“The fire couldn’t have started at a better time, at 5pm,” said Siobhan Smyth, the general manager. “Although it was a really busy night, it meant we had a full management team on hand to deal with it.
“We were also used to running fire drills, so everybody knew what they had to do and how to evacuate and make sure everyone was accounted for. We had done our training and knew our procedures, so everything went like clockwork.”
The blaze at C&D Foods earlier this month brought back intense memories for Smyth, but, unlike the pet food factory and despite serious smoke damage, the hotel reopened for business after just 24 hours. “As a new hotel we felt that if we had to close for more than one night it would have been disastrous in terms of future wedding bookings,” said Smyth.
“There is such a thing as bad publicity and people who had booked with us were hearing about the fire on the news and were afraid, so we had a lot of reassuring to do.”
They also had a lot of cleaning up. “The fire brigade fought the flames during the night and by 9am the following morning all the staff and management turned up, grabbed mops and buckets and started cleaning,” said Smyth. “It took a tremendous team effort to get the hotel reopened the next day.”
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Having been through her own brush with fire, Smyth’s sympathies are very much with the management, staff and suppliers of C&D Foods.
“Having had the fire makes you all the more conscious that such things can happen,” she said. “You always hear sirens and think, ‘Isn’t that awful.’ Then, one day, they’re coming for you.”
While the Cavan Crystal was lucky, research indicates two out of five small firms that experience a serious incident go out of business within five years.
This may partly be explained by only an estimated 5% having any form of business continuity plan in place. One survey found that only 35% of small company managers were even familiar with the term, compared with 90% in large companies.
Although dramatic blazes grab the headlines, disasters come in all shapes and sizes, according to Michael Gallagher, the author of Business Continuity Management — How to Protect Your Company from Danger.
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“We are all vulnerable to a range of hazards that can have a severe impact on corporate resilience,” he said. “Power outages have caused huge problems in many countries and the rate at which climate change is taking place has serious implications.”
Gallagher is also chairman of the Irish branch of the Emergency Planning Society, with 150 members, including emergency planners, emergency services personnel, risk managers and business continuity practitioners.
“We have seen the disruption caused by the safeguards put in place to protect the country against foot and mouth disease,” said Gallagher. “An avian flu pandemic, a very real threat, would have much more serious implications for every aspect of life in the country, including business.”
His message to small firms? Be prepared.
“Business continuity management is about ensuring that if your organisation experiences a disaster or other serious incident you have already considered that possibility,” said Gallagher.
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“You will have taken steps to reduce the risk of it happening and to minimise the impact if it does happen. You will have a plan in place with which all key managers are familiar, which has been tested, and which will enable your organisation to continue to function as close to normal with the least disruption.
“Small firms should be conscious that even something such as a computer virus could have disastrous implications.”
Michael Conway, director of Renaissance Contingency Services, said the C&D factory fire should spur all businesses to consider their emergency plans.
“There is plenty they can do that is relatively inexpensive,” he said. “For a start, all IT should be backed up and held off site. It’s simple, but an awful lot of firms don’t do it.
“If you have key pieces of machinery or equipment you need to look at alternatives, such as developing reciprocal arrangements, possibly with competitors, in the event of an emergency.”
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Pooling the cost of emergency electricity generators should also be considered.
“A manufacturing company makes a product to satisfy a demand. It has to ensure it continues to satisfy that demand and how it might do this in the event of a disaster — and it needs to start looking into this now,” said Conway.
Expense is one of the main reasons small firms avoid contingency planning, but Conway said it need not be costly.
“You may, for example, need to supply your customer from your competitor at a loss, rather than lose the client. You may prefer to work with UK companies to do this,” he said.
“The problem is it’s hard to put a satisfactory arrangement in place when you are coming from behind, so planning is crucial.”
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Guaranteeing continuity of supply should be an integral part of your pitch for new business. Multinationals such as Wal-Mart insist suppliers have contingency supply plans in place, as well as evidence that they have been tested.
“What the C&D factory fire shows is just how important it is to have a second source of supply,” said Conway. “All businesses need to adopt a risk management approach.”
This approach might include engaging expert help to manage the insurance claim such as that offered by Balcombe, a claims management company.
“Insurance companies will appoint a loss adjuster to act for them, to look out for their interests. Our job is to look out for the interests of the claimant or policy holder,” said Diarmuid McNulty, Balcombe’s finance director.
Such companies present the insurance claim and undertake all the negotiations required to bring it to a resolution, for a fee based on a percentage of the claim.
Balcombe’s charges start at about 10% for claims up to €20,000 and reduce on a sliding scale thereafter.
In the event of an incident such as a fire, there are other benefits too, according to McNulty.
“At such times the loss adjusters will be straight in there asking questions about turnover and accounts, while the business owner is still trying to come to terms with what is happening. We can act as a buffer for the company director, ensuring such questions come through us,” he said.
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Aileen Eglinton of AE Consulting, a public relations company, said if the worst does happen, management’s first concern must be to address customer fears.
“It is okay to say you don’t yet have the full picture but are investigating it, but it’s important not to lie because the truth will come out in the end,” she said.
“The key is to keep employees fully informed and trained, particularly receptionists and staff who are the first line of call when people start ringing in to find out what’s going on.
“It’s very important that everybody knows exactly how the crisis is to be handled. What you don’t want is to scare customers unnecessarily.”
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