Distinguished alumni

He started his career with Dalgety in 1989 and then moved to Danone, holding a number of sales and marketing roles. He moved to several commercial roles at Hero Drinks and following the sale of the business to Cott Beverages, Andrew became Director of Sales with responsibility for a turnover of £110 million.

From there he joined Wells Soft Drinks, working there for three years as their Sales and Marketing Director. He later spent four years at Orchard House Foods, an £80 million chilled juice, smoothie and prepared fruit company where he was responsible for sales, marketing and development.

Having completed his MBA at Loughborough, Andrew joined Pete & Johnny Plc as their CEO. He turned the business around and returned it to profit before leading the sale of the company to PepsiCo where he spent time on the Board of the Tropicana Quaker business.

In 2006 he was part of the founding team of SUSO, initially as the CEO; Andrew also invested in a fledgling business, Funkin, and joined as CEO. Since then Andrew has been working for Funkin Ltd and sold the business to AG Barr Plc in 2015. He is currently the Executive Chairman at the company who are the UK’s leading brand of cocktail purées, mixers and syrups, selling across 30 countries around the world with offices in the USA, France and Spain.

The company has also teamed up with Fareshare, the UK’s leading food charity dedicated to preventing good quality surplus food from being needlessly wasted by redistributing to the voluntary sector.

Andrew also holds non-executive roles at:

• Edward Billington & Sons, a £400 million agri-food business
• TSC Foods Ltd, a £60 million soup and sauce business
• Mercer Farms, one of the UK’s largest free range pig producers
• Moma Foods, the UK’s number two porridge brand.

In 2018 Andrew co-founded a zero proof spirit brand called Stryyk, which is in its start-up phase.

He is also a director of a local community charity – Long Clawson Recreation Ground Ltd – a community project that successfully raised £1 million to build and run a community sports and education facility in the Vale of Belvoir. In addition he is a trustee of The Hunter Trust, a Leicestershire-based charity focused on supporting disadvantaged local children.