Risk management, are you prepared?

September 20th, 2017 • by Scott Newburge
Scott Newburge

Scott Newburge

Scott Newburge is, first and foremost, a passionate advocate for all things craft beer. He and his agency, The Feltner Group, bring 70+ years combined commercial property and casualty expertise to service their clients in the Central and Western NY region. Scott and his commercial team work with a number of area craft brewers, and in the process, have developed a strong knowledge of risk exposure and risk management in the brewery category. The people and products in the craft beer business are simply incredible, and the Feltner Group is proud to be a partner to the industry.

Whether you’re building your first brewery, expanding your existing operations or just keep trucking in your current facility, you likely encounter questions you don’t always have the answers to.  Whether you realize it or not, many of them probably pertain to risk management and controlling your losses.

If you’re in the planning and building phase, you may be asking yourself if you are properly protected from the risks of the build out and the contractors that are performing all the work?  Or maybe you’re contemplating what kind of boiler to invest in for your system and how to properly maintain it?  Let’s say you’re expanding and have decided to incorporate a larger food service side to the business, have the new servers you’ve hired been properly TIPS trained?  Does everyone on your staff know about proper food handling and food storage?  And if you’re just staying put, perhaps the questions are as simple as: Should I be batch coding, or, do I need a pest management program?

In short, there may not be a day that goes by where there isn’t an issue or concern that you need to get answers for.  Hopefully you have a trusted team of advisors, from your attorney to your insurance agent to other brewers and business owners to help shed light on these subjects.  Occasionally there are opportunities to get objective opinions from a knowledgeable third party.  And in fact, one such event is coming to Rochester in October, featuring the head of the craft beverage division of Cincinnati Insurance, Donald Seitz.  Space is limited, but anyone from the craft beer community in the state of New York is welcome to attend.  You can RSVP here, then bring all the questions you’ve got stored up and been meaning to ask.  Mr. Seitz is an incredible resource and after a brief presentation, will be available throughout the afternoon for Q & A.