The on-line retail clothing company Asos has commenced taking orders again after it suspended trading following a fire at its main warehouse in Yorkshire. The fire is being treated as arson by police. Asos closed its website temporarily on Friday and reopened it at 2am today (Monday 23rd June 2014).

In a statement issued by Asos below, they advised the fire had affected about 20% of the stock held at the site. Their warehouse located in Barnsley is the firm’s major global distribution centre and the firm said about 70% of its total stock of £159m was held at the site. They also advised said none of the technology, automation or structure of the building had been affected by the fire. “We are fully insured for loss of stock and business interruption,” the firm said in a statement.

This follows another incident in 2005, where its Hemel Hempstead warehouse was damaged by explosions at the Buncefield fuel depot, so the firm would be well aware of the importance of business interruption insurance. For a firm like Asos, they would look carefully at their portfolio of policies bought – cheap business insurance would not be a critical factor in the decision making process. Careful attention would be made to look at disaster recovery and assistance with insurer partners in delivering carefully orchestrated press releases to minimise the impact of such a loss. Most small businesses would and can realistically rely on cheap shop insurance policies that are packaged as they represent value, still cover the core perils that business owners are looking for (fire, theft and flood) and resultant loss of revenue (as a result of an insured loss.)

Asos Statement in Full:

“At 50pm on Friday 20th June a fire broke out in our Barnsley Distribution Centre. A full evacuation was conducted successfully. Thanks to swift action by our team at the site, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and our security systems, we are very grateful there were no injuries. Barnsley is the centre of our distribution capability and in order not to disappoint our customers we subsequently suspended taking orders. At 31st May 2014 the business held £159m of stock at cost, of which around 70% is held at Barnsley.
None of the technology, automation or structure of the building has been affected by the fire. Our initial estimate is that approximately 20% of the total stock at the site has been compromised by fire damage and the sprinkler systems. The clean-up process commenced on Saturday morning and progressed quickly. Consequently at 2am this morning we recommenced taking orders. We are fully insured for loss of stock and business interruption.
We have been advised by the South Yorkshire Police that after initial investigations, they are treating the incident as deliberate and have commenced a criminal enquiry. We are cooperating fully with this investigation.”