Crimson Business today announced that Instant Offices, the number one internet gateway to flexible offices in the world, has been shortlisted as a finalist for the highly-competitive International Business of the Year category of the Fast Growth Business Awards.

The awards recognise the most pioneering and creative businesses in the UK, with this particular category focusing on UK-founded companies which are successfully carrying out a growing portion of their business abroad.

Since launching in 1999, Instant Offices has grown to be a global organisation with 80 staff operating from offices in London, Florida and Sydney. It has grown 100% year-on-year for the last five years and much of this growth has been driven by increases in international sales enquiry and deal volumes. Instant Offices has seen a marked increase over time in the percentage of international versus domestic enquiries and deals; today almost 60% of both are from outside the UK.

James Hurley, editor, Growing Business magazine, said: “Instant Offices has clearly demonstrated vision and innovation when it comes to its international growth strategy. There’s a strong commitment to building the international business at all levels of the organization, and to ensuring that Instant Offices retains all the agility of a smaller organization despite being a truly global one.

“These factors impressed our respected panel of judges enough for them to shortlist Instant Offices for this highly-competitive category, which this year received more entries than ever before.”

Rob Hamilton, Founder and CEO of Instant Offices, said: “We are delighted to see the efforts of our truly global team recognized in these important industry awards. Our commitment to providing a truly global service in a localized manner is unquestionable. Our Sales Consultants have in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of the buildings, operators and locations in their specific areas so they can offer a truly expert, consultative service.

“There are five language versions of our website, and our consultants speak a multitude of languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Arabic and Hindu. We have gone through hoops to deal with all the red tape, and legal, cultural and language constraints involved with setting up offices in the US and Australia, and we are proud to say that we are the largest company of our kind in both these key territories. Having set up our UK operation in 2003, we are double in size to our nearest competitor in the US.”