What Insurance Do Garden Centres Need?
Your plants and flowers are your business. An accident, mishap, or severe weather could happen and put your garden centre at risk. Make sure you have the right insurance to protect your garden centre.
Whether you own a garden centre, greenhouse, nursery, or growing operation, each has their unique challenges and each should have insurance tailored to its needs.
What is garden centre insurance?
Garden centre insurance is a customized policy that protects your investment from the insurable risks that it may face.
Customized garden centre or greenhouse insurance helps protect you against such incidents as customer injuries, damaged inventory, fire, and vandalism.
What kind of insurance do garden centres need?
Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance
CGL insurance is also called “slip and fall” insurance because it protects you against day-to-day risks, such as a customer slipping and falling on a wet floor at your garden centre.
CGL insurance can protect you against claims of third-party bodily injury or property damage that occurs at your garden centre or growing operation. For example, if an injured client sues you for damages, it helps cover your legal expenses, any financial settlement ordered by the court, and the injured person’s medical expenses.
Without commercial liability insurance, you would be responsible for paying any liability costs out of your own pocket. Is that a cost that you can afford?
Your commercial general liability policy also can help protect you from libel, slander, and false advertising allegations.
How much CGL insurance do I need?
It’s not uncommon that you would carry at least $2 million in CGL coverage or more, depending on the size of your garden centre business.
A Western Financial Group business insurance expert will help you get the right commercial insurance for your garden centre, greenhouse, or nursery at the right value for you.
Commercial property insurance
It protects your garden centre or nursery and its contents, such as flower coolers, computers, furniture, and your inventory, from insured risks that can happen, such as fire, theft, or vandalism.
If vandals smash an office window, commercial property damage could cover the costs of replacing the window and cover any damage or vandalism inside your garden centre.
Commercial property insurance typically includes flood insurance, but what if there’s heavy rain and the sewers back up and your garden centre is flooded?
Consider adding sewer backup or overland flood coverage insurance extensions, which standard business insurance policies typically do not cover.
You may want to add business interruption coverage to your commercial property policy. Business interruption insurance will cover you for the income you lose following an insured loss. For example, if your garden centre is flooded and must remain closed while repairs are underway, business interruption coverage will reimburse you for your losses.
Commercial auto insurance
If you use a van or truck to deliver your plants and flowers to your customers, you need a commercial auto policy to protect your drivers and vehicles.
Most personal car insurance policies do not cover the cost of damages or injuries due to an accident when using a vehicle for business purposes. If you have five or more vehicles for your business, you may require a commercial fleet insurance policy.
Cyber liability insurance
If your garden centre processes debit and credit card transactions, you need cyber insurance. Your system could be vulnerable to cyberthieves.
Without cyber insurance, you will have to pay out of your pocket for the cost of restoring your computer system if it’s hacked.
You may also be liable for damages to third parties whose information has been stolen and you may have to pay for notification expenses to inform customers affected by a breach.
What other kind of coverage is provided?
- Direct physical damage caused by hail or windstorm to your greenhouse
- Consequential loss to insured crops
- Loss of income and incurred expenses
- Explosion or sudden and accidental breakdown of boilers and other mechanical or electrical equipment
What kind of information do you need to provide to your insurance broker?
- Number of buildings, their size and age
- Type of building construction (Glass, Polyethylene, Polyvinyl, PVC)
- Type of crops/plants
- Do you have a backup generator for heating systems?
- Equipment/boilers and machinery
- Contractor’s equipment
- Age of plumbing and electrical systems
- Gross receipts for your business
- Additional operations on or off-site
- Number of employees
How much is garden centre insurance?
That will depend on the size of your operation, your location, what you are selling, number of employees, and any past claims, for example.
