News

New dates - BELFOR event for Claims Managers and Loss-Adjuster!

BELFOR Technical Support has announced some more dates for the Loss Adjuster Training:

25./26. Januar 2011 Loss Adjuster Training German

27./28. Januar 2011 Loss Adjuster Training English

5./6. April 2011 Loss Adjuster Training German

7./8. April 2011 Loss Adjuster Training English

In a 2-day course BELFOR Technical Support in Ismaning impart valuable skills relating to the potential of restoration methods. For your announcement please use the link to the invitation letter or contact Daniela.Hoermann@belfor.com directly.

New Residential Operations Manager for BELFOR UK

We are pleased to announce the appointment of David Pace as the new Operations Manager at BELFOR-Relectronic (UK) Ltd. David takes over the operational reins from Neil McNaughton who will be leaving at the end of December. David will be responsible for all UK and Irish Residential Field Operations and the commercial and residential call centre.

Press Release - Residential Operations Manager

Claire Darnley

New Managing Director for BELFOR in the UK

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Taylor as the new Managing Director of BELFOR-Relectronic (UK) Ltd. Mark joins us with 20 years experience in and around the insurance industry having developed and delivered unique services during this time. He comes from a strong commercial restoration background and has a number of related industry qualifications.

Press Release New Managing Director UK

Claire Darnley

Solutions – a tower of strength

From the fundamental physical power of the universe and the destructive forces of nature, to the collective human capacity to withstand such energies, the latest edition of our customer magazine contains a variety of articles with the common theme of power. It is in this field that the strengths of BELFOR come to the fore, as highlighted in the country reports contained in this issue. You are sure to recognise parallels with your own business or discover new ways of using BELFOR's strengths even more effectively in pursuit of your goals. Enjoy reading the magazine – it will do you a power of good.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR Achieves BS 25999 Certification

For BELFOR, continued operations in the event of a disruption are paramount and we need to ensure that we can still deliver our services following any kind of event that may affect us. In order to achieve this, over the past twelve months BELFOR have been building up a robust business continuity management system, (BCMS) working towards achieving certification to BS 25999; the British Standard for business continuity.

BELFOR are pleased to announce that certification was achieved in August 2010!

Claire Darnley

BELFOR Commercial News

BELFOR have seen strong growth in their commercial and industrial restoration business in the last year, especially in the more technical restoration projects where depth of expertise is of particular importance. The recently completed restructure of all the field operations has resulted in a dedicated national resource of specialist and technical restoration expertise for commercial and industrial.

In addition to our core restoration capabilities BELFOR can also carry out contamination profiling of a property as part of the initial inspection and also full technical inspections as part of a claim investigation. Furthermore, through the integration afforded by our European training and R&D facilities our project managers are able to assemble multi-discipline teams of specialists familiar with similar restoration techniques.

This new force is aligned with the BELFOR teams in all the other countries across Europe therefore providing a formidable force of recovery expertise capable of dealing with events of any scale or complexity. Head of Operations Neil McNaughton comments “BELFOR is a truly global force in commercial and industrial restoration and this new approach harnesses the expertise and resources for clients in the UK with more focus and consistency of service delivery.”

Claire Darnley

BELFOR Event for Claims Managers and Loss Adjusters

"Knowing how to respond: loss mitigation with modern restoration procedures" is the subject of a programme of training events for Claims Managers and Loss Adjusters. It is a regular programme offered by BELFOR’s Technical Support Department in Ismaning, Germany. The seminars investigate the theory and fundamental principles of restoration work.

If you are interested in registering to attend, the next available seminar will be held in Germany on 20th & 21st of January 2011. For further information please contact daniela.hoermann(at)belfor.com.

Claire Darnley

Horsing around for charity

On Thursday 24th June, BELFOR will be taking part in RSA’s annual Pantomime Horse Derby at Goodwood race course. The event is held to raise money for charity and hopes to raise over £35,000 to help this year’s nominated charities which are ‘Action on Addition’ and Heart FM’s ‘Have a Heart Appeal’. BELFOR’s team has been limbering up and their 2 person pantomime horse is raring to go!

Claire Darnley

IIP Accreditation Renewal

BELFOR UK are pleased to announce that following a recent re-assessment BELFOR qualified for the renewal of its Investors In People accreditation. Over a period of 2 days, an independent assessor spent time talking to individuals from different areas of the business. The assessor gave positive feedback and was enthusiastic about the initiatives and policies in place, allowing the entire BELFOR UK operation to retain the IIP accreditation.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR Uses High Tech Solution

BELFOR UK has recently completed restoration works, following a factory fire, using BELFOR’s specialist technique, ultrasonic cleaning lines, this high tech method provided the perfect solution. BELFOR’s Ultrasonic Cleaning Line is the fastest and most effective method of cleaning and completely de-rusting machine parts.

Due to the scale of the work involved additional support was called upon from a team of DeHaDe specialists (BELFOR’s sister company based in Hamm.) DeHaDe specialise in large scale machinery recovery and refurbishment, and the boost in technical know-how on site for this complex restoration proved invaluable.

This method of restoration helped facilitate a more time and cost-effective restoration process. This was one of the very first jobs in the UK where this type and scale of technique has been successfully utilized and is a further demonstration of BELFOR’s cutting-edge processes and problem solving skills.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR USA Response in Chile

A team of BELFOR responders, many multi-lingual, were dispatched to Chile in mid-March to help Red Alert clients in the area with property damage mitigation efforts. Several retail and other commercial projects are under way, as well as a large volume of document recovery work – over a million cubic foot at the time of this writing. So far, seven commercial buildings have been shrink-wrapped to provide temporary roofing. Due to the volume of work, a permanent BELFOR Chile office is being established.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR fully accredited - ISO 9001

On March 19th 2010 BELFOR UK received accreditation of the ISO9001..2008 standard. The accreditation follows 18 months of preparation and the development of our quality management systems. The system has defined ‘best practice’ for the business, and sets out targets for continual improvement by measurement and performance.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR Shortlisted for Business Continuity Award

BELFOR UK have been shortlisted to win a ‘Business Continuity Award’ in the category of ‘Most effective recovery of the year’. The 3 finalists of this category will be judged and the winner announced at the CIR - Business Continuity Awards 2010. The award ceremony and gala dinner will be held in London on May 12th 2010 and hosted by comedian Ruby Wax.

Now in its twelfth year, the Business Continuity Awards recognise excellence within the field of business continuity and operational risk management. The awards present an excellent opportunity for organisations to gain the prestige and acknowledgement as being the leader in their field.

BELFOR’s award entry demonstrated an effective Document restoration following a substantial flooding.

Claire Darnley

RKH Response

BELFOR UK have recently finalised an agreement with R K Harrison Insurance Services Ltd, to provide a new response service called ‘RKH Response’. R K Harrison is one of UK’s leading insurance brokers and RKH Response is a new service providing R K Harrison clients with a comprehensive response service from BELFOR as part of their Insurance cover.

The service provides pre agreed response times following a physical disaster, the BELFOR personnel on site will complete an inspection and assessment of the damage and start any required mitigation works to lower the overall cost of the claim.

RKH Response is intended to be integrated into client’s business continuity planning arrangements in order to ensure the company’s recovery from any incident is as fast and effective as possible by providing an effective response team following a physically disruptive event.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR called to hospital building site

BELFOR were recently called to the building site of a hospital after a faulty heater caused extensive smoke damage to the new building during its final fit out. It was important that the building be returned to a pre-incident state as quickly as possible in order for the contractors to complete the work. The damage spread over 2 floors contaminating over 100 rooms, affecting the services, ducting, lights, cabling above ceiling level and also a 4 storey atrium. A Team of 22 technicians worked on the project which took just over a week to decontaminate, leaving the customer and insurer delighted with minimal disruption to the completion of the build.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR working alongside Darlington & Durham Fire Service

BELFOR know that it can be difficult for small businesses to recover following an incident if they do not receive the correct advice quickly and some don’t recover at all. That’s why BELFOR have recently agreed a referral arrangement with Darlington & Durham Fire Service whereby BELFOR will be on hand to provide Disaster Restoration Services and advice following any commercial fire or flooding incident attended by Darlington & Durham Fire & Rescue Service.

BELFOR will be providing an invaluable, no obligation ‘loss and mitigation service’ to SME’s following an incident, and fire crews are able to hand over the scene, knowing that there is a next stage happening for the business owner to help them on the road to recovery.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR’s 12 days of Christmas Charity Donation

Following BELFOR’s Christmas e-shot campaign – ‘BELFOR’s 12 days of Christmas’ – readers we given the opportunity to nominate a charity of their choice. One was selected at random to receive a charity donation from BELFOR and we are pleased to announce the winning charity is www.fivetalents.org.uk nominated by David Silcock of Groupama.

Five Talents is a charity fighting poverty, creating jobs and transforming lives in developing countries by supporting micro-finance - providing loan capital and training.

Claire Darnley

The Cold Snap!

Much like last year the bitterly cold January weather has again caused an exceptional increase in instructions for BELFOR. In the first two weeks of 2010 BELFOR received 659 residential claims and 123 commercial enquiries! The distribution of work shows that the worst affected areas were Scotland, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and London.

BELFOR committed extra resources to dealing with the influx of claims and the increase in telephone calls being received at the call centre. Operationally BELFOR committed to working seven day weeks to accelerate our response to claims.

Claire Darnley

BELFOR’s New Document Specialist

David Needham joined BELFOR at the end of 2009 as 'Document Manager' and is responsible for the project management of all domestic and commercial document restoration work carried out by BELFOR. This includes inspections, restoration proposals, management of onsite works and verification reporting.

David will be based at our specifically designed document recovery centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. If you would like more information about our document restoration services please contact us.

Claire Darnley