Adam Byer’s Koi Farm
When you ask our alumni what career they have gone into, you will get a wide variety of answers, sectors and roles, which highlights how diverse our alumni community is. Perhaps one of the more unique answers may come from Adam Byer (LGS 1991), who runs an ornamental fish farm producing high quality koi carp. Adam initially built the business alongside his day job, before going full time on it a few years ago. Prior to fish farming, he worked at PwC, working on various projects, including a job leading a team in Government Sector consulting.
Adam is involved in every element of the business as owner, director, fish farmer, farm worker, salesperson, order management, ecommerce, marketing and IT alongside his wife. The majority of the koi sold in the UK are imported from abroad. So, a main goal for Adam was to offer an equivalent, high-quality product which was produced locally, with the next goal being to go carbon neutral or preferably negative.
Since then, Byer Koi Farm has gone from strength to strength, with some of his koi winning major awards, which was thought to be impossible to replicate outside of Japan – the home of koi carp.
You can read more about Adam’s koi breeding business at www.byerkoifarm.co.uk
"I love the variety, and the problem solving. We have to be nimble and decisive and get decisions right more of the time than not to keep our share of the market. The hours are ridiculous particularly in the main season, which runs from mid-March through to the end of October. We will work literally from when we get out of bed to when we turn in at night. Despite that, it’s incredibly satisfying to have that breadth of responsibility and control, the opportunity to make a difference each day and to experience very closely the impact of our decisions. We then we have the off season to recover!"
