Takeaway insurance – why your cover needs to be watertight
If you own a takeaway or are thinking of buying one, you’ll need to consider a range of takeaway insurance options. These will help protect your business from unexpected losses. With all that hot fat and heat in the kitchen, one of the most obvious hazards to your business is fire. But that’s not the only threat you need to bear in mind. It pays to consider all eventualities when getting your next takeaway insurance quote.
Insuring against health and safety negligence
New sentencing guidelines for health and safety, corporate manslaughter, food safety and hygiene offences came into force in February 2016. These guidelines link fine values to the turnover of your business. You can see an increase in the cost of fines for almost every business, with fines reaching up to £10 million. Public liability and Employer’s liability insurance can both help protect your business from these claims.
Protect yourself from customer claims
Public liability insurance is an essential for any catering business. This can help cover legal fees and pay-outs if a case of food-poisoning is linked to your business as a result of your negligence. Or have you ever stopped to think what could happen if a customer suffers from an allergic reaction and you’d failed to warn them of potential danger? The recent case of Paul Wilson, who died after eating a curry contaminated with peanuts is one such example. It raises a stark warning to catering businesses of what can happen if labelling is not clear. The rise of personal injury lawyers and increased consumer empowerment means that your customers are quick to sue. If customers ever think they have a case, it always pays to make sure your takeaway insurance cover is comprehensive.
Don’t risk fines of up to £2,500 a day
If your business employs staff then employer’s liability insurance will cover you against injury or illness as a result of their employment. It’s an essential must-have for your fast-food business. Even if your staff are only part-time or sub-contracted you can be fined up to £2,500 a day if you don’t have cover. You should be insured for at least £5 million, but carefully consider your risks to decide if you need to purchase more cover.
Take a look at the guidance from the Health and Safety Executive for more information. This insurance can protect you from claims arising from health and safety negligence. It can also be used to defend you against other claims such as discrimination or unfair dismissal.
Personal injury
Are you at the heart of your businesses success? How would your business cope without you? If you are unable to work for a time because of an accident, personal injury insurance will cover the loss. That way your business won’t fold just because you can’t be there.
Consider all your assets
Your assets can be defined as the place where you carry out your business. This includes your restaurant building or food preparation area, as well as any other things your business uses such as cooking equipment, furniture and fixings like tables and chairs, electronic equipment such as your till, and any vehicle used for the business. Things like stock – the ingredients you use to make your food – can also be costly to replace and should be included in your list of assets.
Sit down and work out exactly how much it would cost to replace everything in the event of fire, damage or theft. Don’t be tempted to under value items to skimp on premiums. If you don’t allow enough cover with your takeaway insurance you could be stuck, unable to rebuild your business if something unfortunate does happen.
Violence
Headlines frequently report violence in takeaway outlets, and fast food restaurants often feature on police lists of known trouble hotspots. Making sure your insurance covers you for damage caused by fights and violence is essential.
Business interruption
Check that your insurance also covers you for loss of profits if your business has to close for a time following fire or flood. At Park Insurance, we offer a 1-2-1 service to get claims processed as quickly as possible with the minimum hassle because we know being closed for any period of time can have a potentially disastrous impact on balancing the books, but adding cover for the loss of profits can help protect you even further.
Cost-effective cover
Our specialist fast food business team at Park Insurance has been helping businesses like yours for over 20 years and can talk through all the options to make sure you don’t leave anything out or include cover that you don’t need.
We have excellent relationships with catering insurance providers, so we can negotiate the best deal available for you to make sure you’re protected, whatever happens.
Click here for your free, no obligation takeaway insurance quote.