Mr Benjamin Udujie (counsel) For the First/Third v Respondent — 2023

This preliminary hearing concerned whether the claimant's contract transferred under TUPE, the effective date of termination, and whether any complaints were out of time. The tribunal found Soda Folk Ltd was an organised grouping of resources pursuing the manufacture, sale and supply of soft drinks, outsourced across production, marketing, sales, accounts and distribution. It accepted that AP Drinks Ltd, later renamed Wellness Capital Ltd, acquired the AP assets under the asset sale agreement, had access to company records, marketed the brand from January 2023, and resumed production in July 2023 using the same manufacturer.

On that basis, the tribunal held that the business retained its identity and that the claimant was assigned to the transferred economic entity, so his contract transferred to AP Drinks Ltd/Wellness Capital Ltd on 19 January 2023. It rejected any TUPE transfer to Windfall Logistics Ltd, finding that its purchase of stock and some ingredients or packaging did not amount to a transfer of an economic entity, and dismissed the claims against that respondent. The tribunal also found the claimant's effective date of termination was 19 January 2023 because he had not been told before then that his employment had been terminated. By agreement, no time issues arose.