Florist Insurance
A florist's stock is worth most the day before it is worth nothing. That is the first thing a florist policy has to deal with, and a standard shop policy rarely does it well.
Perishable Stock And Work Away From The Shop
The second is where the work happens. A shop counter is one risk. An arch built in a hotel ballroom, a church filled for a funeral, or a marquee dressed for a wedding is a different one, because you are working on premises you do not control, in front of guests, with ladders, wire and water.
Then there are the peak days. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Christmas can each put several times your normal stock in the cold room at once, and a policy set on an average week is short on exactly the days a loss would hurt most.
What Florist Insurance Covers
Stock and deterioration of stock
Flowers and plants on the premises, and stock that spoils when a chiller or cold room fails. Deterioration usually has its own limit, separate from the main stock figure, and it is the one to check.
Public liability
Injury to customers and damage to other people's property, including at venues where you set up. Many hotels, churches and wedding venues ask to see a certificate before you arrive, commonly at £2 million or £5 million.
Product liability
Injury caused by something you sold. Thorns, sap that irritates the skin, a toxic plant sold into a home with a cat, or an arrangement that falls because of how it was built.
Goods in transit
Arrangements, installations and kit on the way to a venue. Wedding work is valuable, made to order and impossible to replace on the morning itself.
Business interruption
Lost gross profit while the shop cannot trade. A flood or fire in the week before Mother's Day costs far more than the stock alone.
Employers' liability
Compulsory at a £5 million statutory minimum once anyone works for you, including the extra hands you take on for peak weeks.
Where The Cover Stops
Wordings differ between insurers, so treat these as the usual position rather than as universal fact. Where one of them matters to you, it is worth checking on your own schedule before you need to.
Deterioration is conditional
Cover for stock lost when refrigeration fails usually depends on the equipment being maintained, and some wordings exclude a power cut that starts off your premises unless it has been added. Wilting through age is never covered.
Damage to the venue you are dressing
Public liability covers damage to third party property, but property you are actually working on can be treated differently. Fixings into old plaster, water on a polished floor and scorch marks from candles are the usual claims, and the wording decides which side of the line they fall.
Hired-in items
Arches, stands, vases and props hired from someone else are in your care. They are not always covered as stock or contents, so they need to be named.
Vans are a motor policy
Delivery vans need their own motor insurance, which a shop policy does not provide. Goods in transit covers what is inside the van, not the van itself. We arrange both, but they are separate covers.
A cancelled wedding is not your loss to claim
If a couple cancel, the contract decides what you are paid. Insurance for the event itself is the couple's or the venue's matter, not something your shop policy answers.
Set The Stock Figure For Your Busiest Week
Most florists insure stock on what is in the shop on an ordinary Tuesday. The loss that matters happens in the week before Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, when the cold room is full, pre-orders are made up and the buckets are three deep.
Ask whether your policy carries a seasonal increase for stock, which many do for named months, or set the figure on your peak and accept the cost. Either is better than discovering on the day of a flood that the sum insured covers a third of what was lost.
Do the same sum for deterioration. A cold room failure overnight on 12 February is the worst case in the trade, and the limit should be set against it.
Weddings, Funerals And Other People's Buildings
Installation work is where florists' liability claims come from. A ladder against a listed wall, a suspended installation over guests, candles near foliage, and water on a floor somebody will walk across in heels.
Venues increasingly send a list of conditions with the booking: a minimum liability limit, a ban on certain fixings, open flames only in hurricane glasses, and everything cleared by a set time. Read them before the day, because breaking a venue's rule is how a straightforward claim becomes an argument.
Funeral work brings its own pattern. Tributes delivered to directors and churches, often at short notice, often by a single driver. The risk is not large, but it is regular, and the transit and delivery side of it should be on the policy rather than assumed.
Workshops, Classes And Sundries
Wreath making evenings and wedding flower workshops bring members of the public into the workroom, handling knives, wire and glue guns. That is a different exposure from serving across a counter, and it is worth telling your insurer you run them.
Many florists now sell candles, diffusers, cards and gifts alongside flowers. Those add stock value and, for anything that burns or contains oils, product liability considerations of their own. Include them in the stock figure and mention them when you buy the policy.
How To Choose Insurance For A Florist
Florists are often sold a general shop policy and told it will do. We are an FCA regulated broker and will not tell you we are the best choice. These are the questions that decide whether a florist is properly insured, and you can measure any broker against them, including us.
Do they ask about your peak days?
A florist's stock on 13 February is nothing like an ordinary week. A broker who takes one stock figure without asking when it peaks has probably set it too low.
Is deterioration of stock on the policy, with a sensible limit?
It is the cover florists need most and the one most often missing or set at a token figure. Ask what the limit is and what conditions sit behind it.
Does the liability follow you to venues?
Check that public liability covers work at weddings, funerals and events away from the shop, and at the limit venues ask for.
Are goods in transit and hired-in items covered?
Made-to-order work on its way to a venue, and arches and stands you hired in, are easy to leave off a shop policy.
Will they explain the motor side separately?
Delivery vans need their own policy. A broker should make clear what the shop policy covers and what it does not.
Factually, here is what we do. We set stock and deterioration figures on your busiest week rather than an average one, we describe venue and installation work on the proposal so the liability follows you there, and we add goods in transit where you deliver. We arrange motor and fleet cover separately where you run vans. We are a broker, so the risk goes to several insurers rather than one.
What Moves The Price
Every shop is priced on its own details. These are the things that move the premium:
- Stock value at your peak, and the deterioration limit
- Annual turnover, and how much comes from weddings and events
- Whether you work at other venues, and the liability limit they ask for
- Cold room and chiller equipment, and how it is maintained
- Number of staff, including seasonal help
- Claims history
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 for a quote.
What We Need To Quote
- Annual turnover, split between shop, weddings, events and funeral work
- Stock value on a normal week and at your busiest
- Refrigeration equipment and its service record
- The liability limit venues ask you for
- Whether you run workshops or classes
- Number of staff and wageroll, including peak season help
- Any claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Goods in transitArrangements and installations on the way to a wedding or funeral.
- Event and wedding venuesThe other side of the booking, and what venues ask suppliers for.
- Shop insuranceThe general retail package, and the sums insured most shops get wrong.
- Business interruptionThe cover that decides whether a shop survives a fire or a flood.
- Talk to a brokerTell us what you sell and we will tell you what actually needs covering.
Common questions
What insurance does a florist need?+
Employers' liability is required by law once anyone works for you. Beyond that, most florists need public and product liability, stock cover with deterioration for when refrigeration fails, contents, business interruption, and goods in transit if you deliver or work at venues. Delivery vans need a separate motor policy.
Am I covered if my cold room breaks down before Valentine's Day?+
Only if deterioration of stock is on your policy, and only up to its limit. It usually depends on the equipment being maintained, and some policies exclude a power cut that starts off your premises unless it has been added. Set the limit against a full cold room in your busiest week.
Do I need special insurance for wedding flowers?+
You need a policy that covers work away from the shop. Check that public liability applies at the venue, at the limit the venue asks for, that goods in transit covers the arrangements on the way, and that any arches or stands you hire in are covered while they are in your care.
Who is the best insurer for a small florist?+
There is no single best insurer. Judge any policy on whether it includes deterioration of stock at a sensible limit, sets stock for your peak days, covers work at venues and covers goods in transit. We place florists with several insurers and set those figures with you. Call 02382 000820.
Does my shop insurance cover my delivery van?+
No. A van on the road needs its own motor insurance. Goods in transit covers the flowers inside it. We arrange both, including fleet cover if you run more than one van.
Other shops we cover
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