January 2025 update

New Year starts with a bang

The start of 2025 has been busy! First we had New Year flooding, with heavy rainfall leaving thousands without power and no choice other than to evacuate their homes. Next came the snow, making flood recovery even more difficult as it melted in some areas and continued to fall in others. And then subzero temperatures, particularly across the north of the UK, exacerbated the situation for those affected by flooding, as well as posing new flood risks due to burst pipes. And now we are into a series of storms across the UK. Our staff, Revival licensees and Virtus surveyors have been coping with the workloads incredibly well, following our surge plans to deliver excellent results for our clients and their customers. To find out more about how we are manage such a high volume of work please read our article Surging Ahead.

We have been working hard to integrate our recent acquisition, The Cosmetic Repair Company, into the group and we are delighted with progress so far. To find out more about the services that CRC offers CLICK HERE.

And on 23rd January we held our fourth Annual Awards Lunch where we celebrated all the amazing work that our supply chains do, and handed out some awards to recognise the best performers. Full details are below.

MA Group Annual Awards Lunch

As in previous years, Chartered Accountant’s Hall was an amazing venue for our Awards and we were delighted to welcome so many clients, suppliers and colleagues to this beautiful building. Our host, Aaron James, was on top form (despite being a sleep-deprived new father).

Our guest speaker, Mary Portas OBE, delivered a fascinating fire-side chat with our David Shimwell about her incredible life and achievements. She came from a humble background in Watford and worked her way up from a Saturday job in John Lewis to Creative Director of Harvey Nichols before the age of 30. Mary’s story was inspiring for us all. She is now one of the UK’s foremost authorities on retail and brand communication and campaigns on ethical issues and sustainable retailing.

To see a video of the chat with Mary please CLICK HERE and photographs of the day can be viewed HERE.

MA Assist Supplier of the Year

Property Services SDS

Property Services SDS won the award for the first and second quarters of 2024. They are one of our longest serving and most reliable contractors and they go above-and-beyond with exemplary performance and outstanding customer care – as demonstrated by their professional handling of a sensitive case for our largest client, as showcased in one of our case studies.

They have had two claims where senior client staff have felt it appropriate to comment on their excellent performance.  They are helping out in other areas and are just generally engaged and doing some really good work. Well done to Chris and the team.

Special Project Award

Property Services SDS

Property Services SDS also won the Special Project Award for the amazing work they did on a fire claim for an elderly couple in their nineties who needed to be back at home quickly due to the husband’s deteriorating health. Within 24 hours of meeting the client on site, SDS’s team was working on the property and the customers were back in their home within three months.SDS demonstrated exceptional customer care as well as excellent workmanship and project management.

Virtus Surveyor of the Year

Ian Lancaster

Ian won the quarterly award in Q1 and Q3. He has attended and contributed to the training sessions we have been running and has been available for all claims assigned to him. Whenever we have a spike in claims Ian is ready to travel out of area to assist Virtus and continue to deliver his claims in his positive and helpful manner. Ian takes care to ensure customers are contacted and updated on his travel plans. Claim reports are returned with SLA, with detailed scope of works included.

Unfortuantely Ian couldn’t make it to the Awards (something to do with the weather!) so Marc Etchells, MA Group Supply Chain Director, accepted the award on his behalf.

Revival Licensee of the Year

Revival Strathclyde

Winners of the  award in the first quarter of 2024, Peter and the team are a 5-star branch demonstrating consistency, positivity and willingness. They also qualified as a Revival Select branch and have been smashing their drying duration targets, delivering an average of 11 days! Well done Strathclyde.

MA Group Employee of the Year

Lisa Nelson

This year Lisa has passed her final assessment to obtain the CMI Level 7 – Senior Leadership Programme qualification, and it shows in her work. She has received a lot of amazing feedback from clients’ staff, including a personal thank you from a large client’s Head of Claims who said  “I know how much effort you have put into the..account to ensure it was ready for expansion. I wanted to say a personal thank you … for all you do for us and our customers.”

Lisa has developed strong relationships with client and loss adjuster staff and manages her team incrediby well.

MA Group MAD Awards

Our November winner was James Tickner, Senior Quality and Resolver Officer – a vital role in maintaining the strong reputation our business holds.

Following his quick resolution of a complaint, one of our client’s Customer Relations Team had this to say:  “I must say MA have handled this complaint excellently! I’ve not had many complaints for MA and the odd one or two I have, you’ve handled the best.”

Excellent feedback and proof that James understands and operates by MA Group’s core values, a deserved winner.

Save the date

Our next event will be the Charity Golf Day and Dinner, which is being held on 12th June at The Oxfordshire Golf Club. For more information and to sign up please contact Sally-Ann Johnson.