A bustling restaurant is what every restaurant owner likes to see but with that comes a certain level of responsibility. As a restaurant owner, you are not just responsible for serving great food because your establishment will be frequented by members of the public and of course, you will have staff. Therefore, restaurant insurance is an absolute must. It will protect your business, customers, employees, stock, money and a lot more.

There are different levels of cover available and every restaurant will have different requirements, so when you begin your search for cheap restaurant insurance, it helps to understand the different levels of cover and why you need them.

Types of liabilities

Employers’ Liability Insurance

If you employ staff then this insurance is mandatory under the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969.  This will cover anything from Chefs to cleaners and Waiting staff. As this insurance is a legal requirement, if you fail to have it in place you could face a significant fine of £2,500 per day for every day that you continue to trade without cover in place.

Public Liability Insurance

A restaurant carries significant risks when it comes to workplace injuries and accidents. When you consider that there are sharp utensils, flames, hot surfaces and slippery floors, there will always be a risk. While this insurance is not mandatory, as a restaurant you need to protect yourself, employees and customers when an incident or accident occurs. So, if you do need to take out employers’ liability insurance, you will be required to take out public liability insurance as the former cannot be put in place on its own.

This insurance will protect you from:

  • slips and trips
  • food poisoning
  • Injury from faulty goods such as broken chairs and more

Additional Coverage

Business Interruption Cover

This can form part of a restaurant insurance package and is designed to protect you from loss of earnings and other expenses should you be forced to close your restaurant as a result of fires or other events.

Building Insurance

If you own the property from which you run your business, there are a number of risks that could prove costly to you such as fire, flooding, vandalism and theft. All of this can set your business back, but this insurance is designed to help cover the costs of these.

Content Insurance

As a restaurant, you will have a lot of content held in your premises, much of which could be worth a significant amount such as computers, fixtures, fittings, kitchen equipment and stock. If a problem occurred with these items then the cost could result in a loss of earnings and that would cause problems for your business.

There are different levels of cover available and they are provided based on the risks your business faces and as a restaurant, you are exposed to a number of risks.

It might seem as though there are many insurance products for you to consider but ultimately, you will need employers’ liability insurance and public liability insurance. All other forms of insurance beyond these are down to your discretion but some of them should be considered a requirement because, without them, your restaurant could experience significant losses.