover of £7.2m this year. The two businesses will be integrated by the end of the month and based in Oldham.

Translate4me, which has six staff, was founded 13 years ago by Heidi Fulford, who is now pursuing other business opportunities while remaining a sales consultant to ALS.

ALS counts The United Nations, Google, Sony and Nike among its clients. It has 125 staff across 11 offices worldwide. In March it  secured £1.4m from the Capital for Enterprise Fund to support its growth plans.

Gavin Wheeldon said: “Translate4me is exactly the kind of company that we hope to attract to become part of the ALS brand due to its solid performance, strong customer base and experienced language services team.

“ALS can offer the existing customers of Translate4me additional services that are based on our advanced language technology tools and technical expertise that add value to the provision of language solutions and have attracted so many global customers to work with us over the past seven years.”

Heidi Fulford, managing director of Translate4me commented: “It was really important to me to find a company that I felt comfortable selling the business to and one that I believed would genuinely be able to add value to our current customer proposition.

“We have built up a great team and a fantastic customer base over the years and I am confident that they will go from strength to strength under ALS brand.”
Manchester law firm Turner Parkinson advised ALS on the deal.