Most of the stock is outside.
Cover for garden centres and plant nurseries: glasshouses, growing stock, heavy goods on the move, and a public wandering among all of it.
Garden centre insurance
Usually includes
Glasshouses & structures
Buildings & retail areas
Growing & retail stock
Heating & irrigation failure
Public liability
Products liability
One
conversation.
You explain the business once, and we take it from there.
Bespoke service
for your business
No two businesses are the same, so we start with yours rather than with a template.
Everything
quoted together.
The premises, your stock, your liability and the trade you would lose, priced in one go rather than piece by piece.
Know your cover
What is garden centre insurance?
A garden centre is a retail business on an industrial site. Stock sits outdoors and under glass rather than on shelves, it is alive and dependent on heating and irrigation, and the site itself moves pallets and bagged goods around while customers walk through it. Add a cafe or a plant area and the exposures multiply again. Cover is built around the buildings, the glass and the growing stock, with public liability across an open site alongside.
It covers the glass
Glasshouses and polytunnels, which are the most weather-exposed structures on the site.
It covers growing stock
Plants under cultivation, and what a heating or irrigation failure does to them.
It does not cover a bad season
Weather that suppresses trade is not damage. The policy answers loss, injury and physical damage.
Who it’s for
Whatever you grow.
✓
Retail garden centres
A destination site with plants, hard goods and usually food and drink.
✓
Plant nurseries
Growing for sale, wholesale or retail, with heating and irrigation to protect.
✓
Garden centres with a cafe
Food preparation and seating on a retail site, which is two businesses in one.
✓
Centres selling machinery and fuel
Mowers, power tools and sometimes gas, each with its own conditions.
✓
Aquatic and pet sections
Live stock and water inside a retail building.
✓
Sites with a play area or attraction
Children on the premises, which changes the liability question.
What we cover
Cover built around your site.
We ask what you grow, what you sell and how much of the site is open before we approach anyone. Then show you what’s available, and you decide what fits.
Glasshouses & structures
Glasshouses, polytunnels and canopies, and the damage wind and hail do to them.
Buildings & retail areas
The retail building, the offices, the potting sheds and the fit-out inside them.
Growing & retail stock
Plants under cultivation and ready for sale, plus hard goods, compost and sundries.
Heating & irrigation failure
Stock lost when heating, ventilation or irrigation stops working, which is a breakdown rather than damage.
Public liability
A customer injured anywhere on an open site, including near forklifts, pallets and standing water.
Products liability
Harm caused by something you sold, from a chemical to a mower to food from the cafe.
Plant & machinery
Forklifts, tractors, potting machinery, tills and the irrigation system itself.
Employers’ liability
Required by law from your first employee, including seasonal and weekend staff.
Cyber & data
Tills, loyalty schemes and the online orders a modern centre takes as well.
Who this cover tends to suit.
This cover is generally bought by garden centres and nurseries, from a single nursery growing for sale to a destination centre with a cafe and an attraction. Not every part will apply to every business, so tell us how you’re set up and we’ll show you what’s relevant.
Worth knowing
Check the details before you choose.
Glass is the weather claim
Glasshouses and polytunnels take storm and hail damage more often than any other structure on a site, and cover for them is sometimes conditioned or excluded. Establish it early.
Growing stock is not shop stock
Plants under cultivation depend on heat, water and ventilation, and the loss when those fail is a breakdown consequence rather than damage. It needs its own section.
An open site is a wide liability
Customers move among vehicles, pallets, bagged goods and water. Insurers ask about traffic separation and how the public and the forklifts are kept apart.
A cafe changes the presentation
Food preparation and seating bring their own fire and products exposures. Tell us if you have one, and what it turns over.
Every site is different.
A wholesale nursery and a destination centre with a cafe don’t carry the same risk, so we ask different questions for each.
Garden centres
Plant nurseries
Wholesale growing
Glasshouses
Polytunnels
Irrigation systems
Heated growing
Hard landscaping
Machinery sales
Cafe and catering
Aquatics
Pet sections
Play areas
Christmas trading
Seasonal staff
Online orders
Garden centres
Plant nurseries
Wholesale growing
Glasshouses
Polytunnels
Irrigation systems
Heated growing
Hard landscaping
Machinery sales
Cafe and catering
Aquatics
Pet sections
Play areas
Christmas trading
Seasonal staff
Online orders
Why Vara
Bespoke service for you & your business,
without the big-firm minimum.
01
Glass and growing stock come first
These are the two things a general retail policy handles badly, and they are most of the value on a nursery site. We start there.
02
The site layout is described
How customers, vehicles and pallets share the space is the liability question. We put it in front of insurers rather than leave it to be imagined.
03
Failure cover is separated from damage
Heating, ventilation and irrigation failing is a breakdown. We ask what the stock depends on before we present it.
04
We present the risk right
Site, structures, stock, machinery, staff and claims history. How it’s framed changes what you pay.
You talk to a person. The machines do the typing.
Free review of your garden centre cover and costs.
On a policy written for a shop with shelves? Leave your details and we’ll call you straight back. One conversation covers the lot.
What the review covers
Glasshouses and polytunnels take storm and hail damage more often than any other structure on the site, and cover for them is sometimes conditioned or excluded. We check it before you rely on it.
Plants under cultivation depend on heat, water and irrigation, and the loss when one of those fails is a breakdown consequence rather than damage cover reaching it.
We approach insurers on our panel who write garden centre and nursery risks, and come back with what they’ll offer.
We explain each option in plain English, including what it doesn’t cover.
If it’s not a risk we can place, we’ll tell you straight away rather than leave you waiting.
No obligation to switch. You decide what fits.
Rather not wait? Call us on 0333 091 3663
Good to know
Garden centre insurance questions, answered straight.
What insurance does a garden centre need?
Are glasshouses and polytunnels covered?
Is my growing stock insured?
What happens if the heating fails overnight?
How does public liability work on an open site?
Does having a cafe change things?
Do I need anything extra for machinery sales?
What about a play area or attraction?
Vara Commercial Insurance · 0333 091 3663
Vara is a trading name of Koral AI Operating Company Limited. Vara is an appointed representative of Innovative Risk Labs Ltd, under Firm Reference Number 1060955. Innovative Risk Labs Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, under FRN 609155. We are registered in England and Wales under Registered Company Number 17256222. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.