Stoquart, an language services provider based in Belgium, has acquired Brussels-based ETC Europe, which holds the status of being a translation agency accredited by the European Union and other governmental and international organizations.
The transaction was closed on 24 October 2024 after Stoquart's takeover of French competitor Version Internationale in 2023.
The founding managing director of Stoquart Translation Services, Dimitri Stoquart, found contact person ETC Europe General Manager Angelina Janssen due to meetings with the Belgian Association of Translation Companies or BQTA.
He stated that Janssen suggested Stoquart form a consortium with ETC Europe and another language service provider, VerbiVis, to respond to the European Commission's TRAD23 RFP. This resulted in Stoquart achieving second place for English-French translation.
In 2024, he mentioned that Janssen wanted to step back and suggested that Stoquart assume control of ETC Europe. Before the acquisition, shares of ETC Europe were divided among three shareholders; Stoquart has taken over all the shares.
"It was worth joining forces," Stoquart explained. "We have gained both institutional and private clients, along with an increasing number of multilingual projects."
In doing so, ETC Europe further creates new sources of income for Stoquart. The LSP, which now operates as ETC Europe or Stoquart, has recently entered three sizeable contracts with a number of Europe's biggest institutions.
This bodes well for Stoquart, which has faced an accumulated revenue decline of 30% in both 2023 and 2024.
"With this acquisition and the revenues from the European Parliament contract, we will be able to regain our 2022 revenue levels," Stoquart stated.
Strong In-House Resources and Powerful Brands
Stoquart now has around 50 people working for her globally. Janssen will stay until the end of 2024 and will remain available as needed in the near future. (Besides nearly 30 in-house linguists, Stoquart engages between 150-180 freelancers monthly.)
Similar to Version Internationale, ETC Europe holds a strong reputation in the institutional sector. The company will retain its brand identity and limit integration with Stoquart to the essentials required for seamless operations, focusing primarily on activities in the LSP's main office.
Based on Stoquart's location, a big portion of its work is with all variants of French and Dutch, but the company also handles German, Italian, and Spanish. Stoquart now finds itself branching out into other European languages for institutional work, too.
Most clients are found in the US, Ireland, Czechia, Spain, France, Belgium, the UK, Germany, and Denmark. Stoquart said the LSP specializes in fields where human expertise is required, such as IT, finance, legal, life sciences, and the defense industry.
Stoquart's technology approach combines off-the-shelf tools, such as Studio and Phrase, and proprietary tools, including an app that allows users to access several machine translation engines. Stoquart is now expanding into additional European languages for institutional work as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment