BUSINESS
Bard secures EUR1 million contract
05-10-2007
by Emmet Ryan
Cork firm Bard has signed a EUR1 million deal with ETC Brussels to provide Irish language translation services through its website Freastal.ie.
The deal will see four new jobs created at the firm's offices in Ballingeary, Co Cork. The ETC contract follows Bard securing a EUR250,000 deal with Cisco in December which led to the creation of six jobs.
ETC Brussels is an international translation company with 11 offices throughout Europe which provide multilingual translations. It was originally set up to supply the European Commission with a complete service for translating technical documentation into all member state languages.
"We were contacted by ETC some months ago," said Tom Fitzgerald, managing director of Bard. "They were looking for a partner from the Gaeltacht to respond to a major EU translation contract. With dozens of Irish government customers, we were happy to diversify to working for the EU as well."
Freastal.ie will provide Irish language translation services for the EU for the next four years. "Partnering with such a major European player is a tremendous boost to Freastal.ie," said Freastal's program manager, Julia May Ni Chroinin. "Having a guaranteed amount of work each month will give our group a solid platform of work and stabilise our workflow."
Bard is an information management company headquartered in the Gaeltacht in Cork, with a subsidiary company, Bard na nGleann International, located in San Jose, California.
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