The company, Sport:80, based in Sheffield has been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The innovative cloud-based technology solutions they design and deliver are specifically tailored to help the sports industry operate more efficiently.
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for British businesses and other organisations who excel at international trade, innovation, sustainable development or promoting opportunity. They are the highest official UK awards for British businesses.
Sport:80 has been recognised in the awards’ International Trade category, awarded for growth and commercial success in international trade.
The company works with 55 National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) across the UK, USA, and Ireland. In recent years, the USA has become its largest market accounting for over half of the business’ total revenue followed by the UK and Ireland, respectively. International clients include USA Track & Field, USA Weightlifting, USA Archery, USA Water Polo, and Badminton Ireland, while all domestic and international operations in their entirety are managed from the company’s office in Kelham Island, Sheffield.
CEO of Sport:80, Gary Hargraves explains: “The Queen’s Award win represent one of the proudest moments in Sport:80’s 10-year existence, but also my 40 years in business. Our team worked incredibly hard during the pandemic to win new business and deliver projects at home and across the Atlantic, driving our income and growth to record levels.”
Speaking about the company’s growth plans, Gary adds, “Our growth has been based around three pillars; reputation, thought leadership and innovation. Our strategy for the coming years revolves around strengthening these pillars in our primary territories (the UK, US and Ireland), as well as expanding into new ones such as South America and the Middle East region.
“We believe that targeting growth in these areas will see us continue to increase our market share and make significant strides towards achieving our vision.”
“Our strategy has enabled the business to achieve its forecasts and record healthy revenue growth year-on-year, as well as allow for significant investment into the business to stimulate further growth.”
“This trend will continue as we come out of the grips of the pandemic. To that affect, we have conservatively estimated that revenues increase by 20% 2022.”
In 2021, Sport:80’s year-on-year growth reached 30 per cent, up from 16 per cent in 2020, while the number of full-time staff in the business increased from 12 to 15 across the calendar year.
The company takes a keen interest in Sheffield’s local community supporting several sports organisations in the city at little or no cost, including Cycling Sheffield, Hallamshire Harriers Running Club, Rounders England, British Ice Skating and Skateboard England. It has also formed partnerships with several local businesses to refer business opportunities from its clients including website development, e-commerce, and bespoke technology projects.
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