Managing Director, Just Coffee Insurance
Ned Schepis grew up with coffee as his constant companion.
Ned comes from a Sicilian family which meant he “grew up having short blacks morning and night. I can remember as a young kid, my grandmother used to put the percolated coffee on the stove and I’d have some with her and my mother with a little sugar.”
Growing up drinking and loving coffee meant Ned had his ears open when a longstanding client came to him with an issue. The client had bought into the mobile coffee industry but couldn’t find insurance.
In his usual fashion, Ned started doing the hard yards. “I spent 12 months researching the mobile coffee insurance industry, finding out what was needed and what was not. At that stage I was unaware of any particular insurance designed for the mobile coffee market. So with this information and research, I designed a policy with benefits and features that would suit this particular market. Finding an insurance company that would do this became more dificult until one company finally understood the concept and came on board.”
The rest, as they say in the classics, is history and Just Coffee Insurance is now Australia’s number one supplier of insurance for the mobile coffee industry. Ned also now works with hundreds of cafes around the country to get them the right cover. But none of it would have happened without careful planning. “My research made me realise how big the industry really was, and that led me to register the name and set up Just Coffee Insurance to specialise in what the industry needed.”
Ned is understandably proud of the company’s high standing – a position built on the Just Coffee Insurance difference.
The policy wording, the definitions, the premiums and the excesses are all specifically tailored to the needs of those in the industry.
Yet all Ned’s research, experience and technical proficiency would be worth naught if it were not for his easygoing and affable nature. At Café Biz and other industry events, he is always at the centre of the action fielding flurries of questions from the keenest young beans. Indeed, most people are bowled over by Ned’s smile before they have even met him so it’s not surprising his childhood nickname was ‘Smiley’.
“They say that ‘a smile is worth a thousand words’ and I’ve seen that time and time again. Life’s better with a smile.”
Ned’s optimism and warmth are why so many people in the industry have such a fondness for him. “I really enjoy getting along and exhibiting at cafe industry events,” he says. “For me, events and exhibitions are where I learn so much as well as passing on my knowledge during seminars and while meeting people”.
Just Coffee Insurance can help all café and coffee businesses get the right cover.
Contact them by phoning 1300 605 061 or www.justcoffeeinsurance.com.au
