Our Team

Andy Skowronski is the Owner and Managing Director of A. & C. Associates Limited, a consultancy specialising in the food service, food manufacturing industry and FMCG business. 

Andy Skowronski is an expert with over 30 years industry experience with organisations such as Pepsico, Yum Brands and Krispy Kreme.   He spent 23 years at Yum! Brands / Pepsi, from 1986 to 2009 in a number of roles.  His last role at Yum! was as the Director of Supply Chain Management at Yum! Asia, he was responsible for the brand development of Pizza Hut and KFC in Asia (a $3.4BN business), developing new growth layers, designing supply and business strategies, leading trade discussions through NGO's at ministerial level and negotiating key contracts (in excess of $500MM). He worked very closely with China and had functional responsibility for India for more than a decade.  As a part of the senior executive team, Andy was responsible for developing the regional strategies, which included how a brand is taken to market, selecting franchisees, opening new markets, menu strategies, new sales layers etc.

Andy's company A&C act as industry advisers to branded food service organisations in the international arena as well as to Private Equity groups such as Cinven, Verny Capital and Alpha One looking to enter or exit the industry.  A growing element of his specialism is conducting commercial due diligence work on M&A’s (since March 2013) and has been engaged in due diligence work for Fajr Capital, Actis, McKinsey, BCG, PWC and Abraaj.  Andy has also acted as advisor to several major consultancy houses over the years. 

As an internationalist, he has worked in senior positions for over 20 years, on overseas assignments in Singapore (8 years), Middle East (6 years), Central Europe (4 years) and the United States (2 years), Philippines (18 months).

Andy is married with two children and currently lives in the North East of England.

Andy's Functional Expertise:

• Strategy Development & Planning
• Building Organisational Structures (whilst keeping tight control on G&A)
• Change Management
• Leadership
• Financial Planning and Modelling
• Business Development
• Supply Chain and Procurement
• R&D / QA (for R&D: Understanding Trends, Consumer Insights, Innovation, Menu Development, Pipeline Building)
• Operations

Herdie Hernandez – Head of Operations - Graduating with a degree in Industrial Management Engineering with minor in Mechanical Engineering in 1991, Herdie started his professional career in the automotive manufacturing industry where he gained training and exposure in production systems, project management and product development.

By 1994 he started his career in the foodservice industry by working with the Philippines largest fast-food chain.   This helped pave the way to his specialisation in equipment and facilities development and operational efficiency.  He then joined one of the worlds biggest commercial equipment manufacturing group where he had the opportunity to widen his knowledge of kitchen operating systems and platforms as he became exposed to the different systems and processes of different customers that include worldwide restaurant chains.  A wealth of knowledge that he brought to deliver breakthrough projects in another foodservice organisation.

He finished his masters in Business Administration major in Organisational Development in 2016 and has been with A&C and Associates starting May of the same year where he drives the activities in the Asia-Pacific Region as Head of Operations.

Catherine Woods is a Co-founder and  Director of A&C Associates since 2010 and works closely with Andy helping to deliver bespoke services that meet clients' individual needs, whether long-term support, short-term programs, expert advice or training.  She is the behind the scenes  'Go-To-Person' who glues the office together and ensures everything runs smoothly for our consultants and clients.  Catherine will be the first voice you hear when calling the office and expertly help you with queries.

Prior to working at A&C Associates Catherine’s background was in education, tutoring for children and adults with specific learning difficulties and English as a foreign language in schools in the UK and overseas.  This expertise has been invaluable in the designing of our training programs, manuals and websites, ensuring everything is accessible to all learning types and for those with English as a second language.

Catherine now lives in Durham with her husband and heads up our UK office.  She has two grown children who no longer live at home and is constantly accompanied by her dog Krystal, who is the official office dog.

Donald Macqueen is an accomplished, dedicated and service driven international and UK Regional Director with extensive experience in leadership and management of multiple retail outlets of global franchises.  

Skilled in defining and executing strategies to improve business performance, including initiatives centred around team development and customer engagement. Consistently focused on developing robust processes, procedures and work practices to sustain operational excellence, achieve regulatory compliance and exceed all key deliverables around people, product, place, promotion and profit.  

Key strengths lie in the ability to build collaborative and productive relationships through a diplomatic approach at all levels and introduce best practice through influential leadership.

Rob graduated from Durham University in 1986 and joined Scottish & Newcastle as a graduate trainee. Since then he has worked in a variety of roles over a highly successful 31 year career with S&N and Heineken following the acquisition in 2008. While mainly supply chain focussed Rob has also worked in Sales and HR. 

In more recent roles Rob was Production Director for the UK business between 2006 and 2010. He then moved to the Heineken business in New Zealand (DB Breweries) where he was Supply Chain Director for 3 years before moving to the Netherlands in 2013 to take on the role of Area Supply Chain Director for Heineken Europe region until he returned to the UK in 2018.

Rob's expertise is in leading large unionised work groups and has a track record of results improvement across all key aspects including safety, quality, service as well as operational efficiency. Rob enjoys developing people and is seen as well organised, enthusiastic and a strong communicator. He has experience of world class manufacturing, safety and compliance improvement, crisis management and organisational change.

Ton Santos – has experience in Food production set-up including Meat, Bakery, Sauceline, Poultry Dressing plans, Yakitori for Japan market.  Process and Product improvement including product development.  Quality Assurance systems and supply chain development including cost reductions.  Food process design and commercialisation of new products.

Sarah Anderson is a Senior Analyst, based out of our UK offices. She has 15 years' experience as a Business Analyst in the IT Networking industry working for Cisco Systems. Here she specialised in Supply Chain Business Analytics within the services environment. A Highly motivated and meticulous analyst, her main expertise lies within Supply Chain Root Cause Analysis, Process Improvement, KPI Management, Contract Compliance, Metric/Dashboard Creation & Maintenance, Contract Management, Customer/Partner Behavioural Analysis and Fraud investigation.

In her long track record of 9 years as a competent financial analyst, Georgette has an extensive exposure to several F&B industry players such as KFC, Mister Donut, Tokyo Tokyo, Cindy’s Bakery & Restaurant and GTGF Food Corp among others.  She has gained expertise in Business Analytics in Financial Management such as building Forecasting Tools, Budgeting Templates, and Information Dashboard to aid senior management in strategic decision making.

Georgette holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Ateneo de Manila University.

Jose provides technical expertise in ensuring the effectiveness of process/systems through proper management of the unit initiatives related to systems standardization, process improvements, labor productivity, capacity planning and layout improvements.

He has over 6 years exposure to F&B industry i.e. Mang Inasal Inc. Phil. (JFC) and Ramcar Food Group (KFC Phil., Tokyo and Mr. Donut).

He graduated from Polytechnic University of the Philippines Manila and holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering.”

Valerie Aquilino – Analyst - is a Manila-based professional with a background and focus in consulting for the F&B Industry.  She is currently working with Andy and the team of A&C Associates as a part-time analyst sharing the insights she learned from her past experiences, some of which include managing projects for the Food Group division of Ramcar Corp., and consulting for Cindy's Bakery, focusing on building the central planning team.   Alongside her work at A&C she runs her own business, Vmed Medical Co., an organization in the retail and distribution industry.

Valerie graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in AB Management Economics, Minor in Entrepreneurial Development.

Andrew Sy – Analyst - started his career in the shipping industry working for Maersk Line Ltd.  He worked closely with the analytics and operations team and was the head of fuel reports project where savings of 60% was achieved during his time.  After 3 years of working as their business and data analyst, he started his career in the food industry by starting his own café in Manila called Backyard Coffee.  He handled daily operations of the café, procurement planning, material order management and R&D of new products. 

He is currently working part-time with A&C Associates sharing his knowledge in the coffee business and insights in logistics.  Andrew is also working on Brews Project Manila, a startup that focuses on the distribution of cold brew coffee.

Andrew took up BS Management Informations Systems in Ateneo de Manila University.