In March 2017, Cyclone Debbie wreaked havoc in the Whitsundays and caught many local businesses off guard – particularly in the tourism and events sector. Several islands were forced to cease trading for up to a year while they repair damaged property, and companies servicing these venues are still suffering. Phillip Delangen, Partner at AVPartners, describes Cyclone Debbie as “the worst we’ve seen in the Whitsundays”. His business – a leading audiovisual outsourcing company – lost equipment and clients to Cyclone Debbie.

“I know other businesses who are really suffering because they didn’t have third party insurance. Malton Road Advisory set it up for us, which means if there’s a problem with one of our customers’ venues, we’re covered. It saved our bacon,”

When disaster strikes

AVPartners hires out state-of-the-art equipment to hotels around Australia. With 14 operations (nine in Queensland, three in Perth) it runs events in-house on behalf if its hotel clients.

Phillip lives on Hamilton Island, but the company also stores equipment in venues across the Whitsundays. Overall, one-third of its stock was damaged.

“When a disaster like Cyclone Debbie hits, you realise the importance of having a good insurance broker,” says Phillip, who first met James Fletcher, Managing Director of Malton Road Advisory, 10 years ago.

“I was originally recommended to James because he specialises in providing insurance to the events industry. This sector is unique because we’re at the mercy of global events, and there are so many insurance products to choose from. James has a good understanding of insurance products that are specialised for our industry.”

One of the AV Partners events spaces, newly refurbished after the cyclone

Cause and effect

“The biggest thing James does for me is explain the consequences of not having certain types of insurance. If he didn’t tell me these risks, I wouldn’t have a clue. I’ve always felt he sincerely wants to make sure I’m properly covered,” says Phillip.

Malton Road has brokered third party, property, overseas transit, public liability and worker’s compensation insurance on behalf of AVPartners. To help the company negotiate claims for loss of income and loss of equipment as a result of Cyclone Debbie, Malton Road has appointed an assessor to act on AVPartners’ behalf.

“I didn’t even know this was part of my policy, but having somebody who can help me make the right decisions and talk to the insurance company has been a big help.”

Thanks to an old-for-new replacement policy, damaged property will be replaced with brand new equipment.

“If our equipment were only replaced at value, I’d be out of pocket a lot of money,” says Philip.

Business as usual

AVPartners is now back on track to recoup losses suffered as a result of the cyclone.

“We had no revenue in April, but May is back to normal. It has been stressful because we did lose one-third of our gear, but the islands are gradually reopening more each day,” says Phillip.

“James continues to help me think about different scenarios to make sure we’re properly covered. His advice just makes sense.”