ISS Restoration & Rainbow Scoop Major Industry Awards

PHOTO: Jamie Hutton, Complex and Major Loss Manager ISS Restoration and Jennie Mills, Managing Director Rainbow International Derbyshire with their awards

ISS Restoration and Rainbow International were celebrating this month after winning two highly prestigious awards at the British Damage Management Association (BDMA) conference.

The BDMA is the certifying body for damage management professionals, setting standards and providing training and accreditation for practitioners and other across the wider insurance industry who are involved in the recovery and restoration of damaged properties.

Jamie Hutton, Complex & Major Loss Manager receiving the Commercial Damage Management Project of the Year award

ISS Restoration won the Commercial Damage Management Project of the Year award for its Restoration at a major food manufacturing plant after devastation caused when Storm Desmond, Eva and Frank hit the UK. An absolutely mind boggling 39 million litres of flood water had submerged the ground floor of the factory, causing serious consequences to production.

After a structured recovery plan, ISS rapidly restored full production back to the manufacturing facility, decontaminating and sanitising production equipment and machinery, helping to minimise business interruption and losses. The project was executed working in a collaborative environment alongside the factory’s own engineers, the Loss Adjuster and Insurance company. ISS’ efforts were estimated to have saved the client tens of millions of pounds through effective restoration and decontamination.

The successful evening at the awards presentation proved to be even more remarkable when Katie Russell, from Rainbow International’s Derbyshire branch, won the Claims Practitioner of the Year award. This award is presented to the individual in the Damage Management industry who has demonstrated professionalism, application and recognition of client expectations in the context of property claims and is open to Accredited BDMA Claims Practitioners meeting the criteria.

Jennie Mills, Managing Director of Rainbow International Derbyshire, receiving the Claims Practitioner of the Year award on behalf of Katie Russell

In her short time at Rainbow, Katie has completed a Business Administrator Apprentice course with her local college. Her passion, commitments and drive also helped Katie to become the first person ever to receive the ‘Young Achiever of the Year’ award at the Rainbow International annual conference in 2017.

After completing her apprenticeship Katie was then nominated by her tutor to be put forward for ‘Apprentice of the Year’. Katie won the award out of 30,000 apprentices and was oneof just 15 individuals who were selected to receive an award at the House of Lords in London. Since then, Katie passed her BDMA Claims Practitioner exam and jumped straight into her Advanced Accountancy training.

Katie’s accolade was not only well received but richly deserved for an individual who shows so much commitment to learn and develop her career in the Damage Management industry.

Katie commented: “‘I’m really thrilled and honoured that I have received this accolade for not only myself and Rainbow Derbyshire, but also for the Rainbow network. I would like to thank everyone who made this possible and to the team at Head Office for their continued support. I joined the team at Rainbow Derbyshire in September 2015 at the age of 17, fresh out of college with no previous experience in the restoration industry. This year has been really successful for me with my achievements including winning The Young Achiever Award at our conference in February. I hope to prove that age has no barrier for achieving your goals and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store!”

ISS and Rainbow International’s evening provided further evidence of great success with he shortlisting in two additional categories: Linda McAuslan, Technical Operations Manager for Rainbow’s Glasgow East branch, and Connor Richards, of ISS Restoration were shortlisted in the Damage Management Technician of the Year and Young Achiever of the Year awards respectively.

A fantastic evening for ISS Restoration and Rainbow International, and many congratulations to all the winners and those shortlisted.