Queen's Awards: Sepura's radios find the right frequency

The next time you see a policeman on the street or a paramedic in an ambulance, the radio they carry on their lapel to send emergency messages will most likely be made by Sepura.

The Cambridge-based company designs and manufactures digital products and systems for private radio networks, which are predominantly used by fire, police and ambulance services.

Established in 2002, Sepura has been focusing in recent years on expanding overseas and getting more of its radios used by public safety agencies in countries from Sweden to Malaysia.

And this drive has paid off. Its international revenues have grown by 40 per cent from €69.4m in 2012 to €97.3m in 2014, helping it to win a Queen's Award for International Trade.

Last year, the UK accounted for 15 per cent of Sepura's group revenues, compared to about 50 per cent five years ago. Today Germany, whose police force uses Sepura's radios, is its largest market and accounts for about 33 per cent of Sepura's total revenues. Australia is its second-largest overseas market, representing about 8 per cent of revenues.

"What Sepura has successfully done is ride the analogue to digital migration. In the same way that analogue TVs have been switched off in the UK, the users in our world are also migrating to digital products and that's all we offer," says Peter Connor, head of investor relations at Sepura.

The company estimates there are about 45m users of such radios, of which the majority are still analogue. To date, Sepura has sold about 1.2m devices.

"We expect there will be a large number of people that will want to adopt digital over the next three to five years and that is where our growth will come from," Mr Connor adds.

Sepura's overseas growth has also been boosted by recent acquisitions that have helped the company broaden its portfolio, such as its purchase of 3T, the Austrian supplier of TETRA radio infrastructure in 2012.

This helped it win a multi-million-dollar contract to deliver infrastructure for Toronto Transit, the third-largest metropolitan transport network in North America.

The company, which floated on the stock exchange in 2007, has also benefited from high profile sporting events, such as the Fifa world cup in Brazil and Sochi Olympics in Russia, where its radios were deployed.

"Our users want an independent, secure, robust and reliable radio network which functions at one minute past midnight, when half the world is trying to phone their mum on New Year's Eve," says Mr Connor.

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