Industry isn’t swamped in floods

The floods have left insurance companies swamped with claims and with dramatic stories to tell.

One such case is that of insurer NIG, who has just paid over £1m to a Herefordshire-based firm for flood damage, but could have been facing a much higher bill had it not been for the quick thinking of management at M and M Direct…and four car jacks.

When two months’ of rainfall fell in just a few hours over Herefordshire on Friday 27 July, leading internet and catalogue clothing retailer M and M Direct found £1.4m worth of its stock ruined.

But damaged clothing was not the only problem facing the company. As the torrents descended on its Leominster premises, the rising waters threatened to engulf the firm’s £400,000 server room, the heart of the business’s operation. Thankfully, staff took decisive action to save them; four car jacks were “borrowed” from a local garage with the servers then being jacked up to keep them away from the rising flood water. A near by wall was then knocked down with the bricks then being borrowed/ used as a new plinth the rest the server cabinets on.

Further quick thinking saw the M and M team enlist the help of local farmers on the Saturday, borrowing three slurry tanks to pump flood water away from the site. By Monday M and M’s insurer NIG had sent loss adjuster Crawford and Company to quickly assess the damage and organise recovery work.

M and M’s finance director Chris Harle says: “It was horrific. Although we’ve been unbelievably unlucky. Due to evasive action by the operations team and early intervention by loss adjusters we only missed a few days’ trading and, 10 days after the flood, an initial payment of £1 million was made.

“This has helped enormously with cash flow and allowed us to replenish stock, continue to pay suppliers on time and get the business functioning again. The service from NIG and Crawford’s throughout has been exceptional.”

NIG’s head of SME sales and service Mike Crane adds: “This is a great example of how a business’s rapid response can limit the damage in a crisis situation. We’re dealing with thousands of flood claims from July, but this is one of the most fascinating in terms of the lessons that can be learned.”

Some creative thinking was also employed by M and M’s insurance broker Smart & Cook, which enlisted the help of a neighbouring potato farmer that it insured. Boxes normally used for shipping potatoes were used to remove damaged clothing stock from M and M’s premises which sped up the clean up operation.

It will leave many thinking why the industry doesn’t come together like this in times when there is no crisis.