The Redditch business cashing in on natural disasters

Oct 11 2010 by Adam Aspinall, Sunday Mercury

A BUSINESSMAN whose company made a fortune by cashing in on the swine and bird flu crises is now moving into flood defences.

And last night Simon Bumford, 34, said: ‘‘When people think of disasters, I want them to think of me.’’

The entrepreneur, from Redditch, Worcestershire, made ‘a killing’ from the swine flu outbreak in 2008 by selling facemasks to protect against the potentially-deadly virus.

He charged up to £300 per pack during the height of the worldwide panic, even though some medical experts claimed they were of no real use.

Two years earlier his firm, UK Survive, was banking up to £6,500 every day from the sale of avian bird flu ‘survival’ kits. Now the entrepreneur is charging worried homeowners £499 for a Flood Master Home Starter Pack. It includes items like door barriers, air brick covers and toilet plugs.

But last night Mr Bumford denied he was profiting from people’s misery. “I am not the disaster, but I am the service which will help you when one strikes,’’ he said.

“If people claim I am just cynically profiting from whatever disasters come along, I would argue that surely there has to be a service to cover those disasters and help people when they need it.

“It seems a good idea to move into climate change and flood defences because that is an issue which will hit close to home.”

Large parts of the Midlands, including Evesham in Worcester and Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, have been ravaged by floods in recent years.

The Starter Packs are available on the UK Survive website, but the businessman says his firm has also started selling door-to-door in Cumbria – where brave policeman Bill Barker died in floods last year.