Willis, XL and Faber launch product contamination insurance
Re/insurance broker Willis Group Holdings has partnered with XL Group, Willis’ Food and Drink and Faber Global teams to launch a product contamination insurance proposition.
Recall Shield, as it will be known, has been designed with the BRC Global Standards team, a provider of safety and quality standards programmes for the food and beverages sector, to encourage and reward higher standards within the food and beverage industry.
It is available exclusively to manufacturers that have attained an A or A+ grade against the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety across all of their sites.
Recall Shield includes added protection for companies through XL Group's product contamination insurance offering which includes 'Response XL', a pro-active crisis and risk management service delivered by retained, specialist consultants.
The exclusive scheme, via Willis and Faber Global, offers greater protection with enhanced coverage and a number of additional benefits, including: pre-incident consulting and training workshops from crisis management specialists, discounted premiums, free BRC training courses and free insurance protection audit from the Willis food and drink practice group.
Simon Bridgwater, Willis food and drink industry practice leader, said: "Improving safety standards in the industry has never been more important, and now businesses that demonstrate a safer environment can also be rewarded with comprehensive insurance coverage and competitive premiums. We hope this will encourage more companies to take protection against these potentially catastrophic events."
Mark Hutton, UK underwriting manager product recall, XL Group, added: "In the food and beverage industry, a product recall can be costly. There are the financial costs associated with replacing and destroying the stock, but also the loss of consumer confidence and resulting loss of shareholder value can prove far more costly. The rise of social media means that news of a recall can spread like wild fire so it is critical that companies have the right support in place. We understand this and wanted our clients to get more than financial risk transfer, so we developed Response XL which provides all our product recall clients with 24/7 access to our specialist crisis, risk and issues management consultants.
"Today, the solution created with Willis, Faber Global and the BRC, rewards companies that understand their risks and display the highest standards of safety with a really compelling insurance solution."
Mark Proctor, chief executive officer of BRC Global Standards, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with these leading global insurance and risk specialists to offer this exclusive product recall insurance to our A and A+ grade certificated manufacturing sites. We strongly believe Recall Shield will provide enhanced cover and encourage higher standards within food manufacturing."
