How much would some general liability insurance cost for a start-up salsa company?
My wife and I are starting a small salsa company selling it at the farmers’ market and hopefully some local grocers. We would have no employees and sales will be well below $50K for our first few years. How much would some general liability insurance cost for a this start-up? We are in Lancaster County PA if the area matters. Rough estimates would gladly be accepted!
Tags: Company, Cost, general, Insurance, Liability, Much, salsa, Some, startup, Would
Doesn’t matter, you’re talking about product liability for a FOOD product. It’s going to START at $2500.
At a minimum you will need a general liability policy. The general liability will cover your typical slip and fall types of incidents. Before you set up at a farmer’s market the municipality will, without a doubt, specify that you carry minimum limits of liability (likely $500,000 or $1,000,000). The municipality will also require that they be added to your liability policy as additional insureds and they will want you to provide a certificate of insurance showing these requirements have been met.
In addition to the general liability you will want to add product liability coverage. Product liability is going to cover you if someone alleges that they were sickened by using your product. A municipality may or may not require you to carry products liability. However, because you will be selling to grocery stores they will demand that you carry products liability and once again have themselves added as additional insureds. Corporate grocery stores (i.e. chains) will often require much higher limits of liability as much as $2,000,000 or $300,000. which would necessitate the need for an umbrella liability policy.
I would estimate a $2,500 annual premium for the general and product liability. If you need an umbrella policy to secure the higher limits add another $1,500.
Good luck and best wishes for your success…