Fire destroys chicken processing plant

Incident

A fire at a chicken processing plant caused extensive damage and wiped out the entire processing line. Operations were shut down, requiring relocation to alternative sites. The incident was significant enough to change the price of chicken nationwide.

Claim

The insured’s private equity owner demanded that no capital should be spent on reinstatement and that machinery damage (MD) and business interruption payments must keep pace with actual losses as incurred. Integra quantified the damage as work proceeded on fast-tracking reinstatement. As well as agreeing a scope of work, we managed and signed-off costs as incurred, while monitoring effects on the business and increased cost of work (ICOW). By attending most project control group meetings, our adjusting team kept all parties up to date with their positions and the MD /ICOW adjustment was made as planned costs were proposed.

Solution

The plant was returned to full production ahead of schedule. Adjustments were agreed as the works progressed and the insured eventually contributed 15% for improvements without debate. The business interruption claim was negotiated and settled, with progress payments made to maintain liquidity.