Andrew Fearne - Managing Director and Principal Consultant

Portrait of Andrew Fearne The son of a pig farmer in the South East of England, Andrew graduated in French and Economics from Kingston University in 1983, after which he studied for his PhD in agricultural economics at Newcastle University. After a brief spell with the National Farmers’ Union, he returned to Newcastle where he spent six years as a lecturer in agricultural commodity marketing. In December 1994 he moved to Wye College (now part of Imperial College London), as a senior lecturer in food industry management, where he established the Centre for Food Chain Research. In March 2005 he joined Kent Business School ( University of Kent) as a Principal Research Fellow in Supply Chain Management and Director of the Centre for Supply Chain Research and the dunnhumby Academy of Consumer Research.

For the duration of his academic career he has engaged in consulting activities with food businesses large and small, the world over. In April 2005 he created Broad Oak Research Ltd, to provide support for the growing demand for specialised research in the areas of consumer behaviour and supply chain management, in which Andrew has a long track record of research and consulting, with particular emphasis on the creation, management and exploitation of value-added in the dairy, livestock and fresh produce industries. He is the founding editor of Supply Chain Management, an international journal which addresses both practical and research issues concerned with the linkages in the food supply chain, from the breeders/feeders through primary producers, manufacturers, retailers/caterers to the final consumer.