InsureTV features Airmic special interest groups

Scott Feltham, Group Insurance Manager at Compass Group, is also co-chair of the Food & Drink SIG.  He told InsureTV that his company was one of the hardest hit in the FTSE 100 during the pandemic and he felt the impact on the sector more broadly was “completely unprecedent”.

“It’s fair to say that the hospitality sector was one of the hardest hit,” he added, but was pleased to report Compass Group was back trading close to its 2019 levels.

Scott said the value of the Food & Drink SIG is the peer-to-peer discussion, understanding what peers are doing, how they are navigating certain risks and using insurance products.

Looking ahead to the risks facing hospitality companies in 2022 and beyond, Scott added that increasingly the risks front of mind are non-property and non-damage business interruption.

“Property damage is but one trigger that can have an impact on operations,” he explained. “There is a huge range of non-damage business interruption risks that could have an impact on our ability to operate. If I take Hong Kong, back in 2019, with civil unrest we couldn’t get access to our premises, neither could our consumers or clients.

“I had a phone call from colleagues asking if they could access the PDBI (property damage & business interruption) insurance, but I had to ask ‘is there any damage?’. They said no, so we couldn’t access the insurance. For me that’s not good enough, I want insurance to be an enabler that supports our business endeavours.

“So we have introduced some non-damage business interruption cover and a lot of that is ceded to our captive.”

Speaking to InsureTV in advance of the Annual Conference in Liverpool Julia Graham, CEO of Airmic, discussed shifting insurance buying patterns of UK businesses in the face of the Russia/Ukraine conflict, the less obvious trends driving an increase in the use of captives and why the London market shouldn't take its foot off the pedal when it comes to technology innovation.

Julia is also an active member of the Captive SIG and sits on four captive boards in Guernsey. She told InsureTV there is no one-size-fits-all approach to how captives are utilised by companies.

“Some of the captives now that exist are really quite significant in terms of the capital value that they are looking after,” Julia said.

“There are sectors that are looking at captives who haven’t looked at them before. Organisations who have classes of cover that they think are particularly vulnerable to the softness and hardening of the insurance market and there are some who are using their captive for covers that the market just do not want to write anymore and it really is a needs must.”

You can watch all InsureTV interviews, including the videos recorded at Airmic here.