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Illinois Casualty Company, Rock Island, Illinois, has specialized in insurance protection (property, business income, liability – including non-owned automobile insurance for a known delivery exposure, liquor liability, workers compensation, and commercial umbrella) for the food and beverage industry since 1950. We are dedicated to serving the insurance needs of taverns, restaurants, package liquor stores, private clubs (VFWs, Elks, Eagles, etc.) and banquet facilities. Unlike other insurance companies that might write insurance protection for a variety of business types, our successes are directly dependent upon the successes of the food and beverage industry; therefore, our commitment is to the food and beverage industry.
We market and sell our products and services exclusively through independent insurance agents. We work diligently to establish true business partnerships with these agents, including conducting educational programs about the exposures to loss faced by the food and beverage industry. By educating and encouraging independent insurance agents as well as their clients to recognize the value of loss control measures, Illinois Casualty Company is able to enhance the effectiveness of these agents and reward our policyholders with premium discounts for good claims experience. Our success in this area is best demonstrated by the fact that ICC is currently the exclusively endorsed insurance carrier for both the Illinois and the Indiana Licensed Beverage Associations, where members can qualify for premium discounts of up to 20% on their liquor liability insurance.
Always consider the vintage. As a good wine improves with age, so does a good insurance company. Illinois Casualty Company’s stability is best demonstrated by more than 57 years of experience serving the food and beverage industry. ICC’s financial achievements result from our thorough working knowledge of the industry as well as consistency and balance in all of our business practices. Our sound organizational structure ensures superior operating performance; and our financial stability is firmly established. Illinois Casualty Company has secured more than sufficient reserve funds, has established an excellent reinsurance program, and maintains a high-quality investment portfolio. All of these qualities assure our loyal policyholders of considerable benefits, including sound underwriting and pricing, the ability to develop solutions, and a complete commitment to them as individuals and organizations. Our consistent rating of “Excellent” from A.M. Best, the noted authority on evaluation of insurance companies, further documents our strengths and stability.
We realize that dedication to the food and beverage industry also means being proactive. Our research and lobbying efforts are performed with the interests of present and future industry partners in mind. We are active members of industry organizations that promote the welfare of the food and beverage industry and are therefore well suited to respond to statutory and or regulatory changes that impact the business environment of those we serve.
We currently operate in Illinois, Iowa and Indiana. Effective January 1, 2008, we will begin offering our products and services in Minnesota. Our goal is quite simple – we want to provide insurance protection for one out of every four food and beverage establishments in the State. How? We must differentiate ourselves through our products, our processes and our people. At Illinois Casualty Company, service means catering to customers’ needs and expectations and offering tailored solutions. Customer service is not a department – it’s an attitude. Illinois Casualty Company’s value-added, client-focused service philosophy positions us as a premier partner to those in the food and beverage industry. We look forward to providing you with a no-obligation quotation for your business insurance needs.
For more information about Illinois Casualty Company, visit our web site at www.ilcasco.com or call our Marketing Department at 1-800-445-DRAM (3726).
60 Years Ago, Billy Flaherty Had a Great Idea!
After much experimentation, on November 1, 1947, Flaherty’s Tom & Jerry batter was introduced to the American public for retail sales to bars, grocery, and liquor stores. For the first time, you could have a Tom & Jerry in your home for the holidays without all the work of making it from scratch. Ever since then, Flaherty’s Tom & Jerry batter has always been the #1 choice of Tom & Jerry Connoisseurs for the holidays. To this day, the Flaherty family is proud to sell their traditional family recipe, which blends the finest natural ingredients, along with love and care for the tradition of the Tom & Jerry drink itself to you. For 6 decades Billy’s entrepreneurial spirit has been rewarded with popular acceptance for Flaherty’s original Tom & Jerry Batter and success for Flaherty’s Happy Tyme Company. In the meantime, the whole family got into the act to make it work. Billy’s wife Shirley was the original bookkeeper, taking care of the books and handling all those pesky financial transactions entrepreneurs hate to deal with. With family involvement, Billy expanded from serving only the Minneapolis/St. Paul area to a four state region within 5 years. Billy’s sons Denny, Gary, and Jay have been in the Tom & Jerry business from their pre-teen years to the present. Each boy has taken his turn riding with his father on his delivery route. Gary and Jay remember how Billy would stand in the customer’s doorway and using hand signals, tell the boys how many quarts of Tom & Jerry Batter needed to be retrieved and brought into the customer. One of a few truly generational family businesses in the Midwest, the Flaherty boys will be seen, as always this November through January, delivering Tom & Jerry Batter to stores, continuing the tradition Billy started in 1947. For many years, the Tom & Jerry was the most popular holiday drink in America of all time. They hit their peak of popularity in the 1940’s, ‘50’s, 60’s, and ‘70’s as Tom & Jerry parties popped up in homes and offices everywhere. In the 1980’s, they started disappearing from the holiday scene as people switched from drinking hard liquor to beer and wine. With the resurgence of traditional cocktails in recent years, Tom & Jerry’s are making a comeback as more and more people try this drink for the first time, thus helping to bring back a tradition that their grandparents and their grandparents’ families enjoyed for decades. Today, Flaherty’s original Tom & Jerry Batter is manufactured in 3 locations under strict family supervision. Over the years, changes in public tastes, trends, and public health rules have put 26 competitors out of business. Through it all the Flaherty family continues to produce a high quality, fully pasteurized product. The Flaherty family has been fully pasteurizing their Tom & Jerry Batter since 1961; investing in costly pasteurizing equipment while larger competitors tried to get by without further investments. In a recent interview, Denny Flaherty recalled several early efforts by his dad that propelled Tom & Jerry sales forward. In 1960, Billy became friends with Brother Timothy of San Francisco-based Christian Brothers Brandy, a close association developed. The promotion of Christian Brothers Brandy being used as the perfect brandy to make a Tom & Jerry benefited both Christian Brothers and Flaherty’s Happy Tyme Company. That promotion continues to this day. In 1980, a gentleman from Bacardi Rum by the name of Marty Coyne was instrumental in getting the folks at Bacardi Rum to cross-promote Flaherty’s Tom & Jerry Batter and Hot Buttered Rum Mix along with their world-famous Bacardi Dark Rum. That relationship also exists still today. Denny also recounted how his dad, being a true promoter, contacted Hugh Hefner’s Playboy organization and had Playboy Bunnies handing out free samples of Flaherty’s Tom & Jerry drinks at the 1963 International Food Show in Chicago. Other than Billy almost ending up in divorce court over hiring the Bunnies, 3 weeks later, in November of 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the promotion fell flat due to the dark mood of the country. During the past 60 years more than 5 million quarts of Flaherty’s Tom & Jerry Batter have been manufactured and sold. Billy Flaherty’s idea has come a long way from selling his homemade recipe from the back of a beat-up old station wagon. Today Flaherty’s Tom & Jerry Batter is stocked in fine liquor retailers and grocery stores in a 10 state area and is still the number one choice of Minnesotans. Eighteen years ago, Denny and his wife Joy, took the family business in new directions. In addition to the core business of Tom & Jerry Batter, they added a gourmet food and candy division. Since adding that division, Flaherty’s Happy Tyme Company now has 34 products including 18 gourmet candies which features Joy’s Olde English Toffee. Other items available include goodies such as Aunt Edna’s Caramels, Mrs. Flaherty’s Fudge, and Irish Tea Cakes. Also included are hot drink mixes such as Hot Spiced Wine Mix, Egg Nog Mix, Hot Buttered Rum Mix, Hot Brandy Batter, and Pine Mountain Simmering Spices and are available everywhere through a mail order catalog, on their web site at www.flahertyscandy.com, or by calling 1-800-331-7337.
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On a cold and snowy November day in 1947, Billy Flaherty is hard at work in the kitchen of a relative’s St. Paul restaurant where he is finalizing the trial and error perfection of his family’s Tom & Jerry recipe. The recipe was brought over by the Flaherty family from Ireland in 1927 and for years, Billy’s mom and dad enjoyed making Tom & Jerry batter at home to serve for the holidays. Billy, being an entrepreneur, was determined to perfect and package the decades-old family Tom & Jerry recipe to sell this traditional holiday drink.