Cast your mind back to where you were a week before Christmas, probably tidying up your projects, sorting paperwork and looking forward to the holidays. Clive O’Brien, Managing Director of Neat Concepts was doing just that back in 2012.

Neat Concepts an MDF manufacturing company focussing on innovative panel products uses specialised machinery and supply distributors around the world. This particular machinery is integral to the running of their business.

So at 5pm on a Friday afternoon a glowing ember in a dust extraction system did it’s worst and burst into flames. Although the fire was put out relatively quickly the damage it caused was significant. Destroying one section of the factory and roof.

A late Friday afternoon phone call into Peter Dowlen at J Bennett & Son Insurance Brokers resulted in the claims adjuster and Peter visiting the site first thing the next day to assess the situation. Although the factory was due to be closed over the Christmas period they had to be up and running very quickly in the new year.  On 2nd of January they opened their doors having created a temporary solution as all the existing machinery couldn’t be run at the same time.  Staff worked all day and overnight shifts to fulfil the orders, not an easy thing to do in the cold winter.

Peter was able to liaise between Clive, the loss adjuster and the insurer (Aviva) and a full claim was made. With the complete redesign and rebuilding of the extraction system taking 3 to 4 months their fire claim of £250,000 was paid, as was the £200,000 for Business Interruption.

Clive said, “It was a pretty stressful time to say the least but having Peter on my side who was willing to go into battle for us was fantastic. You just don’t know how important it is to be given good sound advice and judgement when it comes to insurance until you have to make a big claim. If I had picked another broker I’m not convinced we would have had the same outcome.”

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