Sophos wins Company of the Year in 2001 Real Business/CBI
Growing Business Awards
Sophos Anti-Virus, a world leader in corporate anti-virus
protection, was proclaimed Company of the Year at last night's 2001
Real Business/CBI Growing Business Awards. Chosen because of its
business performance, ambition, potential and management quality,
Sophos fought off strong competition from the other four finalists
to take the award. The Abingdon-based company was the unanimous
choice of the judges.
"It gives me a warm feeling inside to see a couple of academics
setting up a successful company in a market largely dominated by US
competitors," said Bob Jones, one of the award judges and founder
of DICA Technologies/Equiinet. "There are five world leaders in the
anti-virus market and Sophos is one of them."
Simon Woodroffe, another of the judges and founder of YO! Sushi,
added: "Sophos makes a world class product that British business
should be proud of."
The average growth rate in the anti-virus industry was 24% in
1999-2000*. Sophos's results show more than double this
growth rate; profit before tax for the year ending March 2001 was
£7.8 million, a 65% increase on the previous year.
"We are delighted to have received this prestigious accolade,
which acknowledges the hard work and dedication of the hundreds of
Sophos staff around the globe," said Peter Lammer, co-founder and
joint CEO of Sophos Anti-Virus. "Since its infancy Sophos has
maintained a tight focus on meeting the needs of our customers, and
as a result the company has gone from strength to strength. We
fully expect this success to continue."
The company has recently opened offices in Milan and Singapore,
reflecting Sophos's growth on a global scale. Construction has also
begun on a new £32
million research and development centre at its headquarters in
Abingdon.
The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP gave a ministerial address at the
ceremony. She was followed by Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft
Corporation, who delivered the keynote speech.
¹ Source: IDC Research's "Worldwide Anti-virus
Software Market Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2005"
About the Growing Business Awards
The Growing Business Awards, launched in 1999 by Real Business
Magazine in conjunction with the CBI, recognise and celebrate the
UK's entrepreneurial talent, as well as those companies which have
shown substantial growth year after year. The presence of the
world's greatest business leader, Bill Gates, keynote speaker, plus
Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP, Secretary of State for Trade and
Industry and Digby Jones, Director General of the CBI truly
demonstrates the stature of these Awards and the continued growing
spirit of entrepreneurism in the UK.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.