How it All Started
Anglia Translations Ltd was officially founded in 1992 by Anthony Withers. He had started the company in 1989, initially as a teacher of business French to companies in Cambridgeshire, but it soon developed into something more akin to what it is today – a translation provider – as translation requests soon overtook requests for French language learning.
Timeline
1989
Anthony was organising and delivering language lessons to a variety of local companies. It was interesting, he had a good reputation, and it paid the bills.
1990
One day, one of Anthony’s clients asked if he could use his language skills to translate a document for them. He duly carried out the work, and then more of the same came along. One project involved a document in Italian which was a language Anthony didn’t speak. However, his involvement within the languages community meant that he had access to a network of translators.
During 1990-91 Anthony was handling more translation projects than he was giving language lessons. This is when Anthony began to envision translation was the way forward, and this is when Anglia Translations Ltd as we know it today was born.
1990s
During the 90s, following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, the business grew, with Anthony bringing on board his first employees. This allowed the team at Anglia to work with the EU on many large tenders as well as working with businesses in a diverse array of market sectors and languages.
Even then, Anglia had a great reputation for exceptional customer service, with a personal touch.
2000s
The digital transformation of the business landscape made exporting easier and the world seem a much smaller place, providing a lot more opportunities for a company of any size to enter into international markets.
Great news for a translation company! To be successful in overseas markets, you really need to be speaking to your clients in a language that they understand. Website translation became big business.
It was during this time that technology within the translation industry also started to develop and machine translation became accessible to the masses.
2010s
After surviving the financial crisis of 2008, Anglia was still going strong and had a good database of loyal and profitable clients as well as a growing network of high-quality, professional translators.
It was 2010 when Anglia first gained ISO9001 accreditation, confirming the team’s dedication to quality and constant improvement to processes. This has continued until today where quality is still at the heart of the business and will continue to be so.
After over 20 years of leading the Anglia team, Anthony decided to take more of a backseat in the business and hand over the reins to his daughter Mary Gilbey.
Mary has a passion for languages having studied French & Spanish at university and working in numerous international sales roles. She has travelled extensively, spending time in South America, France, Spain, Israel and New Zealand.
With a keen new Managing Director on board, Anglia grew exponentially over the following years – growing the team, embracing technology and expanding the network of clients and translators.
It was during this time that Anglia became more involved with the local community in a more philanthropic way. The team at Anglia understood their responsibility to give back to the local community and wanted to play a part in supporting those less fortunate than themselves.
Where Are We Now?
After over two and half decades in offices in Huntingdon, Anglia have now relocated to the enterprise campus on the outskirts of Huntingdon.
The office is a bright welcoming space that is appropriate for the brand that we’ve built.
Despite our ongoing growth, technological innovations and ambitious plans for the future, we still remain steadfast to our values. This is because, we believe in maintaining the personal touch and the importance of long-term relationships with employees, clients and suppliers that began all those years ago.