'We're constantly improving our solutions'

Together with their colleague Christian, Florentin and Quentin currently make up the French team. Demand for JOZ solutions is also on the rise in France, so they hope to expand their department to about 6 people soon. ‘Even though JOZ is an international organization, it feels like a small company and we have very direct lines of communication with our colleagues. It makes it really easy for us to share information with each other’, says Quentin, Sales Area Manager.

Regularly on the farm

Quentin and Florentin have extensive contact with dealers and end customers in France, so they regularly visit farms to check which JOZ solutions best suit each customer’s wishes and situation.’

‘I often go with a dealer to visit a farmer’, Quentin says. ‘We discuss the wishes of the farmer, and their vision on how they could manage and process manure or feeding the livestock more efficiently. We then take a look around the farm to see whether these wishes can be met with the solutions offered by JOZ, and the best way of putting this into practice. We have to see the situation on the ground, as it allows us to give much better advice.’

‘I also travel around a lot’, adds Service Engineer Florentin. ‘On Mondays, I do paperwork in the office, and on the other days I visit our customers to instruct their technical people. Together with the dealers, I explain how our products work. My role mainly involves making sure our machines work properly, and that the people I work with can provide a helping hand in this respect. I’m continuously learning, and enjoy sharing what I know with others. This is how we jointly make sure that livestock farmers are satisfied with our solutions, and that our products are the most appropriate ones for each individual situation on a farm.’

Contact with international colleagues

JOZ’s head office is located in the Netherlands, so both men are regularly in contact with their Dutch colleagues. ‘We act autonomously when it comes to France, but obviously we’re also in contact with the head office for certain matters. As a Sales Area Manager, I’m regularly in contact with the commercial team in the Netherlands, for example. We also participate in sales meetings at the head office, when we learn about the latest developments, improvements and systems’, says Quentin.

Florentin adds: ‘I’m in contact with my Dutch colleagues almost every day. This often concerns very specific matters, such as a certain question from a dealer or a problem that I’m unable to solve myself. We also keep each other informed about product updates and new product launches.’

Each country has its own focus points

The differences in environmental and other regulations mean that the demand for certain JOZ solutions differs from country to country, according to Quentin and Florentin. For example, each country has its own focus points. Florentin: ‘In France, the environmental restrictions are very different than in the Netherlands, so livestock farmers’ expectations also differ.’

‘Lots of our customers in France start out on a small scale with an old livestock farm, and then expand. In the Netherlands, there’s more of a tendency to build a new barn. That means more is often possible in terms of barn equipment, whereas the situation in France can be slightly more complicated. In France, farms are also often less specialized, and can mix dairy farming with beef farming or crop harvesting, for example.’

For this reason, demand in France for automated solutions, such as the manure and feed pusher robots, is increasing. ‘Farmers simply have less and less time,’ explains Quentin. ‘By automating everything as much as possible, they save time and maximize the efficiency of their work. Our robot solutions are the ideal solution here. In France, more and more solid concrete floors are being installed in barns, which is why there’s so much demand for our relatively new Barn-E manure robot.’

‘Moreover, we’re constantly improving our products at JOZ. Things that weren’t possible yesterday suddenly are. In this way, we continually improve the versatility of our products, which makes them suitable for more and more barns.’

Proud

Quentin and Florentin are proud of their work at JOZ, and are looking forward to a bright future with their expansion plans. ‘I’m proud of all the successful projects we’ve realized for livestock farmers. I get to be involved in both commercial and technical aspects from start to finish. It’s fantastic to see that everything works so well’, says Quentin. ‘The whole reason we’re doing all this is so that we can offer solutions that really work and make the lives of livestock farmers easier’, concludes Florentin.