The cost of repairing flood damage in two of her shops has led a small business owner to close one of her stores.
Moira McGlashan told the Evening Express that her Rustique homeware store in Invurie, Scotland was badly damaged, but her Crathes store was damaged even more severely by the flooding caused by torrential rain back in January.
As a result of the damage, and the loss of business income that resulted from being closed for six months, McGlashan made the difficult decision to close her Invurie store and put all her time and effort, and cash, into restoring the Crathes store.
It is vital for retailers and other small business owners to update their business insurance and business interruption insurance to avoid these kinds of losses.
Describing how the Crathes store was flooded, she told the newspaper: "The speed with which the water rose was beyond anything that anyone had witnessed before. The grim reality of what had happened dawned on me the following day."
This was the first of her stores to flood as a result of Storm Frank, only to be followed by flooding at her other shop. However, the real blow came when McGlashan realised her insurer had the "incorrect risk address".
She explained: "I now had to deal with endless phone calls to find out if I was even insured. Over the coming weeks, the shop was completely stripped back and industrial dehumidifiers installed, the estimated drying out time was given at three months.”
The Crathes store has recently reopened its doors, but the cost of being out of business for six months has taken its toll, McGlashan explained.
