Insurance for Hospitality Industry: Restaurants, Cafes & Pubs

In today’s competitive food and beverage industry, securing the right insurance for your café, pub, or restaurant is essential for protecting your investment and ensuring peace of mind. Whether you run a cosy tea room, a sleek restaurant, or a lively pub, understanding the specific needs of your establishment is crucial. This article will explore key factors to consider when insuring your business, especially regarding on-site catering.

When considering your Hospitality insurance, it's important to carefully evaluate any property with on-site catering and to have a clear understanding of the type of catering you provide. 

Café risks

While we use the term "Café," this category also includes Tea Rooms and Coffee Shops. The rating for these establishments can vary significantly, so providing accurate information is crucial for determining the appropriate rating. This depends largely on the level of cooking performed on the premises. For example, a coffee shop might only have a small oven to heat pastries or pies, while a tea room may have just a toaster for tea cakes. In contrast, a café could have a small deep-fat fryer or a more extensive frying range. Ultimately, the complexity and level of cooking you offer on-site will influence your policy rating.

Insuring Restaurants & Pubs

This also applies to restaurants and pubs, with the most significant question being the cooking that is done on the premises.  For example, a wet pub with only drink and snack sales and no working kitchen will be significantly lower than a full food-oriented pub with a full deep-fat frying range.

When there is cooking or food preparation on the premises, Insurers will often also ask for your Food Standards Rating, with a rating below 3 being unacceptable to some Insurers, as it gives a good indication of the premises' condition.

The two biggest causes of claims I have seen over the years for catering premises are fire and liability claims arising from food poisoning or allergy-related risks.

With regards to the fire aspect, there will be numerous conditions within the policy wording that you must adhere to, including but not limited to -

• Cleaning of Ductwork

• Operations of frying ranges

• Fire Extinguishing Equipment

• Fire Alarm  

Condition Precedents

It is therefore vital that you understand whether the conditions are a 'condition precedent' – condition precedent means that if this is not complied with, no claims will be paid out – and are vitally important should something happen.  Ducting is a fairly common cause of fire because it traps grease and fat that can later catch fire due to buildup. Therefore, insurers ask that this be cleaned regularly, with a full deep clean required at certain intervals.   

Frying ranges can also be a significant fire hazard due to the high level of oil, which is flammable and ideally requires an automatic shut-off if the oil exceeds a certain temperature. 

Fire Extinguishing, ANSUL fire protection, or a fire alarm helps manage the high likelihood of fire in any cooking area, and may also be required depending on the building's construction or the type of cooking equipment you have. 

Food poisoning or Allergy Claims are also quite common, and therefore, to minimise your risk, it is very important to ensure that you have written evidence of hygiene standards and clearly record when asking people if they have any allergies.  Due to allergies, you may need to designate a separate gluten-free food preparation area, etc.  Having clear protocols and procedures in place could mean the difference between an Insurer being able to defend a claim or not. 

Talk to Us about your Hospitality Insurance

We understand that the risks in the hospitality industry can feel somewhat overwhelming. The most essential step to success is to understand them and how you can protect your business. Having a broker looking after you means you get help deciphering the detailed terms and conditions, so you can avoid falling foul of what may be hidden within the Policy wording.