After a remarkable 50 years of service devoted to the poultry sector, Josie Arman will retire at the end of 2020.
Retiring in December as Internal Sales Manager for Joice and Hill, Josie’s career has spanned a period of remarkable change and consolidation in the business of egg production, She joined the the Warren Studler Hatchery in Orton Longueville in 1970 before moving to ISA Poultry Service as sales manager. She continued to run her team through several changes of ownership before ISA was sold Joice & Hill, which became a subsidiary of Hendrix Genetics in 2012.
“One of the major changes that has taken place during my career is the switch from a commercial egg layer market in the mid-70s based on white eggs housed in cage systems, to the domination of brown eggs in free range systems,” said Josie Arman. “I have seen the number of distributors go from seven to one and a much more professional, scientific, research and data driven business emerge. Warren Studler started out hatching 6,000 chicks twice a week with second-hand Buckeye incubators at Orton Longueville. At Eye we now have the capacity to hatch in excess of 100,000 chicks in one day”.
In 2019, Josie Arman was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BFREPA Conference.
Stephen Turner, now Technical Director at Joice and Hill, first met Josie in 1982 when he joined ISA Poultry Services as a fieldsman. He said “Josie is experienced, loyal, dedicated, committed and enthusiastic. She understands and balances both the customer and the business perspective, whilst being committed to getting the sale. Well known for speaking her mind, she is also a valuable and sensitive counsellor. Quite simply, she ticks all the boxes and is irreplaceable”.
Josie plans to devote more time in retirement to her husband, two dogs, and improving the breeding results of their collection of 30 parrots. “I have always loved my job and think of the poultry industry as extended family, so wouldn’t have wanted to be in any other sector,” she said. “Who knew I would be part of it for 50 years – certainly not me when I began! The last twelve years, being part of Hendrix Genetics/Joice and Hill have been some of the happiest of my career and after so long I am sure I am going to miss it.”
