Oval is delighted to have been appointed as insurance brokers to McMullen & Sons, an independent brewery running a chain of public houses in the London area and the South East.

The brewery was looking for a fresh approach to insurance and risk management, having been with their previous advisers for many years. Their needs covered the important and broad areas of service, insurance protection and price. McMullen contacted Oval after receiving a recommendation from another brewery, Everards.

Oval’s solution involved taking a detailed look at McMullen’s business needs by meeting senior managers within the company, in order to discover the most specific risks within the business. This business risk review allowed Oval to identify the key areas of risk and the various methods that McMullen employed to minimise such exposures. This enabled Oval to present the brewery’s detailed risk profile to a number of alternative insurers.

After reviewing McMullen’s business needs and company profile, Oval was able to find a new insurer and as a result, negotiate an improvement in the current level of insurance and reduce the brewery’s premium.

Areas of improvement included damage to buildings, architect’s and surveyor’s fees and cover for private dwelling houses.

“We were looking for a fresh approach to our risk and insurance needs and had heard good things about Oval so we invited them to review our requirements,” said Clive Butler, Company Secretary of McMullen & Sons. “The initial emphasis was not necessarily to reduce our costs and so we were very impressed that Oval’s proactive approach not only improved our cover, but also reduced our overall costs.”