UK company feeds a nation

FROM FM GLOBAL'S 2020 ANNUAL REPORT

Choose a broker or go direct; it’s your choice

Determine your climate risks by location

Identify inherent business and supply chain risks

You’ve worked hard to build your business. Click the links below to learn how you can ensure its resilience.

LEARN MORE

PREMIER FOODS

FM Global quantified the risk and gave us a choice of whether to mitigate the risk or not. We enthusiastically executed the plan.

factory general manager, lifton, PREMIER FOODS

RACHEL MATHESON

Download PREMIER FOODS PROFILE

Collaboration around insurance has demonstrably improved with FM Global. A case in point is the company’s Lifton dairy facility, located in a floodplain in Devon, England. Paul worried that FM Global’s recommendations might cost a fortune, like a tall, permanent dam around the entire facility. Instead, engineers recommended what Paul calls “pragmatic and targeted protection”—adding rapid-deployment flood barriers and devising a rigorous emergency response plan. FM Global engineers backed up that recommendation with in-depth data, local information and predictive models.

“The collaboration and high-level communication we get makes a big difference to me,” says Rachel Matheson, Premier Foods factory general manager at Lifton. “Even though the site hadn’t experienced a flood, the data suggested the risk existed. FM Global quantified the risk and gave us a choice of whether to mitigate the risk or not. We enthusiastically executed the plan.”

Premier Foods is committed to making Lifton and all of its manufacturing properties highly protected risks, FM Global’s highest risk quality designation, which helps the company protect its brands and contain insurance costs. Premier worked with FM Global to craft a three-year, £10 million capital improvement plan linked to priorities across the nine U.K. plants. “It’s not just about the capital investment, though,” says Group Engineering Director Edward Robinson. “It’s making sure the capital works the day you need it.”

Initiatives include: • Improving fire protection across the board • Addressing cyber risks related to factory digitization • Quantifying climate-related financial risks to support new reporting regulations • Integrating FM Global Resilience Index data into its supply chain mapping software

These initiatives have emerged from the companies’ direct one-to-one insurer-client relationship. This framework provides new simplicity, transparency, accountability and control over the company’s cost of risk. Risk improvement is rewarded, and the teams speak candidly with one another from the site to the executive level. It makes for a solid partnership.

“Whether we’re dealing with insurance partners, suppliers or customers, we’re not all about the lowest cost of every opportunity,” says Gareth Pullan, head of procurement, corporate services and procurement governance. “We really focus on value, and we believe the best way to get that value is to have more meaningful relationships with fewer partners. This gives us the best return, not only for ourselves, but the other parties we work with.”

These parties include Premier Foods customers, partners, shareholders, employees—and, first and foremost, its consumers. Consumers depend on the company’s resilience to keep their pantries stocked with cherished Premier Foods brands as they experiment with their next delicious meal, wherever they’re enjoying it. And for the past two years, that’s usually been at home.

Nine factories, 13 brands, no margin for error

Improving resilience across the group

Premier Foods’ biggest concern during the pandemic was the safety of all its colleagues. Its second priority was to feed the nation, and the resultant increase in demand highlighted the concern of a lack of redundancy. Since each factory has many unique capabilities dedicated to specific Premier Foods brands, it would have been a crisis if any one of the factories suffered a major fire, storm or cyber attack. The impact of events like these could potentially harm the company's market share and reputation.

In the first half of 2020, as Premier’s long-term insurance contract with multiple carriers wound down, the company was eager for a change, looking to improve its risk quality, contain cost of risk, and try a new kind of insurer. They got one.

Amateur chefs are unearthing family recipes, experimenting with different cuisines, and making their dining rooms feel like cozy restaurants.

For Premier Foods, one of the United Kingdom’s largest food manufacturers, when consumers retreated to their homes, it fueled continuous, holiday-level demand for beloved products like its famous OXO stock cubes and Mr Kipling cakes. Five of the company’s nine U.K. factories ramped up to everyday, around-the-clock operation, including hiring workers that nonessential industries had furloughed. In addition to protecting these workers, the company’s mission was no less than feeding the nation. Its products are in 96% of U.K. homes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rekindled our love for dining at home.

With nine factories, each with many unique capabilities dedicated to specific Premier Foods brands, resilience isn’t a choice but a necessity for Premier Foods, one of the U.K.’s largest food manufacturers. Its products can be found in 96% of U.K. homes.

RESILIENCE REQUIRED

COMPANY

Premier Foods

CHALLENGES

Fire, storm and cyber risks

SOLUTIONS

Actionable risk improvement recommendations

IMPACT

Pantries across the U.K. will be stocked with cherished Premier Foods brands

Flood barriers

Improved fire protection

INDUSTRY

Food and beverage

LOCATION

United Kingdom

SIZE

4,000+ employees

9 factories

Valued Client Since...

2020

DELIVERY

Direct

UK company feeds a nation

PREMIER FOODS

FROM FM GLOBAL'S 2020 ANNUAL REPORT

FROM 2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Although peak demand is great for business, it strains operations. The need for resilience led to a new relationship with FM Global.

“FM Global doesn’t just say, ‘here’s the standard,’ and hand you a checklist of recommended changes,” says Operations Director Paul Thompson. “They go beyond the what and explain why you should make a specific improvement and how, and then they support you as you do it. Their recommendations are actionable. That approach is good for us, our shareholders, FM Global, and FM Global’s client/owners, of which we are now one.”

Client gains control over cost of risk

Business continuity

Managing risk/ controlling losses

Collaboration

Emergency response planning

FM Global Resilience Index

Contact FM Global

No other commercial property insurer shares a mutual interest in your business.

Connect with us

Premier Foods is one of the largest food manufacturers in the U.K. Its products can be found in 96% of U.K. homes.

VIDEO: Our Purpose: Enriching Life Through Food

Cookie Notice