What Insurance Do Toronto Coffee Shops Need

What Insurance Do Toronto Coffee Shops Need?

May 2, 2024 / 5 mins read

Toronto coffee shops and cafes are gathering places for coffee, of course, and conversation. An unexpected event, an accident, or an injury can cause financial problems for your business. Coffee shop insurance protects you against potentially costly claims.

Coffee shop or cafe insurance for Toronto small business owners of food and drink establishments helps protect against slips and falls, injured customers, damaged customer property, vandalism, and fire, for example.

Is your Toronto cafe or coffee shop downtown or are you located in one of the city’s many neighbourhoods?

Or are you located in Scarborough, Etobicoke, North York, York, and East York, in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), or elsewhere in Ontario?

Your Western Financial Group business insurance expert will give you top-notch commercial insurance advice about coffee shop insurance at the right value for you that protects your Toronto business.

What is coffee shop or cafe insurance?

Cafe and coffee shop insurance is a package of insurance coverages that helps the Toronto owners of food and drink establishments protect themselves against various risks associated with operating their businesses. For example, it would help cover a customer’s laptop that was stolen in your cafe.

Who needs coffee shop insurance?

  • Coffee shops
  • Donut shops
  • Sandwich shops/Delis
  • Tea shops
  • Juice bars

How much does coffee shop insurance cost?

There is no one-size-fits-all price for Toronto coffee shop or cafe insurance.

Your cost will depend on factors such as:

  • Your location
  • Years of operation
  • Services offered
  • Number of employees
  • Size of your coffee shop
  • Annual revenue
  • Any past claims

Here’s how coffee shop insurance can help you as a Toronto business owner:

  1. A kitchen fire forces your Toronto coffee shop to temporarily close for repairs. Business interruption insurance can help cover your payroll, rent, and utilities, for example, during the time it takes to get your kitchen working again.
  2. A customer slips and falls on some spilled coffee, fracturing his wrist and then sues you. Your commercial general liability insurance helps cover their medical expenses and your legal expenses.
  3. Your main fridge breaks down and the food and dairy products in it are spoiled. Equipment breakdown insurance helps cover the cost to repair the fridge and spoiled food and drink.

What’s in a Toronto coffee shop insurance package?

Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance: This type of insurance is also called slip-and-fall insurance. If a customer/supplier is injured or their property is damaged at your Toronto cafe or coffee shop, CGL typically helps cover your legal expenses and their medical bills, regardless of the legal outcome.

Product liability insurance: This type of insurance covers you for injuries or property damage caused by defective products that you make, sell, or distribute, which would include the food and drinks that you serve. For example, if you sell pre-baked muffins and a customer said the muffin he ate gave him food poisoning and sues you, in this case, product liability insurance may help cover your legal defence costs and the customer’s medical expenses.

Commercial property insurance: Commercial property insurance protects your Toronto cafe and the contents in from insured risks that occur, such as a fire, theft, if vandalism, or storms. For example, if your coffee shop is vandalized with spray paint, commercial property damage could help cover the costs of replacing the area with graffiti.

You should consider adding a sewer backup coverage extension, which standard business insurance policies typically don’t cover, to protect your Toronto coffee shop.

Business interruption insurance: This type of insurance supports you when your Toronto cafe can’t operate due to a covered loss.

There are a number of losses that can force your coffee shop to shut down. Some examples are:

  • Damage to your equipment from fire or vandalism
  • A major reduction in revenue due to a client/supplier facing losses of their own
  • A disruption in your supply chain

Business interruption insurance can help with these expenses:

  • Payroll
  • Rent
  • Utilities
  • Property taxes
  • Alarm monitoring
  • Relocation of your business

Cyber insurance: Cyber liability insurance helps protect your business if you electronically store financial data like the credit card numbers of clients. Depending on the size of the breach and the information that was taken, the customers who are affected can hold your Toronto business liable and sue for damages.

Equipment breakdown insurance: Equipment breakdown insurance covers the cost of repairing or replacing equipment in your Toronto café that suddenly or accidentally broke down due to an insured peril such as your fridges and covers rental fees so you can continue working while your equipment is being replaced or repaired.

Legal expense insurance: Legal protection insurance gives you access to legal advice, assistance, and coverage for legal disputes. As a Toronto coffee shop owner, you will be able to get legal advice from an experienced lawyer on a set of common business topics. Legal expense insurance also helps cover the costs of a lawyer to pursue legal action.

What do I do if my Toronto coffee shop has an insurance claim?

  • Contact your broker immediately after any business-related mishap. Waiting to file a claim can confuse insurers about the severity of the damages to your business.
  • Know your policy so that when you contact your broker you are familiar with what will be covered or not.
  • Document the damage. Take photos right away and write down what happened.
  • Do not throw away damaged goods after taking photos. Keep the physical evidence so that your adjustor can see it.
  • Do not invite lawsuits. Don’t say anything that could be used against you, especially if you aren’t sure what happened.
  • Be honest about what your damaged property is worth. Damaged commercial property is generally valued according to its actual cash value or replacement value.

Western Insurance has licensed BUSINESS INSURANCE EXPERTS to get your Toronto coffee shop or cafe the right insurance package. Our experts are available now to help you navigate the business insurance journey to protect your Toronto or Ontario business.

Please share this article with your friends

Talk to an Insurance Expert

Call Us Now 888-595-3104