case study 1

Clothing Manufacturer survives major fire

Our client, a clothing manufacturer, employing 75 people in the West Midlands, had a major fire, caused by an electrical failure.
The brigade, in order to prevent spread of the fire, broke through the fabric of the building as well as “wetting down” throughout the premises.
The net effect was that the premises could not be effectively re-instated for nearly 6 months.
Thankfully, the client had worked closely with us, to develop a, “Catastrophe Plan,” this meant that their largest customer contracts, for clothing production were secured by pre-arranged agreements with other companies, in fact competitors, under reciprocal “Hold Harmless Agreements” for the period of downtime.
This meant that the customers continued to be supplied with product and did not seek to source alternate suppliers.
At the end of the period of production disruption, our client recommenced the supply in accordance with the reciprocal agreements, which we had previously put in place for our client.  
Alternative premises were quickly established to maintain the administrative, accounting and sales functions.
Some of the clients’ own production staffs were, “loaned” to the alternate manufacturers, although their pay was met by the clients’ Business Interruption, insurance cover
Equipment suppliers were encouraged to replace damaged machinery with the minimum of delay in the supply cycle, if necessary by the offer of, “top book” prices to queue jump the supply chain.
This was agreed with Loss Adjusters by explaining and financially evidencing the cost savings inherent in reduced downtime, i.e. “spend a penny to save a pound”
Thankfully the adequacy of the carefully calculated sums insured, meant that wages continued to be paid during the period of downtime, retaining the skilled workforce, who were also kept well informed about the progress of the reinstatement works.
In fact, the client was able to implement some re-modelling of the site to improve work flow and productivity after reopening.
Overall, whilst the impact was substantial and this was certainly not a situation to be wished for, still, the efficiency of the claims process, founded upon an established plan of action, kept the business in being, the jobs secure and provided the confidence and will to see a future beyond the smoking ruin that was initially so overwhelming.
The client was particularly grateful for our involvement, not least because we “have been there before,” so as well as having a detailed grasp of the business and it’s catastrophe plan, we also introduced the client to a network of; equipment and facility suppliers, business service companies and professional help, some of which the client still makes use of.