If you own a successful restaurant business, you don’t want to ruin it by not having the appropriate insurance cover in place.
This is because food establishments are more prone to dangers than many other businesses. You can’t control whether someone gets third-degree burns by spilling coffee on their lap. What if a grease fire caused by your deep fryer guts downs the place?
You never know if your food has made your clients sick? What if a customer slips on the wet floor only to break his ankle?
As a result, you may go through a spree of claims, expenses hassles and court cases, draining your financial bucket. A fire, customer injury or an employee lawsuit can shut down an otherwise successful restaurant.
That’s why having suitable restaurant business insurance is almost as important as your menu and location. It may safeguard your business against financial losses caused by injury or damage claims.
And here are some convincing reasons for that…
Kitchen Accidents and Fire Breakouts:
The Kitchen is the heart of your restaurant where you prepare delicious meals for your guests. At the same time, it can be the origin of horrible accidents such as fire breakouts and injuries.
A minor spark can lead to a huge fire breakout. Your kitchen staff can get injured while working with kitchen tools or hot liquids. This is exactly why you need key insurance types such as property damage insurance, business interruption coverage and worker’s compensation to financially protect yourself from such disasters.
Injuries to the Clients:
What if your new waiter spills hot soup on a customer? A customer may sue you for medical expenses and mental trauma for his or her injuries. Or someone can slip on your wet floor. In this scenario, having a public liability cover can protect you.
Food Poisoning:
While you take great care of your hygiene and do everything to keep foodborne illness at bay, customers can sue you on the grounds of food poisoning if they believe the food served by you has made them sick. Without suitable liability insurance, one food poisoning lawsuit can devastate you financially.
Equipment Breakdown:
Many restaurants rely on boilers, ovens, freezers, food warmers and refrigerators. This type of equipment is prone to damage or breakdown. Most of these machines are expensive. Equipment breakdown insurance becomes important in such scenarios.
Types of Business Insurance Your Restaurant Requires
Public Liability Insurance:
Public liability may cover legal fees, and damages for injuries caused by your restaurant’s business operations to guests or someone from the public (not employed by you) for third party damage to someone else’s property.
Product Liability Insurance:
Claims of foodborne illness caused by the food served by you can be expensive, and even if you are not liable, it may cost you a lot to defend yourself. Product liability can provide cover against such claims, associated legal costs and damages.
Building Cover:
Building insurance can cover the repairs or repair of your restaurant in case it is gutted by fire or storms.
Equipment Cover:
Machinery breakdown cover can pay for the repair or replacement cost of equipment like deep freezers, refrigerators, ovens and other equipment possessed by you – provided they are maintained correctly.
Business Interruption Cover:
Any accident such as fire breakout can force you to shut down your restaurant for an extended time. Business interruption cover can help pay wages for staff and on-going expenses such as rent.
Workers Compensation:
Workers compensation is a mandatory insurance in Australia. It covers the injuries and illness of your workers at the work.
Commercial Auto Insurance:
If your restaurant offers in -house delivery with your own vehicles, or you use vehicles to pick up supplies from local vendors ,you need commercial auto insurance to cover damages and theft.
Bottom Line:
While the process of purchasing insurance for your restaurant might seem intimidating and stressful, it is an important part of making sure that your food establishment is financially protected against a range of threats such as human error, fire and litigious clients.
Having suitable insurance in place will keep your business up and running in the face of a difficult time.
What do you think? Let us know by commenting below!
