Team size: 100+

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

This year, our legal department has been involved in significant cases in various domains.

On capex and construction, projects have included further rollout of Primark stores in the US and elsewhere, projects to expand and automate Primark warehousing, and both a new animal feed factory and a new flour mill in Australia. Additionally, major projects in developing markets, such as our South Africa-based legal team’s support to Kilombero Sugar Company, in which AVF holds a 75% stake, in negotiating and signing a turnkey construction contract for a US$240m factory expansion project that will double the plant’s sugar output.

On mergers and acquisitions, ABF has continued to make important additions this year, to expand our businesses into adjacent areas of growth. Key examples in the biotech sector include ABF Ingredients’ purchase of Fytexia in France, and AB Agri’s acquisition of Finnish company Alimetrics. On the grocery side we also supported the acquisition of Dad’s Pies by our Australia and New Zealand business, George Weston Foods.

Furthermore, the team has been central in managing disputes across our international markets, many of which have been central to ensuring continued profitability or operations. Also, legal support has been given for the Primark click and collect trials in Northwest England, while on financing, we engaged in the issue of ABF’s first public bond in February of 2022, worth £400m.

Finally, our London-based legal team has taken on its first two legal trainees, mentoring students interested in a legal career through the Social Mobility Foundation and Grow, in addition to initiating various projects with local schools.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Business partnering is a common aspiration across legal teams. The EMEA legal team has been running a development programme, seeking to provide our lawyers with the support they need to develop skills and competencies in this space.

As an example, the team has recently developed a business partnering toolkit that supports lawyers in getting to know their allocated business, its key stakeholders, and how to align their legal work to the business’ objectives. Counsel has also done a lot of work on automating data gathering and on the reporting of information on legal workstreams and KPIs to business management teams, enabling more accurate conversations between lawyers and their businesses. The appointment of our first legal operations manager, from September, will also enable us to put the right IT tools and processes in place, to better serve the ABF businesses, and free-up time for lawyers to concentrate on more pertinent work.