News Room
You may recall we reported, "Many hundreds of fish & chip shops and fast food outlets have recently been affected by the invalidation of their existing insurance arrangements "(Fish & Chips & Fast Food, June / July 2004).

It's nearing 12 months since almost 2000 fast food businesses lost their entire insurance premium. Plus, many who were unfortunate enough to have had a claim were forced to stand the loss themselves, in some cases they faced financial ruin (an average fire claim can cost in excess of £30,000).

SME Insurance Service came to the rescue of hundreds of businesses affected by Insureyourshop.com who placed cover through CIC Insurance (SA) based in Greece.

The Financial Services Authority became involved last January (2004) and instructed Insureyourshop.com to write to all policyholders alerting them that "they may not have effective or enforceable insurance cover and any such policyholders are strongly advised to make alternative arrangements with an authorised insurer as a matter of urgency".

SME Insurance has launched "TAKEOUT" a dedicated range of insurance products for Fish & Chip shops & the Fast Food industry, our great advantage is we are staffed by a team who have a good understanding of your industry.

Director Jason Gandy says, "We use a panel of household name insurance companies rather than just one in many cases unknown or unheard of insurance company. We are therefore far better placed to find not only the most competitive policy, but also the one that best covers the policyholder. If there's one lesson to be learnt from the Insureyourshop.com / CIC Insurance (SA)/(AVV) fiasco, it's that you should be extremely wary of very cheap quotations from insurance intermediaries or insurance companies you may never have heard of. TAKEOUT offers instant quotations without the need for lengthy proposal forms and can issue immediate cover over the telephone."