Why do garden centres and nurseries need insurance?
Customer injuries
Garden centres can be busy places, from the first Saturday in spring right through to Christmas. When shoppers head into your plant pot display room, crowded conditions might mean someone fails to spot a stray pallet on the floor. Tripping and banging their head could lead to concussion for the customer. For you, the result might be a court case and a compensation bill. Building public liability insurance into your garden centre and nursery’s policy could help with these costs.
Storm-damaged stock
A heavy storm arrives unannounced. In a stroke of bad luck, it’s a Sunday evening and your garden nursery is closed. You’d positioned peonies in an area inside your shop that receives lots of sunlight. However, this backfires when a flood from a storm ruins your stock in this section. These plants were earmarked for early summer orders, so you find yourself needing to source replacements – at a cost. Business contents insurance can protect a garden centre or nursery from having to pay for stock replacements after a fire, flood, storm, or theft.
An employee illness
You employ garden centre assistants to carry stock, prune plants, and add seasonal decorations. Most of the time, things go smoothly, but these activities carry risk. When an employee develops unexplained breathing problems, their doctor suggests the cause may be pesticide poisoning. The individual files for compensation, saying they didn’t receive the right protection when asked to spray plants with an ultra low volume (ULV) fogging machine. Employers’ liability insurance could help to protect a garden nursery from the financial impact of a claim.
What insurance is available for garden centres and nurseries?
Business contents insurance
Insurance for contents and stock can help a garden centre or nursery to deal with risks and damage to the property in your premises. This might range from rose bushes and patio slabs to computers and money from the till. Business contents insurance can even step in if greenhouse glass is damaged by an insured event. If you own your premises, you might also want to add commercial property insurance for buildings to cover the building itself, plus trees and shrubs in your permanent gardens.
Public liability insurance
All business owners have a responsibility to keep the public, and their property, safe and avoid damaging property, so public liability insurance isn’t just for busy garden centres. People might visit your garden nursery to place orders for the summer, collect deliveries, or drop off a selection of seeds. All these groups could make a claim against your business if they trip on an uneven step, leading to a wrist injury or broken personal effects. Public liability insurance for garden centres and nurseries could help to pick up defence costs and compensation pay-outs.
Employers' liability insurance
Employers’ liability insurance may be a legal requirement (external link) for your garden centre or nursery if you employ staff in the UK. It’s a form of cover that acts to shield businesses from the costs that can come with claims for work-related illnesses or injuries. It might help you to fund a defence or pay compensation on your behalf. With Hiscox, a garden centre or nursery can receive cover for working with a wide range of employee types, including work experience staff, part-timers, and even volunteers.
Some garden centres and plant nurseries also tailor their business insurance to include cyber and data insurance. This is useful if you have a website or rely on digital payment systems. You might also add legal protection or personal accident cover to suit your situation.
These are just some of the types of business insurance we can offer garden centres. We can provide other types of cover and build them into a policy that’s tailored to the requirements of your business.
Get your quoteInsurance for garden centres and nurseries: FAQs
How do I decide how much contents insurance my garden centre needs?
The amount of contents insurance cover you’ll need will depend on the value of your garden centre’s contents and stock. We’ll ask you to set a cover limit when you buy insurance, so it might be a good idea to make this roughly equal to the total value of your items.
When you deal with plants, stock levels may vary throughout the year. If so, it might be ideal to set the limit with busy times in mind. This way, you’re prepared if a worst-case scenario situation, such as a fire, was to strike in the run-up to the spring rush.
If your contents situation is likely to change significantly, just let us know and we can tweak your cover. However, we include a 30% uplift for additional seasonal stock during your busiest period as standard. Learn more about business insurance costs with our FAQ.
Does garden centre insurance include environmental cover?
Certain types of business insurance provide a degree of environmental cover to garden centres and nurseries. With Hiscox, this includes public liability insurance, which may help to pay for pollution cover if there’s a discharge of oil. This type of cover can also help pay for repair work if natural vegetation is damaged by fire or an explosion.
This is different to environmental liability insurance, which is a specialist cover for damage to land, water, and biodiversity.
Is my plant stock covered against weather damage?
No, plant stock is not generally covered against weather damage as part of garden centre insurance from Hiscox, with the exception of storm or flood damage. Damage to stock or contents caused by dryness, light, humidity, or extreme temperatures is not covered by our business contents insurance – unless the latter is due to a fire.
However, business contents can cover plant stock against a range of other risks, including theft.
I have a cafe inside my garden centre. Can I also get business insurance for this?
Yes, Hiscox also offers business insurance to certain food and drink businesses. There may be slightly different cover types available, however, so it’s a good idea to discuss your quote to see what’s available.
Simply provide us with full details of what your garden centre does when you build your quote. We can only provide cover for activities mentioned in your application, so provide us with as much detail as you can.
If your garden centre contains niche spaces, such as play areas, pet shops, or poly tunnels, get a quote or contact us to find out if we can cover this.
Related articles and guides
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How much does public liability insurance cost?
How should your garden centre budget for public liability insurance? Find out how public liability insurance costs are calculated with this comprehensive guide.