PriceSmart

“Lockton helps us face hurricanes and earthquakes with creative insurance coverage.”

PriceSmart currently has 23 membership warehouse clubs operating in 11 countries in Central America and the Caribbean—all in high-risk areas for natural disasters such as flooding, hurricanes and earthquakes. “We are committed to bringing members low prices on high-quality brand-name US and local merchandise, but we can’t do that without managing all that risk. No one carrier is able to underwrite it all,” says John Heffner, PriceSmart’s Chief Financial Officer. “Lockton brought us a compelling proposal that solved our problems.” Lockton restructured PriceSmart’s international property and casualty coverage and instituted approaches for loss prevention, claims and risk management. “Lockton put together a complex program for us with multiple carriers. This allowed them to share the risk so that it delivers significant cost savings to us with improved coverage terms.” Each country in Central America and the Caribbean has a different insurance market with varying rules, regulations, employment laws, tax and legal frameworks. “We need one-stop insurance shopping. Lockton simplifies our lives with centralized claims monitoring, reporting and handling service as well as directors’ and officers’ liability, domestic property and casualty insurance and employee benefits. All the claims, whether from someone slipping and falling in one of our warehouse clubs to damage from a named hurricane, go to Lockton and they report to us in a simplified way.” Lockton also started a strategic loss prevention initiative that helps PriceSmart monitor and reduce incidents that help minimize risk and lower premiums. “Since being engaged in 2003, Lockton has helped us secure successively better insurance coverage both in terms of coverage and costs. This illustrates their understanding of our business and our objectives and their ability to consistently deliver value to our members and our shareholders.“