About

Founded in 2000, Axfood is Sweden’s second largest food retailer with brands such as Hemköp and Tempo. The company’s legal department is led by general counsel Sandra Brånstad who joined Axfood in May 2018 and has since been responsible for building a legal function to serve the whole group. The team now consists of four lawyers and the structuring of its work and areas of responsibility is to an extent still ongoing. ‘The focus and aim is to create a function that will work very closely to the business in order to serve with hands-on and relevant advice in every situation’, says Brånstad. The most significant case that the team has been involved in recently is regarding Axfood’s plan to establish a highly automated logistics centre in Stockholm. This will be in full operation by 2023 and will handle both deliveries and order-picking for Axfood’s stores, as well as for e-commerce customers for all temperature zones. It will replace existing warehouses in Jordbro, Borlänge, Årsta, Örebro, Skellefteå and Sätra and will entail coordination of large parts of the logistics operations for the Stockholm and Mälardalen areas as well as areas northward, which today account for approximately 60% of the volume. Axfood has signed a letter of intent with the German company Witron for the supply of automation and a letter of intent with NREP Logicenters for a long-term lease contract for a logistics property in Bålsta. The annual investment needed amounts of SEK400m to SEK600m during the period 2019-2022. The legal team is also responsible for the automation, lease, support and finance contracts and is deeply involved in the work and negotiations. Commenting on the team culture, Brånstad states: ‘We are a natural and accessible part of Axfood’s day-to-day business and contribute, in every case, to the business by providing pragmatic and effective legal advice that contributes to commercial and relevant decisions. We do this by being service minded (easy to access, helpful and open) and flexible (internally within the group as well as towards other functions within Axfood), by challenging our colleagues, by having a broad knowledge and perspective and by being proactive’.