9 Tips For Getting Cheaper Café, Takeaway, Restaurant or Pub Insurance
Anyone working in a hospitality business – a café, restaurant, club, takeaway, or pub – knows that the past few years have been tough. The pandemic created a number of problems, many of which are still with us today. A shortage of staff, the cost-of-living crisis, inflation, rising costs of ingredients, and a sharp increase in insurance quotes, have made trading difficult.
At Coversure Castle Donington we insure a large number of pubs, clubs, cafés, restaurants, takeaways, and bars and know a thing or two about getting cheaper insurance quotes. In this blog, we’ll share our top tips for getting cheaper café, takeaway, restaurant or pub insurance.
We hope you will find this useful, but if you’d like some help getting the insurance that’s right for you, please get in touch. You can call us on 01332 320540 or email Coversure Castle Donington.
How To Get Cheaper Hospitality Business Insurance
- Use an independent insurance broker – one that specialises in café, restaurant, takeaway, and pub insurance. Following the pandemic, some insurers have raised their premiums for hospitality businesses by as much as 20% according to a report from PWC. An independent insurance broker that specialises in takeaway, café, pub or restaurant insurance quotes, such as Coversure Castle Donington can access several insurers for you. This means that they will not only do the shopping around but can get you the specialist cover you need and ensure you don’t pay for policy elements you don’t need.
- Review your stock levels – when calculating your insurance quote, an insurer will take into consideration things like stock levels.While it’s tempting to stock up on things like wine, canned, and dry goods when inflation is rising, higher stock values can also lead to higher pub, restaurant, or café insurance quotes. Having a large amount of stock can also make you a target for thieves. The Financial Times reported in 2023 that thefts of things like meat and alcohol rose to record levels with over 1.1m incidents being reported.
- Get a policy that gives you stock flexibility– at certain times of the year, such as Christmas, Easter, and over the summer months you may need to increase your stock cover levels. As we’ve said above, you don’t want to max these out all year, so look for a policy that will give you flexible, temporary limits. We can offer you policies that have seasonal limits that allow you to add 25% more stock without adding to your insurance costs.
- Pay annually – while paying in instalments is convenient, it’s also likely to cost you more. Instalment payments usually involve a premium credit service provider who will charge you interest. With interest rates having risen sharply over the last 18 months, this has proved a costly service for many. So, pay upfront if you want a cheaper pub, restaurant, or café insurance quote.
- Secure your premises – as we have said, thefts are on the rise. Restaurants in particular are being targeted as cooking oil thefts have rocketed, but if you have a stock of wines and spirits, things that are easy to sell on, you’re more likely to be the victim of a break-in. Such incidents are not just bad for business in terms of disruption, making a claim will almost certainly push your insurance premiums up. Simple measures such as fitting extra locks, window locks, and web-based CCTV can all help deter thieves and reduce your chances of having to make a claim. They will also be looked upon favourably by insurers.
- Bundle policies together – as a restaurant, café, or pub owner, you face multiple and complex risks. In some cases, it can work out cheaper and easier to get a commercial combined insurance quote. Commercial combined insurance allows you to add multiple risks onto one policy. So, you could include your public liability, employers’ liability, stock, commercial premises, fixtures and fittings, and goods in transit – ideal if you’re making deliveries – to one policy. This could not only save you money but could also save you a lot of time. To find out more about commercial combined insurance, please follow this link commercial combined insurance.
- Conduct a risk assessment on your premises –running a hospitality business exposes you to several risks. Food preparation can lead to spills which can lead to accidents and employers’ liability claims. And if a customer gets food poisoning and brings action against you, you may need to claim on your public liability insurance. If you have a fire, a flood, or your freezer packs up and you can’t operate, then you may need to fall back on your business interruption cover. Showing you have considered these risks and have taken steps to reduce them can help reduce your insurance quotes.
- Improve your Food Standards Agency rating– your Food Standards Agency (FSA) rating can tell an insurer a lot about your business. Most insurers will insist on you having at least a 3-star rating, and getting a 4 or 5-star rating can help you get cheaper insurance quotes.
- Watch your entertainment –if you’re running a pub or a club you may want to offer live entertainment, be it a band, a DJ, or a comedy night. While these can be good for business, they do bring additional risks and most insurers will only cover you for two or three events per week. If you want to offer more, your premiums will likely rise or you may even find you can’t get cover. So, before you book Taylor’s Swift – the UK’s leading Taylor Swift tribute act – for a residency, get some insurance advice first or you may find yourself taking ‘1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back.’
Like some more hospitality insurance help?
We hope you will find this useful, but if you’d like some help getting the right insurance for you, please get in touch. You can call us on 01332 320540 or email Coversure Castle Donington.
