Insurance for cafés Insurance for cafés

Customisable insurance for cafés — both licenced and not. Order the right covers for your business off our menu, only ever paying for what you actually need.

Be quote confident. We'll beat the price of any like-for-like quote. T&Cs apply.

Standard covers for cafés

Build yourself a policy that protects your café business from a range of risks, so you can focus on keeping your customers caffinated.

You'll start with public liability cover, and a £2,500 minimum worth of contents and stock cover. The rest is up to you.

Standard covers and limits include:

Public liability – £1m, £2m or £5m
Contents – £1.5m
Stock – £1.5m
Employers' liability – £10m
Loss of licence – £100,000
Business interruption – £1.5m

What insurance do I need for cafés?

Start with public liability, contents and stock insurance (and get just that), or customise your policy to cover additional risks. Always check your quote and policy documents for full details around exclusions, terms and limits of your cover.

Public liability insurance

Public liability insurance is a common cover for businesses that involve contact with members of the public.

Whether it's a slip on a spilled coffee or a tumble from a loose floor mat, everyday moments can sometimes lead to unexpected accidents.

Public liability insurance is designed to cover claims made against you by members of the public for property damage and accidental bodily injury, illness, disease or even death as a result of your work.

Stock cover

For cafés, stock is more than just ingredients — it's the reason you have regulars. That’s why we offer two types of stock cover to help keep things running smoothly.

Deterioration of stock covers for loss or spoilage of refrigerated items if your fridge or freezer breaks down.

General stock cover gives you extra protection for everything from dry goods and fresh produce to bottled drinks and packaged items. When you start your quote, you'll be asked to choose the amount of cover based on the value of your stock. This cover includes key risks like fire, flood and theft, and your premium is based on the limit you select.

Contents cover

This is designed to cover items such as furniture, TVs, freezers or cookers, owned or leased by you at this premises against accidental or malicious damage.

Business contents insurance can cover items like tables, chairs or state of the art coffee machines, and pretty much all other stuff in, on or around your premises that you own or are responsible for, including your crockery, silverware and glassware.

Employers' liability insurance

Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement for most employers in the UK. If you have staff — whether part-time, full-time, permanent, temporary or apprentices — you may have a legal obligation to have this insurance and have an employers' liability insurance certificate to prove it.

Not having it can result in a fine of up to £2,500 per day for each uninsured day.

From a scald from an espresso maker to a splash of oil from a deep fat fryer, our employers' liability cover offers a £10 million limit as standard. It also includes 50 days’ cover for temporary employees, who do not need to be registered with us, each year.

Buildings insurance and tenants' improvements

If you own the building your café operates from, we can provide cover, with adjustable limits depending on your needs. It's designed to cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding the property, fences and gates if they're damaged by fire, flood, theft or water damage, for example.

For those leasing, you may have made some changes to the space, from structural, permanent to a little cosmetic spruce up to make your place fit for purpose. Tenants' improvements is designed to cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding any alterations or renovations you've made to your rented premises if they are damaged by, for example, fire, flood, theft or water damage.

You can also add rent payable if you're unable to trade due to this damage.

Business interruption

Business interruption insurance can reimburse your lost income for up to 18 months following damage to your premises.

It can also cover the additional costs you might face to get your business up and running again. This is only available with buildings, contents or stock cover.

Equipment insurance

From everyday work essentials, like point-of-sale PDAs, laptops and phones, to specialist kit, all the portable electronic tools you need to perform your job could be protected under business equipment insurance, giving you peace of mind, knowing the items you rely on are covered.

For cafés that serve alcohol

For cafés that serve Irish coffee or whiskey on the rocks, you can include loss of licence cover.

This insurance is designed to protect businesses that sell alcohol if their licence is suspended, withdrawn or forfeited. It can also cover the costs of appealing or getting the licence reinstated, but we'll need to be notified if you've lost licence for this to be a valid claim.

Additional covers

We also offer a collection of other covers to boost your policy and give you the perfect protection.

Terrorism

Designed to cover your repair costs for damage to your property and your financial losses in the event of an act of terrorism, which would not otherwise be an insurable event.

Money

If you keep money at your premises during business hours, or you take it to the bank to deposit it, you could be at higher risk. Money and personal accident cover could cover your losses.

Loss of licence

For cafés that serve alcohol, you can add loss of licence cover, which can support you if your licence is suspended, withdrawn or forfeited.

Deep fat fyers

If you've got a deep fat fryer on site, we can cover a capacity for up to 20 litres.

One-off events

If you host live music or have extra space for bigger events and functions, we could cover these too.

Once you've completed a quote, you'll be able to view a summary of cover. Please always refer to your policy documents for full details around exclusions, terms and limits of your customised cover. Read our guide to understanding your policy documents.

Be quote confident

We're big on fairness. So if you find a lower price for a comparable quote, we won't just match it — we'll go one better and beat it.

So even better than apples to apples, apples to better apples. We're talking Galas to Braeburns.

As you'd expect, T&Cs apply.

Café insurance claims examples

There are different types of insurance claim that a café may have to make, so, depending on the policies you've selected, here are a few examples of specific claims that would be covered by Superscript’s customisable policy:

Flood damage

A burst water pipe causes damage to the tables and chairs in your café. Contents insurance should help you repare the damage and get back on your feet.

Slippery floors

A café patron slips on a wet floor and injures themselves, even though you put a sign down. Without public liability cover, you could face having to pay legal and compensation costs.

Unsafe equipment

A member of your café staff scalds themselvels on a faulty espresso machine. If a claim is made against you, employers' liability should cover this.

Stolen stock

A robber breaks into your café's stock room and steals items from your stock inventory, including expensive alcohol as well as some of your employees' personal belongings. Stock cover should pay for the replacement of items stolen during a robbery.

How do insurance claims work for café businesses?

The below is a good guide to the process and timescales you can expect when you need to make a claim under your policy.

If you’re ever unsure whether you can or should claim, it’s best to get in touch and we can let you know.

Notify us of the claim

Contact us by email at claims@gosuperscript.com, by 24/7 freephone on 0800 772 3059 or by logging in to your customer portal.

Ideally this should be done as soon as possible and within 30 days of you becoming aware of anything which you think may be covered by your insurance.

A good indicator of whether or not to let us know is if there’s an issue which may require a payment to be made on your behalf.

We'll get on the case

We’ll acknowledge your claim within 24 hours, and sometimes in as little as 30 minutes! This means you’ll receive email confirmation of your claims reference and contact information should you need to speak to us.

We will then reach out to you within 48 hours to request any extra information we need to progress your claim.

We’ll keep you updated on the next steps as the claim progresses.

A decision is made

We’ll let you know if your claim is successful or not. If your claim isn’t covered, we will always try to point you in the right direction and support you as best we can in getting back to normal.

Read about the most common reasons claims aren't paid.

If your claim is successful, once we have all the documents we need, we will aim to settle claims such as accidental damage, theft and lost equipment within five working days.

Café insurance FAQs

How much does café insurance cost?

This depends on the level and types of cover you choose for your business.

Public liability cover is often considered important, but it's not a legal requirement. Most café businesses will, however, be required to hold employers' liability cover.

Depending on the size of the café, you may wish to also consider other covers, including:

What insurance do cafés need?

Most business insurance is optional rather than mandatory. An exception to this is employers' liability cover, which is a legal requirement for most businesses with employees.

Despite this, the majority of businesses that have lots of contact with customers consider public liability important, as many would be unable to afford an uninsured claim.

How much cover do I need?

When working out how much cover you need, it's worth calculating how much it would be to cover the costs associated with various claims and choose the level of insurance that would cover this.

The associated costs will be different for various claims and could include compensation, repairing or replacing items and rebuilding property, which also includes builders' fees, materials, surveryors' fees and debris removal.

What does public liability insurance cover for cafés?

If a customer injured themselves after tripping on some loose carpet, or if their white coat got coffee spilled down it after a member of your staff accidentally mispoured, for example, public liability insurance should cover this.

Can I cover my cafés' alcohol licence?

For those who serve Irish coffee or whiskey on the rocks, we can include loss of licence cover.

This cover is designed to protect businesses that sell alcohol if their licence is suspended, withdrawn or forfeited.

It can also cover the costs of appealing or getting the licence reinstated, but we'll need to be notified if you've lost licence for this to be a valid claim.

Can I insure my café for special, one-off events?

Yes, Superscript can arrange specialist insurance to cover one-off events either hosted at, or promoted by your café business.

What excess would I need to pay?

This will vary depending on the nature of your claim and what it says in your policy documents. For example, the excess on a public liability claim for third-party property damage could be £500 (bodily injury incurs no excess), while the excess on a theft of money by an employee could be £75.

Always check your policy documents for full details around exclusions, terms and limits of your customised cover.

Anything else I should know about this cover?

There are some limitations to this cover and, sadly, we won't be able to offer you insurance, if you:

Have deep fat fryers over 20 litres
Serve food for over 150 covers
Have more than 49 employees
Have a turnover of over £5m

Individual cover purchased online is offered on a standardised, non-advised basis and is not bespoke. Terms, conditions and coverage limits are predetermined by the Underwriter. If you require bespoke coverage offered on an advised basis, please contact our in-house broking team.

Authorised by the FCA

The FCA supervises UK financial services firms to protect consumers. We are directly authorised and regulated by the FCA and our Firm Reference Number is 656459. These details can be confirmed on the Financial Services Register at www.fca.org.uk or by calling the FCA on 0845 606 1234.

A-rated financial strength

Our insurance products are underwritten by Standard & Poor’s A-rated financial strength or higher. This means the underwriter has been independently assessed by the world’s leading credit rating provider and found to have a strong capacity to meet financial commitments (pay claims).

Protected by the FSCS

If you are a business with an annual turnover under £1m, charity with an annual income under £1m, or trust with net assets under £1m, then you will be entitled to compensation from the FSCS in the unlikely event we cannot meet our obligations. Full details and further information on the scheme are available at www.fscs.org.uk.