Food and drink sector

With more top tier rankings on Legal 500 across multiple specialisms than any other firm in the region, we are fully equipped to handle any food and drink law issues and provide you with practical solutions.

We can cater for all your food and drink law requirements and act as an extension of your own teams understanding the need for good, pragmatic advice which is cost-effective.

Our focus is on building a mutually beneficial relationship which lasts. We adopt a hands-on approach and work with you as a trusted partner, taking stress away from you.

We provide access to our scalable resource and various levels of food and drink lawyer seniority to call upon, with the assurance of certainty, efficiency, effective costing and high-quality advice at all times.

Whether dealing with a developer, investor, landlord or tenant we can help you with negotiating the leasing, acquisition or sale of your business premises; from planning and construction, to funding, tax advice and litigation, our conscientious and responsive food and drink law team aim to provide commercial advice to mitigate risk, to ensure your projects are delivered on time.

Our employment team are able to provide advice in relation to all aspects of your relationships with your employees, whether that’s assisting with contracts and handbooks, business transfers, inter-company disputes and issues, employment claims and any other employment issues (such as seasonal working).

Additionally, we can assist with compliance audits and offer bespoke training to assist you in managing your employees. We also provide specialist immigration advice, with immigration lawyers available to advise on compliance with ever changing and complex immigration rules and legislation, particularly now that the UK has left the EU. We can help with your Sponsor Licence and Visa applications, right to work checks and help you safeguard against illegal working. We also undertake immigration audits and compliance advice.

Our award-winning corporate team is known for its extensive experience in M&A transactions, private equity work, corporate governance advice and solvent reorganisations. With our expertise working with food and drink clients based in the UK and overseas and our close relationships with leading law firms globally (including through our membership of our international network, Pangea Net), we’re able to provide timely, responsive and cost-effective advice with minimal distraction to our clients’ businesses. We can add value by taking ownership of your requirements and be your single point of contact for all advice – streamlining the process for you.

Our regulatory team helps food and drink clients understand, anticipate, and influence the shifting - and often volatile - regulatory landscape. We partner with your business to create smart, operational solutions that minimise risk, create new opportunities, and power your business forward. We regularly advise food and drink companies on food labelling and packaging requirements, nutrition and health claims, product quality issues, recall and consumer law.    

As the regulatory framework is complex and changes happen regularly, we understand food and drink businesses may sometimes be subject to regulatory investigation and enforcement. We have extensive food and drink law experience in supporting clients through regulatory investigations and enforcement including representing and advising clients at interviews under caution and in court hearings. Our advice in these business-critical situations is underpinned by our knowledge and experience gained by working closely with regulators in this sector over a significant period of time.

We also produce a quarterly regulatory update to keep our clients one step of ahead of regulatory developments.

Our intellectual property (IP) team span the whole range of IP rights across both contentious and non-contentious matters, whether it be complex patent litigation, trade mark strategy and protection advice, copyright-related issues, IP licensing arrangements, R&D and collaboration agreements or design rights advice.

We provide comprehensive advertising and marketing support for food and drink businesses, covering consumer protection law, health and nutrition claims, green marketing, comparative advertising, pricing transparency, influencer partnerships, and specific restrictions including 'Less Healthy Food' and HFSS regulations and responsible marketing to protect brands whilst maintaining creative momentum.

Our commercial dispute resolution team can help you build an effective strategy which will take into account your resources, your approach to risk and the potential impact on your brand including: advice on alternative dispute resolution; breach of commercial contracts; breach of restrictive covenants; breach of warranty; company law disputes; freezing orders; injunctions; misrepresentation; claims and shareholder disputes. 

Our commercial team of dedicated specialists work together with our clients operating in the food and drink sectors to bring new products to market and expand their businesses overseas. We have particular expertise in advising brand owners and manufacturers on everything from putting in place framework agreements; to securing the supply of key components and raw materials; to engaging contract manufacturers, fillers, and packaging suppliers; through to assisting our clients in expanding their international footprint by appointing local representatives. We have extensive experience of putting in place contracts with commercial agents, distributors and other intermediaries and we frequently support our clients in performance managing those relationship and, if required, advising on termination to enable our clients to service the local market directly.