It was a pleasure and privilege for LMI Groups MD to present today to the senior management team of the Melbourne based Joval Group with a certificate confirming that they had reached the International Standard for Business Continuity.

Joval Group is a diversified company in several sectors including coffee and wine. With wine they are involved in brands such including including Shaw and Smith, Cloudy Bay, and Riedel. In coffee they are the Australian agent for Lavazza coffee and Lavazza expresso machines.

I know from having assisted businesses following major losses for over 40 years that businesses with a Business Continuity Plan recover more quickly from a crisis and most importantly of all have a much better chance of survival.

The major barrier for most SME’s is the cost of developing a plan. With this in mind LMI developed an on-line system LMI ContinuityCoach which allows a business to develop a fully compliant Business Continuity Management plan for less than $1,000 including GST.

Due to the complexity of the business Joval Group elected to engage the head of LMI Continuity Planning Division, John Worthington to develop a bespoke plan for all their divisions and locations.

During the acceptance speech the CFO at Joval stressed the professionalism of John and the way that he carefully explained the process to them as he worked his way through the development and testing of the plan.

With the Insurance Council of Australia, government, business groups, financiers, and suppliers and customers focusing on business resilience, the demand for business continuity planning is certainly increasing. If you or any of your clients require more information on this please contact your local LMI Office or visit http://www.continuitycoach.com/ .