Furniture Manufacturers Insurance
Insurance for Furniture Manufacturers and the Furniture Industry
Furniture Manufacturers Insurance
The furniture industry covers many styles and categories we use in our everyday home and business lives, whether your business mass produces household leisure items such as tables, chairs and cabinets from a wide range of materials, or you are a specialist furniture manufacturer making one off bespoke items, furniture manufacturers insurance is an essential business protection.
The commercial furniture sector covers a large area of industry to, using a wide selection of materials such timbers, metals and plastics as well as other materials including specialist coatings to mass produce furniture for offices as well as leisure and hospitality and of course not forgetting furniture for the shop fitting sector.
A furniture maker has usually invested a lot of money in the machinery used to produce a wide range of products and it’s essential that robust insurance is in place to cover these expensive assets. A furniture manufacturers insurance policy can cover these business assets, as well as keeping the business in business should a loss occur and if loss or injury is caused to someone such as a member of the public; liability insurance is there to protect you and your business.
Who would benefit from a furniture manufacturers insurance policy
Furniture manufacturing insurance policies are usually based on the assumption that manufacturers and producers of furniture work from business premises. Any business that has machinery and other equipment designed for manufacturing these types of products can obtain wide insurance cover.
Whether your business operates from a small workshop producing handmade bespoke items with specialist woodworking machinery such as moulders, edge-banders as well as precision hand tools or for the larger furniture producing business using expensive CNC machinery and other modern manufacturing technologies, insurance will provide that essential peace of mind to get your business back up and running in the shortest possible time.
Whatever type of furniture manufacturing business you operate at Real Insurance Group we can bespoke insurance products that reflect your exposures, however large or small that enterprise may be.
What insurance is required to protect the assets of my furniture manufacturing business?
An insurance policy for a furniture manufacturer would usually be provided on what is known as a commercial combined insurance policy or perhaps a combined insurance package. These are policies that are designed to provide the protections for your business in a modular form so you are only buying the types of cover your business will need, and what is even better with a combined insurance policy is that it’s totally scalable as your business grows.
Whether you use modern or traditional furniture manufacturing techniques, your assets such as machinery, fixtures and fittings are essential to the day to day operation of your business, insurance is designed to pay for the replacement costs should you have a loss at the premises, this might be due to fire, storm, flood or even theft or malicious damage.
It’s important that you make sure the amounts that are covered on the policy really reflect the correct amounts and values. As an example in most cases the machinery and plant such as fork lift trucks, your office machinery and computers all need to be replaced as new so it’s essential that this amount is correct, even down to three phase cabling to your machinery. Not forgetting all your raw material, in progress and completed stocks that you have in your factory or workshop.
Insurance is designed to get your business back up and running in the least possible time, for most claims a business can possibly continue to work even if there is say damage to building. Unfortunately though when a loss is much larger it’s important to have cover that keeps your business going even if you can’t work. This is commonly referred to a Business Interruption Insurance or Consequential loss, designed to come into play following a material loss at the business premises.
An insurer will continue to pay the reduction in gross profit for the duration of what is called an indemnity period, this is the length of time your insurer will continue to pay, whilst 12 and 18 months is available we would always recommend a minimum of 24 months. Longer periods are available such as 36 months and beyond if required.
Do I need liability insurance for my furniture manufacturing business?
Liability insurance for a furniture manufacturer would be made up of usually three different covers, Public Liability, Products Liability and Employers Liability.
A manufacturing business such as those making furniture wouldn’t usually purchase liability insurance on its own; it would form part of a commercial combined policy above. Whilst liability cover is available on its own, but it can be more cost effective to include other covers as well.
Public Liability Insurance for a furniture manufacture would usually be considered lower risk, this cover is designed to protect the business against allegations of negligence for loss, damage or injury to a member of the public or any third party, say someone that might visit your premises that slips or falls over cabling or stock items left on the floor. It will pay for legal defence costs as well as any compensation that may become payable up to the limit of cover chosen.
If your business involves installation, not only might you manufacture you may also provide installation services which means that you could be working in someone else’s property, perhaps fixing in place office furniture or installing at leisure or in workplace environments where damage could be done or people could be injured.
Like all manufacturing business there is always the risk that something may go wrong with your products that cause injury or a loss of some kind. The furniture industry is no exception, products that collapse, unfinished woodwork causing injury or that nail or staple that wasn’t spotted at the manufacturing stage that cuts someone. Product Liability Insurance for a furniture manufacturing business is essential and provides the same defence cover as public liability.
As business grows its inevitable that help is required, this may be direct employees that work at your premises or work away installing furniture. Occasionally additional help may be required whether that in your premises or your contract requires a considerable amount of installation work. Employers Liability insurance is not only required it’s a legal requirement.
Other Insurance protections for businesses involved in the production of furniture
Whilst we have only touched on some of the Key covers required by those in the furniture manufacturing industry, many more covers are available.
Getting your products to your customer may involve your own vehicle or vehicles, your goods need to be protected when moving them, even when they are in the custody of carriers. Goods in Transit insurance will provide this cover.
Inspection services are available to run alongside your main policy, Furniture Manufacturers may use compressors, forklift trucks, spraying facilities with ventilation as well as large dust extraction systems. These are required to be inspected by law.
Other covers area available that protect the business and the directors too. Directors & Officers Liability or Management Risks insurance as its commonly referred to will defend the directors should an action be taken directly against them, this is essential cover to protect the directors personal assets.
Cyber Insurance – if you have a website, you use email or where your networks run the production business, being hacked, having a cyber-attack such as ransomware can close you down very quickly. Having Cyber insurance will get your systems back up and running as soon as possible and will pay necessary costs too.
What do insurers look for when quoting insurance premiums for manufacturers
One of the keys to getting competitively priced insurance cover for your furniture business is to make sure that it ticks all the boxes for the insurer. In any furniture makers business it’s likely that there will be many different risks that could cause concern, use of machinery that causes dust, materials such as wood or other items that burn well, the use of solvents in a spraying environment. Health & Safety plays a big role too, Employers Liability claims very often stem from a lack of health and safety in the workplace and businesses should look to ensure a documented regime is in place. Use of external quality management accreditations such a ISO and associations such as the British Furniture Manufacturers Association all go towards what makes an insurer attracted to you.
Why use Real Insurance for your Furniture Manufacturers Insurance?
We are specialist commercial insurance brokers that provide business insurance for many types of business throughout the UK. Because we only deal with business insurance we have excellent relationships with our insurer partners all of whom are A Rated UK insurers or Lloyds of London.
All our teams are experienced and knowledgeable, able to provide advice along the way and are certainly not driven by what the computer says. And above all we are not a call centre.
Speak to one of our commercial team members today about reviewing your furniture manufacturers insurance.
