Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses
and spam, has today been awarded the prestigious Queen's Award for
Enterprise in the category of International Trade, the UK's top
award for business performance. This is the third Queen's Award for
the Oxfordshire-based company - in 2002, Sophos received two awards
for Enterprise in the categories of Innovation and International
Trade.
"We are thrilled that Sophos has received its third Queen's
Award," said Peter Lammer, co-founder and CEO at Sophos. "We have
an excellent team of people working at Sophos, all of whom have
contributed to this success. We all take pride in being recognised
for our business acumen by such a prestigious award."
The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the UK's most prestigious
awards for business performance. They are the business equivalent
of the New Year's Honours for individuals, and recognise and reward
outstanding achievement by UK companies. The International Trade
category recognises companies that have demonstrated significant
growth in overseas earnings.
Sophos has successfully established subsidiary companies in the
USA, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and
Canada. Its earnings from international trade increased from £11.3
million in 2001 to £24.0 million in 2003.
This achievement follows an outstanding year for Sophos. During
the period ending March 2003, Sophos's turnover increased 30 per
cent to £41.0 million, almost doubling the average anti-virus
industry growth rate*. Continuing this growth, Sophos also recently
acquired anti-spam company ActiveState and opened its new £32
million high-security research and development centre at its
headquarters in Oxfordshire. In December 2003, Sophos was also
named Company of the Year at the CBI's annual Growing Business
Awards.
Today's award winners have been announced to mark Her Majesty
The Queen's birthday. Sophos's award will be formally conferred
later in the year.
* Frost and Sullivan 'World anti-virus report
2003' estimated the market is set to grow at 15.1 per cent from
2002 to 2007.
You can read more about the Queen's Awards for Enterprise at
www.queensawards.org.uk.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.