TRANSLATION business Lingo24 is setting up a new office in Manchester to build software for translating documents.

Andy Way, formerly associate professor in the School of Computing at Dublin City University, is heading up the venture as director of machine translation (MT).

Edinburgh-based Lingo24, founded by Christian Arno from his parents' home in Aberdeen in 2001, intends to make customised software to translate material for clients.

Mr Way, president of the European Association for Machine Translation, said: "We will be building industry-leading bespoke MT solutions for large clients. These are much more accurate than web-based translation tools, since they are tailored to the client's specific use-case requirements.

"Christian's commitment and enthusiasm to fully embrace what MT has to offer matches my vision, and made my decision to join a very easy one.

"This is still a relatively young science, but it is improving rapidly. The web is more multinational than ever, but only a very small volume of what could be translated is actually being translated currently. MT is often the only option for large volumes of content, and most clients are pleasantly surprised by its accuracy."

The Manchester hub is scheduled to open in January with at least four machine translation developers and further sales staff.

Mr Arno added: "We've always had a strong focus on developing technology to automate parts of the translation process. This will allow us to expand the range of services we offer, and fit every client's budget and need."

Lingo24 employs 180 staff across the world in London, Romania, Germany, Panama, the US and the Philippines.