About

Team size: 75-80

Major legal advisers: Allen & Overy, Addleshaw Goddard, CMS, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macfarlanes

What are the most important transactions, litigations or other major projects that you have been involved in during the last year?

In terms of the major projects during the year, given that a large proportion of the Group’s revenue and profitability relates to Primark, a bricks and mortar retailer, a key focus has been on the closing and safe re-opening of all our stores. For a Group whose purpose includes providing clothing that is great value for money, the challenge of a complete closure of Primark’s entire store estate over the course of a twelve-day period in March 2020 cannot be understated. Following the re-opening of all Primark’s stores by July 2020, there were then subsequent closures and re-openings of stores in the majority of the 13 markets in which Primark operates, as well as openings of some new stores.

The other primary purpose of the Group, namely providing safe, nutritious, affordable food, also played a key role in keeping people fed, with a number of our UK Grocery businesses working around the clock to meet the unprecedented consumer demand when public movement was severely restricted.

There have been a number of legislative changes in response to Covid. Have these benefited your company or had any other interesting effects?

The Group has had to negotiate a number of legislative changes in response to Covid. Regardless of the legislation, our main focus has been on keeping people safe. Requirements for people to stay at home and the resulting unprecedented consumer demand led to an uplift in sales for some of the Group’s food businesses.

What were the main difficulties your company faced during the initial Covid lockdown?

There were two key challenges faced during the initial Covid lockdown: the requirement to close Primark’s entire store estate in just twelve days in March 2020 and with no insight as to when they may be able to reopen; and managing the unprecedented consumer demand for products manufactured by our grocery businesses. In the UK this included bread, Dorset Cereals, Ryvita, Patak’s sauces, Blue Dragon meal kits, noodles and a 200 percent increase in the demand for flour.

Did the Brexit deal reached at the end of 2020 give you and your business greater clarity for the future?

The Brexit deal reached at the end of 2020 gave the legal team and the businesses greater clarity for the future, but not without some difficulties given the need to deal with new requirements.