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Food and Beverage

Overview

Food and beverage brands face enormous challenges as they grow and scale their businesses in massively competitive marketplaces. High growth brands face additional challenges as they expand their product lines and enter into new markets, all while raising growth capital with high expectations of value creation. 

At Nutter, we have food and beverage attorneys who are proud to work with client such as:

 

With a deep understanding of this marketplace, Nutter’s Food and Beverage Practice Group is an interdisciplinary team of lawyers with expertise in:

  • Corporate organization and structuring
  • Angel, venture and private equity financing
  • Venture lending
  • Asset-based lending
  • Vendor, co-packing and co-manufacturing arrangements
  • Distributor and broker agreements
  • Sales agency agreements
  • Trademark licensing agreements
  • Warehousing and fulfillment
  • Tax planning, including for international expansion
  • Liquor licenses and common victualler licenses
  • Strategic partnerships
  • Patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret protection
  • Real estate acquisition, financing, leasing and permitting
  • Labor, employment, employee benefit and incentive compensation matters
  • Antitrust support and government investigations
  • Products liability litigation
  • Recall support
  • Commercial litigation, including distributor termination
  • Trusts, estates, and succession planning

The Nutter Food and Beverage practice group represents clients at every stage of growth, from startups to large public companies. Clients include:

  • Brands
  • Brand executives
  • Retailers
  • Distributors
  • Wholesalers
  • Enabling technology companies
  • Angel, venture, private equity, and strategic investors

View Practice Team

Representative Matters

Representative Matters

  • Clean Crop Technologies, Inc.

    Nutter served as legal counsel to Clean Crop Technologies, Inc. in connection with its $3 million seed stage investment round.

  • Tuscan Village

    Nutter represented its client, Tuscan Village, in connection with a $60 million construction loan for the development of South Village, part of the Tuscan Village project.

  • Wandering Bear, Inc.

    Nutter served as legal counsel to Wandering Bear, Inc., a cold brew coffee maker, in connection with a $1 million revolving line of credit facility from Assembled Brands Capital Funding, LLC.

  • Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc.

    Nutter advised Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc., a family-owned national Middle Eastern food manufacturer and distributor, in its acquisition of Brekki, a manufacturer of overnight oats for healthy breakfast options.

  • Hälsa Foods

    Nutter served as sole legal advisor to Hälsa Foods, the maker of the first and only 100% clean and organic oat milk yogurt, in connection with its recently announced financing round led by Gary Hirshberg, co-founder and former long-time CEO and chairman of Stonyfield Organic.

  • Cali’flour Foods

    Nutter advised Cali’flour Foods, the developer and manufacturer of low-carb, gluten-free cauliflower products, in a Series A financing round led by Sunrise Strategic Partners, with participation from CircleUp Growth Partners.

  • Acquirer in the food and beverage industry

    Nutter represented the acquirer in the purchase and license of certain assets related to an overnight oats brand from a multinational food and beverage corporation.

  • Food and Beverage Companies

    Nutter advises food and beverage companies on some of the common areas of litigation and regulatory risk faced as they design and implement their product packaging and marketing plans.

  • Hans Kissle Company, LLC

    Nutter represented Hans Kissle Company, LLC, a manufacturer of private label and branded foods for retail, foodservice, club, and convenience store customers throughout the United States, in its acquisition by Mitsui & Co., Ltd., a Japanese diversified industrial holding company. The total value of the transaction was approximately $108 million.

  • Lallemand USA, Inc.

    Nutter advised Lallemand USA, Inc. when it acquired Scott Laboratories Inc. (USA) and Scott Laboratories Ltd. (Canada), privately-held companies specializing in value-added products for the North American wine, craft brewing, and distilled spirits industries.

  • The Living Apothecary

    Nutter advised The Living Apothecary, a probiotic water kefir maker based in Oakland, CA, in a $1.4 million financing round led by L.A. Libations and Venice Brands. 

  • Catania Oils

    Nutter counsels a leading provider of conventional, Non-GMO Project verified and organic oil in all of its legal matters. 

  • Cedar's

    Nutter is general counsel to this family-owned national Middle Eastern food manufacturer and distributor for all of its legal needs and issues.

  • DiLuigi Foods

    Nutter advises this leading provider of certified quality meats with respect to all of its legal needs.

  • Flatbread Company

    Nutter represents this restaurant chain with all of its day-to-day legal matters.

  • Ipswich Maritime Products

    Nutter provides legal counsel to this New England-based retailer of fresh and frozen seafood.

  • JSB Industries

    Nutter advises this family-owned national provider of baking products on all of its legal needs.

  • Margaritas Mexican Restaurant

    Nutter is proud to represent this restaurant chain with all of its legal needs.

  • Muffin Town

    Nutter advises this family-owned national provider of baking products on all of its legal needs.

  • MultiGrains Bakery

    Nutter serves as general counsel to this privately held, state-of-the-art baking manufacturer.

  • Tuscan Kitchen

    Nutter is general counsel to Tuscan Brands, including all of the Tuscan Kitchen and Tuscan Market locations.

  • Kombrewcha

    Nutter represented Kombrewcha (the first alcoholic Kombucha) in its sale to a strategic acquirer.

  • Deep River Snacks

    Nutter advised Deep River Snacks, makers of premium better-for-you snacks based in Connecticut, in its sale to Arca Continental, the second-largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America and parent company of Wise Snacks, Bokados, and Inalecsa. Nutter had been long time general counsel to Deep River Snacks, and had advised the company in its ongoing commercial dealings, intellectual property matters, and its venture capital transactions. 

  • Wandering Bear Coffee

    Nutter advised Wandering Bear Coffee, a cold brew coffee maker, in its $8 million Series A equity round of financing.

  • Defended client against claims of trademark infringement

    Nutter represented a client in the food and beverage industry in a trademark infringement case in federal district court. The case was settled before the filing of an answer on terms favorable to the client.

  • Cedar's With Heart Inc.

    Nutter represented Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods Inc. in the formation of Cedar's With Heart Inc., its nonprofit initiative whose mission is to end food insecurity and support local youth enrichment programs in Massachusetts schools and communities.

  • Clean Crop Technologies

    Nutter advised Clean Crop Technologies in connection with its $6 million series A financing led by ReGen Ventures, Trailhead Capital, and the MassMutual Catalyst Fund.

  • Kalahari Snacks

    Nutter served as legal counsel to Kalahari Snacks, the #2 biltong brand in the U.S., in its acquisition by Stryve Foods LLC, an emerging healthy snacking platform and the leading air-dried meat snack company in the country.

  • RIND Snacks

    Nutter advised RIND Snacks, a sustainable snack brand, in connection with its acquisition of Small Batch Organics, a Vermont-based manufacturer of award-winning granola product.

  • Wandering Bear, Inc.

    Nutter served as legal counsel to Wandering Bear, Inc., a cold brew coffee maker, in connection with its $5 million funding round backed by existing investors.

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