Laura Foley Ramsden’s ardour for fish is in her DNA.
The 53-year-old is a fourth-generation fish mongress in Massachusetts. Her great-grandfather based Foley Fish again in 1906, and it has been within the household since. Ramsden and her husband purchased it from her dad and mom in 2004.
Although they bought the corporate to specialty meals distributor Cooks’ Warehouse in 2021, Ramsden and her husband stay actively concerned with the enterprise her household began.
Over time, Rasmden has performed a job in almost each facet of the Foley Fish enterprise, from packing fish to constructing a social media presence. Her annual wage began at $23,000 recent out of faculty, and he or she earned $200,000 in 2021, when the corporate bought. Her official title was most just lately VP of gross sales, however she’s higher often known as the fish mongress.
Although the world has modified rather a lot since her great-grandfather began promoting fish, Ramsden says the enterprise nonetheless appears to be like fairly comparable: “We’re actually simply targeted on getting the fish off the boat reduce, packed as rapidly as attainable and turned again round to our prospects.”
‘You simply do what must be finished’
Ramsden clocked her first hours for Foley Fish in the course of the summer season she was 15. “I labored someday packing fish, making bins, opening tins, and I believed it was actually chilly and actually lengthy and actually terrible and instructed my dad I modified my thoughts and I needed to be a bus lady in spite of everything at a restaurant.”
However her dad instructed her Foleys do not stop. His phrases caught: Other than a short stint in public relations, she’s been with the corporate ever since.
Grateful to her dad and mom for making her work on the plant flooring, Ramsden has discovered about almost each function inside the enterprise. From packing and delivery to shoveling ice, she’s gained quite a lot of abilities out of necessity.
“While you run a small enterprise, you simply do what must be finished,” she says.
Being a lady within the fish business
Many assume the corporate’s head fishmonger can be male. Folks have even gone as far as to ask if Ramsden’s brothers can be those to take over the household enterprise. However this was the trail she needed, and he or she’s proud to be a lady in a male-dominated business.
“When my mother joined the enterprise, she was the fish mongress. And so then when my husband and I purchased the enterprise, I used to be the fish mongress,” she says.
Ramsden hasn’t had issues as a lady in a male-dominated business, she says. She’s armed herself with data and expertise to be a useful resource and collaborator for her male colleagues.
And being a fish mongress has by no means meant much less work for her than a person would tackle. In Ramsden’s function, daily can look completely different relying on what must get finished, from bundle design to product evaluations.
“In a small enterprise, you are sort of sporting a number of hats, and as a fish mongress, I undoubtedly put on a number of hats,” she says.