About

Team size: 60
Major law firms used: Allen & Overy, Bird & Bird, Clyde & Co, Eversheds Sutherland, Foot Anstey, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hogan Lovells, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Womble Bond Dickinson

In 2016, retailer Kingfisher announced its ONE Kingfisher plan: a five-year transformation programme and restructuring expected to cost £800m, aiming to unify product ranges across the business, drive its digital capability and deliver operational efficiencies. Kingfisher, which owns well-known brands B&Q and Screwfix, is about halfway through the programme and in the year ending January 2018 recorded sales of £11.7bn.

The company has around 79,000 employees across 1,300 stores in ten countries, but ONE Kingfisher seeks to combine global functions, such as legal, to work alongside local companies in a bid to improve efficiency.

Elizabeth Messud joined as legal director in early 2017, having previously held senior legal roles at Renova and Nestlé. Transformation of the organisation of the legal function has been the priority for her since, creating a centralised and integrated legal function where previously each of the nine retailers Kingfisher owned had their own head of legal who reported to the group’s chief financial officer. There are 60 legal staff within the group, but only six were based at the London HQ.

‘Most of what I’ve worked on is about identifying what an integrated legal function looks like for a transformed Kingfisher business and working to make that happen,’ Messud comments. The organisational design programme is gradually being rolled out and is yet to be fully completed, but the legal function is moving from a market-by-market legal structure to a single legal team.

At the same time, Messud led a global panel review, which was announced in March 2018. A total of 17 firms made the cut, covering work across the UK, France, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Spain. ‘Our streamlined panel will allow us to develop better working relationships with each of the successful firms to ensure the delivery of high-quality legal services and to ensure we get the best value for our spend from a core group of specialists who really understand Kingfisher.’