Insurance for my product

[Christine DAmico]

I have been distributing to a few Health Food Stores here in New York City, one big one who wants to try my product requires liability insurance.
I got a quote for $1900, does anyone out there have a less expensive quote? If so, with whom?
Thanks!
Chrissy!

[Malcolm]

Hi, Chrissy,

We currently pay about half that with a Safeco policy purchased through an independent agent, which insures for two locations, and about 50 products, although our wholesale sales are still in 5 figures. We sell to about 120 gift stores. Note that we had to go through the quote and really pare back some of the coverages on our original quote. They want to add all kinds of coverages that may not be applicable to a food processing business, as most insurers experience is with food service. For example, dropping coverage for spoiled produce with a $1000 deductible, cut $200 a year off our premium.

We recently found that, at least here in the Western US, Farm Bureau Insurance (not Farmers or State Farm) is the best deal for specialty food manufacturers, and are getting another quote. We know one business, with a similar situation to us, but newer and smaller (in terms of wholesale sales), recently got insurance from Farm Bureau for under $300.

Please let us know what you end up doing! This is a valuable thread... the numbers are all over the board, from people I have talked to in the industry.

Malcolm

[Rebecca Renzette]

How did you go about distributing your product originally? Did you have to get inspected since you were making food? If you don't mind sharing the basics of starting out selling food I would really appreciate the help. Thanks!