About

The Absolut Company (TAC) is based in Stockholm, and is one of six brand companies within Pernod Ricard, the world’s second-largest spirits group. As of 2018, Absolut is sold in more than 150 markets around the world, and sees an incredible 99% of its products sold as exports outside the Swedish market. In 2018 the company was recognised for its position in the industry, being named Food Exporter of the Year by the Swedish Food Federation, and is proud of its diversity both in its product portfolio and on an organisational level. For example, in 2017, it achieved its goal of balanced teams across all people managers, including its leadership team. The in-house legal department working on behalf of TAC is similarly lauded, and the nine person function led by general counsel Lars Ljungholm operates with an ethos of “keep creativity legal and be legally creative”. Opining on the most significant changes made to the team in recent times, Ljungholm explains that there has been a shift from ‘dividing counsel as purely IP and marketing or commercial and corporate [specialists], to broad responsibilities for all in-house counsel covering all legal areas for different brands including codes and policies’. Simultaneously, the expertise and “knowledge specific” areas of the team have been retained by ‘using individuals or groups as centres of excellence for other counsel to consult with’. The team has also merged its regulatory function into legal affairs to create a ‘full product compliance function’, deemed a necessary step in what Ljungholm calls ‘a highly regulated environment’. Demonstrating the scope with which the team handles individual issues, Ljungholm explains that at any one time the team deals with ‘no less than 400 infringement cases’. Crucial to not only these potentially business critical matters, the team also supports global advertising campaigns for some of the world’s leading spirit brands. Further illustrating the team’s 360 degree support to the business, it also advises on ‘all commercial agreements and compliance work for a global business in a highly regulated environment’, further cementing TAC’s legal team as one of Sweden’s finest.