INTERPRETERS UNLIMITED
CEO: Sayed Ali.
Revenue: $5.1 million in 2010; $4.5 million in 2009.
No. of local employees: 18.
Investors: Sole proprietorship.
Headquarters: Sorrento Valley.
Year founded: 1970.
Company description: Provider of language interpretation and translation services.
Whether it’s a woman who speaks only Vietnamese seeking medical help or a corporation launching a new software that needs its manuals translated into at least five languages, there’s a growing need for companies that provide interpretation and translation services.
In San Diego, among the largest and oldest is Interpreters Unlimited, founded in 1970 and owned since 2007 by Sayed Ali, who formerly headed up publicly traded Creative Host Services Inc., a master concessions contractor for small and mid-sized airports.
When Ali negotiated the $43 million sale of CHS to British firm Compass Group PLC in 2004, it had about 3,000 employees at 42 airports and annual sales of about $180 million.
After the sale, Ali stayed on in various capacities at the business, but in 2007 he got the itch once again to head up his own business.
He was looking for a business that was at least 10 years old, had about $2 million in sales, and showed lots of potential.
In terms of the last criteria, the language services industry is growing at an exponential clip. According to a study by Common Sense Advisory Inc., a Boston research firm, the global market for translation services last year was $26 billion and is expanding by double digits annually even during the economic downturn.
In the United States, the continuous influx of new immigrants, both legal and illegal, is the main market driver for services provided by linguists.
“In order to communicate with the huge number of non-English-speaking immigrants, federal and state governments are mandating that insurance and medical providers offer interpretation and translation services,” Ali said. “Among our largest customers are the state of California and its various departments including those dealing with health and human services and corrections.”
Informal Interpreters
In the past, many patients who didn’t speak English would bring relatives to communicate with doctors. If the patients spoke Spanish, the doctor may have enlisted a staffer who could communicate in that language, but that strategy goes only so far, Ali said.
If a patient can only speak Mandarin, and their condition is complex and requires detailed information and interaction, a trained interpreter is now required.
Interpreters Unlimited also works with local governments and school districts as well as many corporate clients.
Among clients in the latter category are Automatic Data Processing Inc., BMW of North America LLC, FedEx, Google Inc., Sony Corp. of America and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
IU also offers translation services, which is the written conversion of one language to another. Interpretation is the verbal conversion of one language to another.
Ruby Chien, a marketing associate with CND, a Vista manufacturer of beauty products, said her company has used IU for a few years to translate packaging and various marketing materials into several European languages, mainly Spanish and French.
“They’re very communicative, and always able to meet our deadlines, and sometimes our deadlines are very tight,” Chien said.
Thousands of Temporary Workers
IU has about 7,000 interpreters and translators in its database, all of whom are contracted for temporary work.
At IU’s modern offices in Sorrento Valley, 15 of its 18 local employees are bilingual, and three are Ali’s sons.
Since he purchased IU, the business’s revenues have grown an average of 22 percent annually. Last year, IU increased sales by 14 percent to $5.1 million. It’s also made a profit every year.
This year’s revenue is projected to reach nearly $8 million and by 2014, it’ll be about $25 million, Ali said.
Ever an innovator and seeking to take IU to another level, Ali plans to roll out IU’s business model and platform to licensed entrepreneurs in the nation’s largest cities.
Similar to owning a franchise, the licensing arrangement wouldn’t require that the owner have any experience in language interpretation or translation, or even know another language, he said.
To make the licensing concept a reality, Ali recently sought traditional financing from at least five different banks, but despite a stellar business record and his experience in guiding several larger businesses, he was turned down by each lender.
“The banks are all out of (lending) now,” he said. “Unless you have hard-core collateral, banks aren’t lending money. They’ve went from one side to the other side.”