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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
LONDON--U.K. retail giant The John Lewis Partnership said it is reviewing its risk management strategy--including its risk retention levels--after increased insurance costs dented its first-half profits.
In announcing a 22% drop in pretax first-half profits, to £33.7 million ($51.3 million), John Lewis blamed the decline, in part, on a doubling of its annual insurance bill in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Ian Alexander, the group's finance director, said that the company's insurance costs had jumped to £12 million ($18.3 million) from £6 million ($9.1 million) since the attacks, and he said that he feared "these sorts of increases would continue."
"We will have to look very carefully at the level of risk we are prepared to carry ourselves," Mr. Alexander noted.