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Your Startup, Your Pie: Legal Essentials for UK Food & Beverage Founders

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Buckworths
Your Startup, Your Pie: Legal Essentials for UK Food & Beverage Founders

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If you're launching or scaling a UK-based Food & Beverage (fast-moving consumer goods) business, this plain-English webinar will guide you through the legal must-knows that could save you time, money, and stress. Learn what to protect, what to document, and how to build a legally solid foundation for growth and exit.

What We'll Cover:
Bake the Pie – Lay Your Legal Foundations
1. Trademarks & Slogans
Protect your brand before you promote it

  • Register your name, logo, and slogan early
  • Search UKIPO and Companies House before investing
  • Consider international filings

2. Packaging & Labels
Compliance that sells

  • Include required details (e.g. allergens, expiry)
  • Avoid misleading marketing claims
  • Follow sector-specific rules

3. Manufacturing Agreements
Put it in writing, even for small-batch runs

  • Cover pricing, quality control, delivery, IP ownership
  • Add protection clauses for delays or defects

Slice the Pie – Share Ownership, Protect Relationships
4. Founders’ Agreements
Avoid drama later. Agree now.

  • Decide roles, equity splits, and exit terms
  • Use vesting to align commitment

5. Investment
Prepare to pitch and protect

  • Have your IP, contracts, and cap table investor-ready
  • Understand term sheets and shareholder rights

6. Options & Incentivisation
Equity isn’t just for founders

  • Use EMI schemes for tax-efficient team incentives
  • Define vesting and exit terms

Sell the Pie – Sell Smart, Scale Smart
7. B2C Documentation
Protect your online store and your customers

  • Get terms of sale, returns, privacy policy, cookie banner
  • Follow UK consumer law and GDPR

8. Distribution & Wholesale Agreements
Expand beyond DTC without losing control

  • Set clear terms for exclusivity, territory, payment
  • Avoid restrictive clauses or auto-renewals

9. Selling the Business
Built it right? Sell it right.

  • Be due diligence-ready from day one
  • Know the documents: SPA, warranties, disclosure letter
  • Understand your exit obligations

Meet the Speaker: Michael Buckworth, the founder of Buckworths and author of Built on Rock, the entrepreneur's legal guide to start-up success. Advising on the risks and pitfalls to avoid when setting up your own business, this book makes the complicated aspects of start-up law simple. Chapter one is now available to download for free, click here to find out how to build your business on rock

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