AtlasFram Advisor wins top Animal Health Industry Awards
Emilie Wix, a Livestock and Animal Health Specialist with AtlasFram Group, the UK’s leading farm input purchasing and crop marketing cooperative, has won two of the Animal Health Industry’s top Awards. They were presented to her during the 2012 Animal Health Distributors Association (AHDA) Conference and Exhibition at Hinckley, Leicestershire. A key event for the animal health industry which is attended by 500 senior personnel, it is sponsored by OverTheCounter, Pfizer, Trilanco, Novartis, Norbrook, Provimi, MSD Animal Health, CoxAgri, Elanco and Merial.
The first of Emilie’s Awards, ‘Top R-SQP Student’, is presented by the Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority (AMTRA), the independent regulatory body tasked with ensuring that the prescription and supply of VPS animal medicines in the UK is undertaken in a responsible manner by AMTRA-qualified persons. R-SQP is the highest level of Suitably Qualified Person (SQP), enabling the holder to prescribe and supply all categories of POM-VPS medicines, covering the farm, equine and companion animal sectors.
Emilie also beat off tough competition from eight other finalists to win the coveted AHDA Cup for ‘Overall Best SQP Student of The Year’, sponsored by Novartis Animal Health.
Passionate about animal health, Emilie was born at Ely, Cambridgeshire, lived in Portugal from the age of two until seven, then moved to Scotland with her mother, where she helped with the family-run Livery Yard. After completing her A Levels, Emilie embarked on a three-month residential course at the Northern Racing College at Doncaster and subsequently became a work rider with a leading trainer at Cheltenham, the home of national hunt racing. Two and a half years later, finding it increasingly difficult to achieve the required riding weight, Emilie looked at other opportunities. Having gained a BSc in Animal Science and Applied Biology, she worked in microbiology before joining the AtlasFram Group’s Purchasing Department in 2009.
Commenting on her Awards, Emilie stated: “I have always been interested in animal health and enrolled on the SQP course in February last year to further my career. As part of the course I attended a study week during July and completed an on-farm assignment with Nick Tibbenham, an AtlasFram Member who farms on the Suffolk-Norfolk border. The SQP examinations were held at Harper Adams University College over two days in September.
“I was delighted to receive a letter from AMTRA in December informing me that I had achieved R-SQP standard and even more so that I had been one of the Top 3 students overall that year. I could not believe it when, at the AHDA Conference, I was named Best Student and presented with the AHDA Cup. It made all the hard work worthwhile. I am now using my knowledge to help advise and prescribe AtlasFram Members as to the best, most cost-effective POM-VPS, NFA-VPS and AVM-GSL veterinary medicines to use.
Tim Styles, Livestock and Animal Health Products Manager for the AtlasFram Group, comments: “These Awards are very hard to win and the AtlasFram team is delighted that all Emilie’s hard work and effort has been recognised and rewarded at such a high level. Emilie’s R-SQP qualification will be of significant benefit to our Members as it will enable her to provide them with totally independent advice.”
Outside of work, Emilie is also a high achiever. Having become involved in triathlon whilst at University she found that she was particularly good at cycling and went on to become one of the Top 15 women cyclists in the UK. Having won a Gold Medal at the Women’s’ Cycle Race Association Time Trial Championships in Essex and the Eastern District Time Trial Championships for three consecutive years, Emilie was offered a place on the Orbea ‘For Goodness Shakes’ women’s racing team during 2009.
The following year Emilie won a Silver Medal at the Elite National Track Championships in the team pursuit event with her team mates Rebecca Romero MBE and Jan Birkmyre. Emilie went on to win a national masters pursuit title in July that year, her last bike race before taking up a new sporting challenge. Having started rowing in spring 2011 Emilie won her category in ‘Scullers Head’, the largest single-division sculling head race in the world, together with various other local races. She intends to race nationally this summer.
AtlasFram Group is a highly-successful farmer-owned cooperative with an annual turnover of £168 million. Based at Framlingham in Suffolk, it purchases all types of farm inputs and markets combinable crops on behalf of its 1250 Members, who collectively farm more than 300,000 hectares throughout the UK. The Group attracts professional arable and livestock farmers who recognise the value of belonging to a large, expertly-managed input purchasing and crop marketing business operated entirely on their behalf.
In addition to financial savings on a wide range of inputs, from fuel, fertiliser and ag-chem to workshop equipment, tyres, electricity, building materials, feed, animal health products and mobile ‘phones, AtlasFram Members benefit from access to a team of product specialists. Working solely in the best interests of Members, they provide expert advice on a wide range of farming-related issues, advise when to place orders to obtain the best discounts and ensure that products are delivered on time, to the right location. Members receive just one monthly invoice that shows all purchases, which further reduces the time and cost of administration.
Further details are available from Emilie Wix on 01728 727700 or email emilie.wix@atlasfram.co.uk
Further press information is available from:
Julian Cooksley, Kendalls Communications
Tel: 01394 610022 or Email: julian.cooksley@kendallscom.co.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. Further details about the AtlasFram Group are available at www.atlasfram.co.uk
2. Digital images are available to illustrate this press release. Please contact Kerry Rookyard at Kendalls Communications on 01394 610022 or email kerrry-anne.rookyard@kendallscom.co.uk
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