Growing Business Awards: the latest round of winners!

The winner is….RDS TECHNOLOGY!!!!

You would have thought that seed sowing would have come a long way since Jethro Tull. Apparently not.

Stroud-based RDS Technology has developed a system called Artemis, applying microwave Doppler technology, intelligent signal processing and power electronics to the humble seed drill.

The company has been at the forefront of supplying technology to agricultural machinery since the seventies but Artemis may be its most exciting innovation to date.

Farmers can instantaneously vary the seeding rate as they go up and down the field, planting fewer seed in less fertile areas of the field and more in the fertile ones. This maximises their profitability and, according to RDS, can achieve pay-back within a year.

And Artemis is going down a storm. More than £750,000-worth of the system has been bought by a leading German manufacturer. It is being tested at prototype and/or pre-production stage by agricultural machinery manufacturers in the UK, France, Finland, Italy, Spain and Germany.

RDS is “absolutely delighted!” by the award, singling out the engineering department for the work it has put in to this technology.

****Global Outlook and Expansion is next.

Who’s it gonna be? Eh? Eh? Any predictions?

Well, if you’d picked THEBIGWORD, you’d be correct!!!!

In the seventies, thebigword’s founder Larry Gould worked in Eastern Europe as an export manager for an American company. At the height of the Cold War he managed the sale of apparel equipment used to make uniforms for the Soviet Army. It was quite an education in global business – and it led him to start a recruitment and language company.

In 1996, he sold the recruitment division. And then the journey started. In 1999, with a £1m turnover, he bought a specialist Japanese company.

Today, the Leeds-based thebigwordGroup has offices in London, New York, Dusseldorf, Brussels and Beijing and in the past 12 months has opened offices in Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Tokyo. Turnover for 2007/8 was £21m and chairman Larry Gould is aiming for £30m in 2008/9. More than 3,000 companies are clients, including GE, Ford, Honda, IBM and MTV Europe.

A major coup in 2008 was thebigword’s license to supply translation and interpreting services to US federal agencies – it’s the first non-US company to be granted such a license. It has also launched LanguageDirector, which the company claims to be the first “complete online translation management platform.”

It’s an amazing story – in whatever language.

Chief executive Larry Gould is accepting the shiny trophy; he jokes with the audience that he spent a fortune on his jacket! “If you really want to win an award next year, contact us!"

What a kidder 😉

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