Loss adjuster Property & Casualty Services (PCS) has won a deal to handle specialist claims for retail giant Marks & Spencer's new household insurance scheme.
Under the deal, PCS's Pref-Con team will handle buildings claims working alongside its panel of contractor-partners.
The Marks & Spencer household insurance scheme was launched last month amid much fanfare. The product includes no excesses and no need to estimate the value of property and contents (unless a particular item costs more than £4,000).
Marks & Spencer personal lines insurance claims manager David Hiley said: “Our customers deserve a high-quality service and we believe that PCS will provide this.”
Both parties are being cagey about the level of claims that will be generated from the deal. PCS managing director Barry Woodward said: “That's an open-ended question.
“They only launched the product last month so they don't really know yet how many policies they are
going to sell.
“Any speculative figures would be confidential.”
Currently PCS works with a panel of around 40 contractors that are split geographically aound the country, while some claims handling firms work with panels of “thousands” of contractors.
Woodward said: “We are delighted at this appointment. When Pref-Con was first launched, we knew there was potential in the market to impress, but interest in recent months has been very high. Key factors were the creation of good IT support and the need to understand clearly the business dynamics of our clients.”
Woodward also said his company may be forced to increase the size of its panel of contractors if the Marks & Spencer deal proves a success.
“If Marks & Spencer takes off in the way we expect, we will have to add additional contractors.”
