Fibreglass Industry Business Insurance

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What insurance does a Fibreglass industry business need?

A GRP manufacturing business insurance policy should provide protection not only for the premises and business contents, such as machinery and stock against fire, storm, flood and theft. Public Liability insurance provides the business protection against allegations of negligence to a member of the public, Products Liability Insurance protects your business against allegations of your product causing a loss or causing damage or injury from its use.

Liability insurance for a Fibreglass or Glass Reinforced Plastic business could be considered the cornerstone of any business protection policy. The risks and exposures to a business can be much wider than this, protecting your contents, your machinery and the business fixtures and fittings is essential, combine this with business interruption insurance that is designed to keep your business in business should there be a material loss at the premises.

There are many business protections available to a Fibreglass business, at Real Insurance we specialise not only just in commercial insurance but those more challenging business types of which the fibreglass and GRP industry can fall into. Speak to us about your needs, we deal with many insurers that will provide Liability Insurance as well as those providing property protection.

Liability insurance for fibreglass industry businesses.

Public Liability for a Fibreglass manufacturing business protects against allegations that you have been negligent and caused loss damage or injury to a third party, this could be a member of the public or even a customer that you are delivering to. Whilst delivering products to your customer you accidentally cause damage to a machine or one of their employees falls over boxes you have placed in a dangerous place without ensuring they are easily visible. A customer comes to your premises, whilst they are there they slip on a wet floor because you have not cordoned the area off, the list is endless.

Products Liability Insurance for a fibreglass business is essential, if you are making simple items, such as machinery covers then the risk is not the same as if you are making bespoke items for commercial vehicles for instance. Products liability, like Public Liability, will provide cover against allegations that you have been negligent in some way, if a claim is bought against you or your business then the policy will provide defence, and if found to have been negligent the policy will cover the claim and any compensation you might have to pay up to the limit of indemnity.

What is a Public Liability and a Products Liability Limit of Indemnity?

When buying public liability many factors need to be taken into account, is the work just at the business premises, does it include work at other premises, one of the main decision areas when buying liability insurance is the limit of indemnity, this is the maximum the insurer will pay in the event of a claim, whether that is just for defence costs or whether in the event of a successful claim it includes any compensation awards.

The usual minimum limit of indemnity for a fibreglass business public or products liability is currently £2million although £1million is still available. Whether you take the minimums or increasingly the higher limits of £5million and £10million limits of indemnity depends on many factors. These might be your own comfort levels, the higher the better, it might be because you are working for a particular customer who requires you to have a figure they require.

Property cover for Fibreglass Businesses

A property policy should provide cover against multiple perils such as storm, fire, flood, theft as an example; it’s designed to protect the assets of the business to replace them as quickly as possible to get you back in production as soon as possible.

As a fibreglass or GRP manufacturer, it’s pretty certain that you will need cover for your premises, this could be the building itself if you own it, if you rent it then there could be additional work that you have done to the rented property such as installing walls or making an office, putting a mezzanine floor in or adding bars to windows and if you have improved the rented property you should consider covering your outlay to replace all of the additions and improvements.

The contents for your fibreglass business can easily be covered; the machinery, plant, the fixtures and fittings come all together under one policy section. Designing your customers goods you might be using the latest CAD and modelling systems, have varying amounts of stock, both raw material, in-process and finished awaiting collection, all of these items need to be protected.

In the unfortunate event of a claim at the premises, Business Interruption cover will provide vital protection to make sure that you are put back in the position you were before the loss occurred. Business Interruption does keep your business in business should the worse happen.

The cover will continue to pay certain overheads up to the chosen indemnity period whilst the business is rebuilt.

A business interruption indemnity period is the length of time your insurer will continue to pay the reduction in gross profit. The minimum period is 12 months, however, we don’t believe this is long enough, the industry average is 18 or 24 months, in fact, many policies now provide a standard period of 24 months. Above this, you can choose to take 36 months and in some cases even longer if required.

Insurance cover to protect your fibreglass products whilst being delivered

Whilst a fibreglass business needs covering for its raw materials and goods in the production stage, getting them to your customer when finished needs either goods in transit for your delivery vehicles or whilst in the possession of a carrier.

If you use your own delivery vehicle having goods in transit insurance will protect those goods whilst being moved from A to B, fully covered to the cost value of the goods. If you employ a carrier then this could mean you need to extend your goods in transit cover to include goods being moved by them.

Unfortunately, most of the time carriers don’t insure your goods to their full value, instead, they usually provide coverage to an amount per ton, great if you are moving concrete blocks not so good if the value is quite high. Buying additional insurance from your carrier is one way to ensure they are fully protected, however having your own insurance policy to cover them can be more cost-effective.

Speak to us about covering your fibreglass goods whilst they are in transit, whether you want that cover for the just the UK, further afield into the EU or even worldwide.

Can I obtain other insurance protections for my GRP business

Whilst we have explained the key covers there are other essential covers your GRP manufacturing or Fibreglass business should have.

Management Risks Insurance – this provides asset protection for company directors, usually referred to as Directors & Officers Liability Insurance, whilst the liability of a company may be limited, the liability of the directors is unlimited, putting personal assets at risk. Entity defence is something that can be added to a management risks policy, it provides additional covers for the “entity” itself.

Concerned about Employment Law and the impact that it may have on your business, Employment Practices Liability (EPL) is a further addition, it protects a company where the action is taken by an employee, and this could be for unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal, harassment of any nature.

Cyber Insurance – we believe that it’s not if but when you have a cyber-attack, Cyber cover is available in various packages, from the basic response cover should you have ransomware problem, to the other end of the scale where full crime cover can be provided.

Speak to us about what is the best cyber insurance policy for your fibreglass business.

 Commercial Legal Expenses – a great value product, whilst having its limitations these policies offer a wide range of cover such as HMRC Investigations, Employment Law disputes, Breach of Contract either as standard or as an optional extension. Access to a wide range of legal documents as well as Legal Helplines to help your business.

Note – in most instances the claim has to have a prospect of success above 51%.

Commercial Vehicle, Fleet and Business Car Insurance

If you don’t use carriers, instead have your own vehicles then you will need cover, this is easily obtained where a car is used as a sales vehicle for example, rather than having the headache of insuring different vehicles on single policies a Fleet Insurance can bring all vehicles together in one place whether they are cars or commercial vehicles.