The Incident

Date: 24^th April 2010

Incident Type: Fire

Scope of damage: Over 40 fire fighters & chemical team in attendance

The Consequences

Stock: Completely destroyed in warehouse

Fixtures & Fittings: Extensive damage to plant and machinery

Buildings: Significant damage to units that subsequently collapsed

Business Interruption: Potential for considerable trading disruption

The Team

Paul Lawrence – Partner, Harris Balcombe Chartered Loss Adjuster specialising in material damage with over 30 years' claims experience

Stewart Dymant – Partner and Chartered Accountant, Harris Balcombe, specialising in business interruption

Alan Hintz – Director and Chartered Surveyor, Harris Balcombe

Don Flynn, Harris Balcombe, specialist in policy wordings and machinery expert

The Outcome – Claim fully settled – August 2010

Interim payments negotiated to enable Watton Produce to sub-contract vital work, maintain order deliveries and retain customer goodwill.

Overall claim comprising all heads of loss: Plant, Contents, Stock, Computers and Business Interruption negotiated so that Watton could reinstate their business in a slightly different way to the original set up. Final settlement enabled:

Building work to be completed

Normal trading resumed

Teamwork In Action

A team was immediately assembled with all the disciplines needed to negotiate the claim settlement.

Watton Produce is a supplier of vegetables to major supermarket chains so maintaining supply to them was imperative. The damaged building units formed part of a series of interconnected steel portal framed buildings housing high-tech machinery and plant for vegetable processing. Asbestos roof sheeting and associated contamination problems in addition to the fire damage meant that no food production could be carried out from the site.

Using independent forensic scientists to determine the effects of the damage on the highly sensitive production equipment, we quickly demonstrated that the cleaning proposed by the insurer would be insufficient. We negotiated and obtained interim payments for the costs of sub-contracting the processing work. We also negotiated a theoretical sum during the course of the indemnity period within the overall settlement.

Stock, material damage and business interruption claims continued in parallel with the building claim. Two of the unit’s bays were demolished down to floor slab level and rebuilt. Other significant damage to the plant room, internal and external cladding and sheeting/roofing needed inspection reports to obtain agreement with insurers on the extent of repairs. A professional team project managed by us and including consulting structural engineers and quantity surveyors, was quickly put in place to manage the repairs.

Claims were also prepared to include a very detailed Loss of Gross Profit Claim for the full indemnity period.

Throughout our negotiations with the insurers we concentrated on all aspects of the claim. The interim payments we negotiated enabled Watton Produce to mitigate their losses and funded sub-contracting of orders to their customers.

The experience of the assembled claims team meant that a realistic and accurate quantum could be quickly negotiated with insurers and delivered as a cash settlement to the maximum benefit of Watton Produce and its customers.