Aquatrols Europe: Employment Support Subscription
Client overview
Aquatrols is the world leader in soil wetting agents and turf surfactants, with a heritage stretching back to 1954 when it introduced the world’s first commercially available soil wetting agent. Today, its products are used on golf courses and sports turf facilities across the globe to manage water in the soil, retaining moisture when conditions are dry and moving it when they’re not.
The UK entity, Aquatrols Europe, is responsible for all sales and operations outside North America. With around 10 employees in the UK, it operates as a lean, specialist business within a larger international group, with distribution networks spanning multiple continents.
Graham O'Connor is Director of European Business, overseeing everything from logistics and sales to marketing and people management.
The situation
When Italian company Lamberti acquired Aquatrols, it prompted Graham to take stock of UK operations. HR had historically been managed from America, by a US HR team with no real knowledge of UK employment law. Advice had come informally, through contacts rather than specialists.
“It’s just very, very different,” Graham recalls. “US and UK employment law. I needed something more formal and more localised to us.”
With a finance function in America, a parent company in Italy, and a small but growing UK headcount, the gap was real. The UK business needed proper employment law support. A business of that size and structure couldn’t justify an in-house HR function. So Graham looked for something that could serve the same role.
A referral through another lawyer brought him to Tend Legal in 2023.
How we helped
Aquatrols signed up for Tend Legal’s employment law subscription, with Nicole Carty and Georgiana Delorme as the lead solicitors on the account.
The first priority was getting the foundations right. That meant reviewing employment contracts to ensure they were compliant with UK law, and working through the employee handbook, a particularly careful piece of work given the need to produce a UK version that was legally sound without diverging wildly from the US handbook the group already used.
From there, the relationship settled into a rhythm. Monthly catch-up meetings provide a regular touch point: a chance to check in, work through anything that has arisen, and keep the team across what is happening in the business. Over time, that consistency has built something more valuable than just good advice. Nicole and Georgiana know the business, the people, and the nuances that matter.
“They’ve kind of learned the business,” Graham says: “They know the characters and the little nuances. That’s what the monthly catch-up helps with.”
Beyond the subscription, the team has supported on a range of employment matters as they have come up: advice on retirement, moving an employee to a consultant basis, bonus structure terms and conditions, and the management of an acquisition. When Aquatrols Europe acquired Turf Tech in October 2025, bringing across two employees in the process, the team was there to help navigate it.
Working closely with Aquatrols over time has also allowed the team to identify and assist with legal needs that sit outside the employment subscription. These have been handled as standalone projects: successful debt recovery work, preparation of standard NDAs and other commercial documents, and, most significantly, the design and creation of Aquatrols Europe’s distributor agreements, a substantial piece of work that ran over several months. These additional projects have grown naturally out of the relationship rather than being pitched for.
The team has also stretched beyond their immediate remit when it has helped. When Aquatrols needed to employ someone in Finland, a Finnish employment lawyer sent across documentation that Graham felt uncomfortable approving without a second pair of eyes. Tend stepped in to review it overnight.
“They can read it better than I could read it,” Graham says: “And they just got on that overnight. It was very, very helpful.”
When an urgent matter arose, the relationship built through those regular check-ins meant there was no lead-in time to the Tend team getting on the case.
“Your team were on it. We’re not saying it’s urgent if it’s not urgent. And it was brilliant.”
The result
Graham describes the relationship simply: an extension of the team.
“It’s like an extension of the team. Pretty much anything that you might speak about internally, if you had an internal HR person or lawyer, your team have always been there.”
For Graham, the value is partly practical and partly about peace of mind.
“I am entirely more comfortable that we are compliant in all legal aspects. I now know. I feel comfortable with it. I feel like we’ve got the right team there if we wish to bring new people on or move people on. I’ve got complete confidence in the guidance.”
The other thing he mentions, more than once, is how easy it is to work with.
“I feel your team work well. It’s good. It takes a lot off the plate. It’s an extension to the team. It means that we’ve got legal support there by specialist people. So absolutely, I would recommend.”
Aquatrols Europe has been a Tend Legal client since 2023.
© Tend Legal Ltd. Published with Graham O'Connor's permission.
“It’s like an extension of the team"
Meet the team
Whether it's putting in place the right documents for your staff, handling tricky processes or dealing with employment disputes, Georgiana will calmly navigate your business through employment law requirements.
Georgiana has acted for clients ranging from start-ups and SMEs across a host of different industries working at both a Legal 500 firm and boutique west end London law firm gaining experience and knowledge from a broad spectrum of clients and cases. She enjoys working with clients as their businesses grow and providing the employment law support, they need at each stage of those journeys.
Having worked on both the employer and employee sides, she has a real insight into how each party is likely to approach a matter. She delivers clear, pragmatic advice and practical solutions in a friendly, no-nonsense manner.
When not crafting bespoke employment solutions, Georgiana can be found running early in the morning, enjoying ballet performances and art exhibitions, going on long walks and being by the sea.
From the moment she got involved in her parents' businesses at a young age, Nicole knew she had a passion for helping businesses thrive.
A corporate and commercial solicitor, Nicole focuses on the work that matters most to growing businesses: M&A transactions, investment rounds, shareholder agreements and company secretarial support. She also helps clients navigate the commercial side: negotiating and reviewing contracts, advising on joint ventures, and being a steady pair of hands through transactions of all sizes.
Nicole is also working towards an MBA, which tells you something about her character and her love of business. Her advice is grounded in commercial reality, not just legal theory.
When she's not taking care of business, Nicole likes to read, run, play tennis and attend church.
