About

Iconic Italian coffee brand Lavazza has a long established global name that is known by many all over the world. The first Lavazza store was opened in Turin in 1895. Since then, the company has evolved to an industrial scale becoming the largest company in the coffee sector in Italy, as well as one of the leading coffee businesses in Europe. Following the growth of the company’s turnover and the increasing expansion into foreign markets, the legal team has had to develop new skills, first and foremost in the area of M&A, helping Lavazza take advantage of this momentum. ‘This has engaged us very much in recent years in participating in any phase of the negotiation process, with a strong involvement in the strategic decisions of the top management’, says general counsel [and] chief legal officer Simona Musso. The legal team and corporate global department is structured into four main teams: the corporate business team led by Paola Pinardi, the international business and IP team managed by Marco Braida, the corporate affairs team led by Simona Musso and the compliance function established and led by Silvia Giordanino. In December 2018, Lavazza acquired the Mars’ coffee businesses, including the Flavia and Klix systems, leading brands in the office coffee service and vending segments, acquiring the name Lavazza Professional. Through this deal, the Lavazza Group, in accordance with its strategy of consolidation at the international level, has acquired Mars’ coffee businesses in North America, Germany, the UK, France, Canada and Japan, including its related systems and its production facilities in the UK and the US. The businesses involved in the acquisition generated a turnover of approximately US$350m in 2017 and has a workforce of approximately 900 people. The team motto is: “We Law You”. ‘The motto comes from the idea that an in-house lawyer should always be a “business partner” and support other departments in their daily activities. Our aim is, don’t stop a business initiative but find a solution that can be legally and commercially satisfactory together with the colleagues and the other departments’, explains Musso.