The ATC’s Member of the Month in August 2022 is BLS, a language service company based in the heart of Wales.
BLS’s Operations Director, Rhys Thomas, is a perfect example of the company’s commitment to its home-grown talent. A German to English translator by training, Rhys started at BLS in an in-house translation position in 2016, before moving on to management and operations. He was joined on the interview by Business Development Manager, Amelia Evans.
It’s all about building relationships
In addition to the strong foundation they have with translation into many other languages, as well as the alternative language solutions they offer, it is their specialisation in the provision of Welsh language services that has truly grown and prospered; BLS has also developed a respected reputation for forging close relationships with local businesses, charities and education providers. The most notable of the higher-education partners in the United Kingdom is Cardiff University.
“We’re involved with several Cardiff University programmes, such as Go Wales, which is part-financed by the European Social Fund and designed to promote employability for students who face barriers to accessing higher education in Wales,” Amelia explains.
“Our Managing Director, Adam Burman, really feels passionate about helping to develop the next generation of linguists, as do I. And I think our partnership with Cardiff University is probably one of our proudest relationships,” adds Rhys.
A close connection with their local community lies at the heart of everything t BLS. For both Rhys and Amelia, despite the global nature of the language industry, creating and maintaining strong ties within Wales is fundamental to their success.
“We’re not aiming to become a giant player in the industry. Yes, we have clients all over the world, but without our local connections, I don’t feel we’d really be BLS,” says Rhys.
“For example, I suppose you could say that we’re quite ‘old school’ in our approach to customer care. For us, it’s all about building strong and lasting relationships. We call our customers every two months to check in with them and find out about their lives. It’s not about heavy sales, it’s about showing how we care,” Amelia adds.
A strong local base – and room to grow through M&A
The care and commitment that BLS offers its customers is also mirrored in their specialisation in Welsh language services. In addition to building a reputation as expert localisers between US and British English, BLS has responded to the increasing demand for Welsh language services in recent years and now boasts a sizeable team of in-house Welsh translators.
Part of this growth comes from the ongoing work BLS has done for several Welsh branches of UK-based charities, such as the Royal British Legion, RSPB, Leonard Cheshire, PACEY and Victim Support, to name just a few.
Are there any new developments on the horizon for BLS? “On the service side, there’s the question of machine translation post-editing (MTPE). Love it or hate it, the demand is there. It’s something we’re going to be exploring further over the next 12 months,” Rhys notes and continues to inform the ATC that he and Adam are in the process of readying BLS to make an important acquisition soon.
“It’s not yet set in stone, but we are exploring a few options. We’re not simply looking to take a company over and change the whole culture of an established business, rather we want to expand our service offering by acquiring a relatively small, quality-focused, UK-based business whose niche and culture complement our own. This might be a company that needs an injection of capital or whose owner is looking to retire.”
“We’re also going to be launching a dynamic new website very soon, which is already at the final stages of production. A strategic decision was made such that the focus of the new website will, amongst other things, help to streamline and foster collaboration with our university partners,” Rhys states.
Rhys Thomas and Amelia Evans from BLS were recently in conversation with the ATC’s CEO, Raisa McNab, and both were very grateful for the time and guidance given to them, in addition to the opportunities that might become available to BLS in the future. Adam, Rhys, Amelia and all other members of staff are absolutely delighted to be recognised by the ATC in this way.
Written by Michael Dutton.
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