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Wine bar insurance

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Rated 4.7/5

Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do I choose insurance?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Why do you need bar insurance?

Behind the bar, or front of house – wherever you’re based, your customers look to you for a bit of escapism. They’re not focusing on potential slip-ups, and you needn’t be either, with insurance for a bar in place. From public liability cover (for damage and injuries) to employers’ liability, our policies work to protect the bar you all love.

  • bar liability insurance – public and product liability, starting at £1 million
  • peace of mind, letting you focus on the wine, not the what-ifs
  • quotes start at £3.19 a month based on 2023 data for wine bar insurance

Start your quote

Insurance for wine bars – what does it cover?

We’ll start with public and product liability insurance, which can cover you against accidents in the wine bar, your outdoor drinking spaces, or elsewhere on the premises. From there, you can add employers’ liability insurance for your team, as well as cover for your essential equipment and stock.

Public and product liability insurance for bars

In case your wine bar causes an injury, illness, or property damage.

What’s typically covered by public and product liability insurance for bars?

Claims against your business for:

  • damage to someone’s property, caused by your wine bar business
  • an injury or illness caused by your business activities or products
  • accidental damage or injuries caused by your employees

For example:

  • a customer slips on a wet floor in your main bar, breaking their ankle
  • one of your employees accidentally spills red wine on a customer’s coat and handbag, causing permanent staining
  • you’ve put nuts on the bar menu and a customer sues you for causing an allergic reaction

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • if you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case anyone gets ill or injured while working for your wine bar.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • an injury or illness that happens as a result of working for you (including temps and casual workers)

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

  • one of your Christmas temps is injured while using faulty equipment behind the bar and claims compensation
  • your bar manager trips over some wiring in the back office and breaks her arm

Building insurance

In case something happens to your wine bar premises

What’s typically covered by building insurance?

  • the cost of repairing damage to the structure of your building (or rebuilding it from scratch)
  • damage to fixtures and fittings
  • damage to underground pipes and cables you’re responsible for

For example:

  • an outdoor heater catches fire and damages your building, which will need to be partially rebuilt
  • you need to replace your bar’s floorboards, due to flood damage over Christmas

Read more about buildings insurance

Contents insurance

In case things like laptops or office filing cabinets are lost, stolen, or damaged.

What’s typically covered by wine bar contents insurance?

  • accidental damage to your wine bar’s fixtures and fittings, or the equipment you use to run your business
  • theft, flood, and fire damage

For example:

  • your laptop and some sound system equipment are stolen from your back office overnight
  • a summer temp accidentally damages your glass wine fridge doors and casing, and you need to store your wine off-site while repairs are made

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Stock insurance

In case something happens to your wine, or any other drinks and produce

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

  • loss, damage, or theft of things like your wine, fresh ingredients, or branded bar materials

For example:

  • your cellar wines are damaged during a fire, and you need to replace everything
  • while in transit, a large crate of wine gets ruined in the back of the delivery van

Read more about stock insurance

Business interruption insurance

In case you can’t trade, because of theft or damage to your wine bar’s essentials.

What’s typically covered by business interruption insurance?

  • your business income, if you can’t trade because your stock, contents, or buildings are damaged or stolen

For example:

  • a storm damages the main function room in your wine bar, and you’re forced to shut over the busy Christmas period
  • there’s a fire in the building next to your bar which causes extensive damage – you need to stop trading for three months while repairs are made

Read more about business interruption insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you have to pay legal costs connected with your wine bar.

  • legal costs attributed to your wine bar business
  • property damage, nuisance, or trespass – specifically, the associated legal claims and compensation payouts
  • tax and compliance disputes, and investigations you need help with
  • includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline, and crisis support to help you protect your reputation as a much-loved wine bar

For example:

  • HMRC have spotted some inaccuracies in your tax return and you have to pay an accountant to look into it
  • you need to claim for court fees when vandals break into your premises, causing extensive damage

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at work or off-duty.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

  • accidental injury or death at or outside of work, for anyone covered on the policy
  • lost income, medical costs, and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

  • one of your staff slips on a wet floor behind the bar, injuring their back and keeping them off work for a month
  • your business partner is playing football and injures her knee – she’ll need surgery and at least three months off her feet

Read more about personal accident insurance

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

Insurance for bars – how much does it cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £3.19 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

Start your quote

10% of our customers paid up to £38.32 a year for a public liability insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £3.19 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Example wine bar insurance quotes, real prices

maltings insurance

£41 /month

£364.48 /month

A small high street wine bar

  • 2-3 years' experience
  • Limited company
  • 1 employee
  • Based in Bristol
  • Public liability

    £2,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Contents & business equipment

    £5,000

  • Stock

    £5,000

finsbury insurance

£48.13 /month

£427.8 /month

A medium-sized wine bar which imports stock, offers tasting experiences and has an ATM on the premises

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Limited company
  • 3 employees
  • Based in York
  • Public liability

    £2,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Contents & business equipment

    £25,000

  • Stock

    £30,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 19/04/2021). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Main building

£200

£4000

Stock

£200

£4000

Contents

£200

£4000

Employers liability

No excess

No excess

Public liability

No excess

£750

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

    Get your documents the same day

Start your quote

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How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

Does wine bar insurance cover my work correctly?

Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect you properly. It's important to know that if you have another trade or job, you'll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider restaurant insurance or takeaway insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

Other types of insurance

Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am - 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am - 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am - 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am - 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive. The figure below is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

Example claim

Having wine bar insurance through Simply Business has saved businesses thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Emily saved more than £14,700

After being closed for three months Emily (not her real name) was ready to reopen her wine bar, but found her freezer had failed and the products inside had gone bad. The stock cover in Emily’s wine bar insurance covered the cost of replacing her frozen products.

  • Insurance payout

    £14,752.00

    Covering the cost of stock damage

  • Emily’s costs

    £100

    The excess amount stated in Emily’s policy terms

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,755 reviews

  • Here to help

    Help from UK-based experts

  • 24/7 claims

    Make a claim any time

Bar business insurance FAQs

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about bar insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • This depends on your business, and which insurer is providing your cover. Prices start from £6.56 a month for our wine bar business customers – we work this out by taking the highest price from the bottom 10 per cent of all our customers paying in monthly instalments (based on data from 1 July - 31 December 2020). Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

  • Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

  • You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

    • one-off credit or debit card payment
    • BACS payment
    • Direct Debit

    If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly instalments.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

Helpful articles for wine bars

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23 Mar 2021 • 7-minute read

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