Retail & Hospitality Insurance
Your business runs on foot traffic. Your insurance should protect every part of it.
- Shops, cafes, restaurants and venues face a combination of property, liability, and people risk that standard policies often don't cover completely. Trading hours, stock levels, and the nature of your customer interactions all affect your exposure. We build cover around how you actually operate.
Key risks
What retail and hospitality operators are exposed to
- Public liability for customers on your premises, including slips, falls, and food-related incidents
- Products liability for goods sold or food served
- Business interruption after a forced closure from fire, flood, or fit-out damage
- Theft, burglary, and malicious damage
- Liquor liability for licensed venues
- Glass breakage for shopfront windows and internal panels
- Machinery breakdown for commercial kitchens, refrigeration units, and equipment
Cover we typically structure
What a retail and hospitality services programme includes
- Business pack (building or fitout, stock, contents, liability, glass)
- Business interruption (matched to your actual revenue and fixed costs)
- Public and products liability
- Liquor liability (venues and licensees)
- Machinery breakdown
- Theft and money
Business interruption is the most underinsured cover in retail and hospitality. Most operators set their sum insured too low, choose an indemnity period that's too short, or both. We review this carefully.
Some important things to remember about retail and hospitality insurance
Why Maverick
Talk to a retail and hospitality insurance adviser. No paperwork. No obligation.
A slip and fall claim or a kitchen contamination incident can shut a business down faster than a fire.
We make sure your liability limits reflect how you trade, your business interruption cover is correctly set, and there are no gaps in the cover that matters most.
What insurance do we need beyond basic property cover?
For most retail and hospitality businesses, we recommend a package that includes property, business interruption, public and products liability, glass, money, theft and equipment breakdown. Depending on your structure, we may also suggest cyber and management liability to protect against data breaches and governance‑related claims.
How does business interruption cover work for our type of business?
Business interruption is designed to replace lost profit and help cover ongoing costs if an insured event such as fire or storm forces you to reduce or stop trading. We calculate an appropriate indemnity period and sum insured based on your turnover, margins and fixed costs, so the business has time to recover without running out of financial support.
Are we properly covered for slips, trips and food‑borne illness claims?
Public and products liability cover is central for venues with high customer traffic and food service. We ensure you have suitable limits in place and work with you on risk‑management practices, such as cleaning schedules, temperature checks and incident reporting - that support your defence if a claim arises.
How do we cover seasonal peaks and stock increases?
We review your trading patterns and arrange cover that reflects your peak stock levels, not just an annual average. Where appropriate, we include seasonal increases or set higher sums insured around critical periods so a major loss at your busiest time of year does not leave you underinsured.
Is theft by staff or fraud covered under our policy?
Standard policies often have limited protection for employee dishonesty. If you are exposed to cash handling or stock shrinkage risks, we can arrange specific crime or fidelity protection and help you implement controls that insurers require, such as separation of duties and regular reconciliations.
What happens if our landlord’s insurance fails or is inadequate?
We review your lease to identify where you carry responsibility for parts of the building or for glass, fit‑out and legal liability. We then structure your policy to protect tenants’ improvements, your legal liability for damage to the premises and your business interruption exposure if the building cannot be occupied after an insured event.