Team size: Over 200

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

The overarching strategy of our legal team is to enable optimal risk managed delivery of growth opportunities, to safeguard our business and people in a fast-changing environment and to empower through simplicity and standardisation.

In terms of specific projects, the legal team formed part of the core acquisition team, playing a leading role in the complex acquisition of Coca-Cola Amatil, an ASX-listed corporation with extensive operations in Asia Pacific, leading to creation of the world largest Coca-Cola bottler, by revenue, serving 1.75 million customers in 29 countries. The legal team has also been closely involved in the subsequent integration and restructuring work, from sitting on the executive restructuring committee to advising on and implementing appropriate leadership and governance structures for the future success of the business.

With a single team vision, we are more diverse and inclusive, combining the best of all teams to enable us to optimise our contribution to the growth and success of our businesses and a better experience for our customers, colleagues and communities, delivered sustainably.

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?  

We managed the pandemic through a solid and robust crisis management process, putting the health and safety of our people first and contributing to the necessary adjustments to business plans. We reviewed the priorities of our legal team in order to always align with the strategic business goals. The pandemic clearly accelerated disruptive trends, with economic uncertainty, increased regulatory activity and fragmentation, as well as operational changes becoming ever-more apparent. The persistent disruption in a rapidly changing environment requires resilience, agility and a dynamic flexible structure; these characteristics were and are successfully adopted by our legal team.

We develop tools and invest in training for the legal team and our internal customers, contribute to a combined approach towards data and its ethical use and share a strong focus on sustainability and environment reporting within the company. Our business unit teams closely work with our commercial teams to build strong relationships with our customers. All of this allows our legal team to continue to play this key role in the resilience of our business and the delivery of the strategic plans of the company.

Clare Wardle