Senergy Insurance Summit Produces Positive Results

(August 23, 2000 - Jacksonville, FL)

Senergy held The Insurance Summit this week at its Jacksonville headquarters. The presentations and discussions among the multi-disciplined group confirmed that the perceptions Senergy has been working under are well founded. In addition the meeting made clear that contractors can indeed obtain general liability insurance today.

Senergy assembled a the team representing the EIFS industry including: AWCI Executive Vice President Steve Etkin; Bill Williams, an insurance broker and current President of the Florida Walls and Ceiling Contractors Association; Al Best, President of Prime South and President of the Carolina Lath and Plaster Contractors Association (CLAPCA); Charlie Smoak, Principal of Ace Stucco and Vice President of CLAPCA; and Clint Burton, President of Carolina Specialties, an EIFS distributor. Also participating were: vice presidents of the worldíss largest insurance brokerage; Mike Ailsworth, SKW Americas government affairs advisor; John Pendergast, the SKW Americas legal counsel; as well as five representatives of Senergyíss executive team. Bob Drury, Executive Director of the Northwest Walls and Ceiling Bureau, supported the meeting with information about initiatives undertaken by his association.

John Salvatore, President and CEO of Senergy stated, " We had a great meeting. We learned much more about each otheríss perspectives and the alternative strategies available to contractors. We are now in a better position to resolve these issues for our distributors and contractors."

"We learned that there are a number of factors unrelated to EIFS performance that are driving the exclusionary practices. It is widely believed in the insurance industry that insurance companies will likely increase all general liability premiums by 15-20% next year, whether EIFS are involved or not. This is simply due to the economics of their operations. And we also heard several participants confirm what we had already learned, that there are more progressive underwriters that have already figured out that this situation represents a window of opportunity for them to dramatically expand their contractor business," said Salvatore.

Regarding the initiatives the team is undertaking, Salvatore stressed, " We are pursuing an aggressive schedule that we are confident will produce a win-win solution benefiting contractors, insurance companies, builders, architects and owners. It is too early to project the final details of the resolution, but it appears obvious that education programs and water managed EIFS will play a part.