Of course, being on the ground floor, my friends business had been worst hit. On the other end was a very panicky office manager from the company that occupied the offices above my friends new premises (which are on the ground floor.There is never a good time to get news such as this, but it always seems to happen at the worst possible moment. The move had come about after three or four years of exceptional growth which had rendered the companys old premises too small.It is often the unexpected that shapes the future of a business.Of course, these things happen in both life and business from time to time.He reported that the fire brigade had called him in the middle of the night because they had been called out to the office after a passer-by had noticed water flowing out of the building from under the front door. Not only were the new premises bigger, they were also in a better location and much more smartly fitted out  a deliberate ploy to help impress potential new clients.

So the last thing he wanted to hear at 6am on Sunday was the phone ringing. A pipe had burst on the first floor of the building, probably some time the day before, and the steady flow of water for over hours had caused a substantial amount of damage. The only consolation was that the industrial racking  the most important piece of infrastructure in the building  had survived without any damage at all. Of course, the company whose pipe had burst were fully insured, but that was little compensation for the lost business while everything was cleaned up.In fact, the need for more storage space had been one of the biggest reasons for relocating the business and therefore the investment in new and improved industrial racking had been substantial.

Bizarrely, despite the fact that all his entire stock of electronics was in there, it was the industrial racking that first popped into his mind  just because so much had been invested in it only a few days earlier. But what made this particularly galling was that my friends company had only just moved to these premises. A friend of mine who owns a small electronics business found this out to his cost recently when a flood ruined his entire stock electrical equipment and water have never been particular good bedfellows. Having spent the previous week overseeing the move  in particular the construction and placement of tee joint pipe tube pipe fittings the industrial racking  my friend was looking forward to spending a weekend relaxing and recuperating, ready for the week of adjustment ahead in the new premises.

It also represented a huge financial investment, not only because the business had to be moved lock, stock and barrel to the other side of town, but also because a great deal was spent on new infrastructure, not least the aforementioned industrial racking. In fact, the flood damage was so bad that the only thing to survive was the industrial racking the company uses to store its equipment on. And it was a bold move, recognizing both where the company had come from and where it intended to go to.When my friend arrived he found that his entire stock was a write off.