The essentials of bike shop insurance

There are some characteristics that are common to all forms of retail enterprise: Each business has a retail premises, each business carries stock, most have employees and all have customers. Accordingly when it comes to insurance there are standard policy types that cover all types of shops. There are however, some retail businesses that are at significant variance to the “norm” so as to need specific or special insurance. One such business is a bicycle shop.

A bike shop does indeed have all the standard characteristics of retail; premises, stock, customers and staff. General shop insurance will cover all these but bespoke bike shop insurance goes further and is tailored to your specifics.

Bike shop insurance will include as standard
• Public liability
• Product liability at a level to cover your entire stock
• Plate glass cover (your shop windows)
• Business interruption
• Injury or death resulting from robbery
• All risks cover for your cash (this will be subject to specified limits set individually for cash in shop, in tills, in safe, in transit and in business owners/directors’ homes.)

Good bespoke insurance for bicycle shops will provide the following:
• Goods in transit (i.e. bikes being delivered to customers)
• Allowance for an increase in seasonal stock – usually for three months in the year (most often November, December and January but this can be varied)
• Cover for stock, if any, that is displayed outside the shop
• Product liability for bicycles in for service and repair
• Cover for any testing post pre-and post service and repair undertaken on the roads
• Cover for cycle hire (optional)

Insurance for your bike shop is not a matter to be taken lightly. You may never have to call upon it and make a claim but, the risk if you face an unfortunate event and have no insurance to cover it may very well result in you going out of business.

Shop around to get the best deal and remember the cheapest doesn’t always equal the best. Have a policy that fully covers you but at a premium you can afford. Take advantage of special offers but always buy from a specialist rather than a general insurer.

Bike Shop Insurance in the UK is available from www.specialistrisks.co.uk

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