MICROBREWERIES, VINEYARDS, CIDER HOUSES AND DISTILLERIES

Civil liability protects you against material or bodily injury that you could inadvertently cause to a third party or to one of your customers anywhere in your operating territory. For example, if customers become intoxicated with your alcohol and decide to sue you, it is important to have a good limit to cover the various costs incurred by this situation. This is even truer if you are exporting outside the province or country. So, this coverage is essential in order to protect your business in the event of a lawsuit or a claim attributable to your business activities, your business premises or your work.

The addition of the executive risks protection, known as “D&O”, covers the directors and officers of your business. Whether you sit on a board of directors or are a corporate executive, you could be held liable for any act of mismanagement of the company. This protection covers defense expenses that arise from allegations or lawsuits against members of the board of directors or executives of a company.

The executive risk policy also covers:

• Responsibility for employment practices. Highly important coverage for any company managing employees.
• Fiduciary responsibility. Coverage of risks associated with the management of employee pension plans (poor investment, negligence in the selection of service providers, etc.).

Building insurance covers real estate, namely, walls, floors, windows, and even your company cupboards and counters against fire, theft, vandalism and much more. It also protects your electrical system, heating system, plumbing and everything that is affixed to the building.

The equipment used in the course of your business activities will be protected by this warranty in the event of fire, lightning or even following a natural gas, acoal or a manufactured gas explosions.

The following are covered by this protection:

• bottling machines;
• vats;
• shredders;
• packing machinery; 
• extruders;
• the food cutting and processing system;
• production lines;
• extractors;
• brewing systems;
• mixers;
• etc.

This warranty offers you protection against damage caused by the sudden and accidental failures of your equipment in order to repair or replace it. It also offers inspection services for your equipment.

The following are covered by this protection:

• Pressure vessels;
• Electrical appliances;
• Mechanical equipment;
• Electronic equipment and data losses;
• Loss of revenue.

You can also add the “Production Machine” rider to cover your production equipment such as bottling machines.

Coverage that can be added as an endorsement: deterioration of your merchandise

Was your refrigerated product lost due to breakage on your compressors? You can cover the value of your products with this type of rider.

This addition to your insurance policy helps cover water damage at your business.

You are offered two options to add this warranty:

• Sewer back-up rider: this protection covers a backed-up sewer as well as the overflow of a catchment basin.
• Flood rider: this coverage protects you in the event of a water overflow affecting the insured premises.

This warranty protects all items and merchandise that you produce, handle or distribute, or those that are produced on your behalf. It also covers all the input products that you have acquired externally for the operation of your business activities, such as malt, hops, yeast, berries, apples and grapes, as well as corks, labels and bottles.

This addition to your insurance policy allows you to protect the merchandise that belong to you and that is stored with third parties. It is very important to have your subcontracting contract analyzed by your broker before signing it, as this can affect the insurance coverage in force. To validate: the storage insurance limit, the addresses of your packer and the loss of income associated with a loss caused by your packer. In fact, if it suffers a total loss, you will suffer losses that can be insured through the contingent business income protection.

You can cover third-party property either as direct damage, in the property section of your contract, or as legal liability for warehousing. This should be discussed with your broker depending on the agreement you have with the third party in question. This coverage is important to consider in order to avoid any lawsuit that could cost you legal fees.

This addition to your insurance contract allows you to insure the goods that you transport or have transported by a third party, at any time. Your products, whether they are in bottles, cans or barrels, will be protected in the event of theft or damage while being transported by land or sea, in transit, and during loading and unloading. In addition, you can cover the deterioration of your products due to breakage in the refrigerated container (reefer). This coverage should be supplemented by a rider.

In the event of contamination of your product, you may be required to quickly take them off the market. Product recall insurance covers the costs associated with this withdrawal, as well as those associated with rehabilitation of the product brand or the replacement of the product. You could also be indemnified in the event of an operating loss resulting in the decrease of your sales.

The following protections are also offered:

• The value of your recalled products;
• The cost of cleaning your facilities to prevent possible contamination;
• The loss of revenue associated with this recall;
• Crisis management costs, such as a team of professionals working to defend your interests, your brand image and your reputation in order to ensure the continuity of your operations;
• Liability related to the recall of a third-party product for which you are a supplier.

This protection allows you to cover your business in the event of the loss or deterioration of your products resulting directly from contamination taking place on the insured premises. This coverage reimburses damages and the destruction of the contaminated products.

This insurance covers damage caused by pollution resulting from a sudden and accidental or continuous and gradual event, depending on the type of contract. As a result, your company will be protected in the event of pollution from the discharge, dispersal, release or escape of solid, liquid or gaseous substances in the atmosphere, in the water or in water lines, sewers or drainage systems. It can also include coverage against fines and penalties.

This warranty allows the reimbursement of lost profits or expenses incurred in order to maintain your normal operations in the event of a major disaster. For example, the rental of buildings or equipment as well as compensation for the reduction of your income.

This protection compensates you in the event that a major accident causes the loss of unsold goods. By selecting it, you are compensated according to the market value of the lost products and are reimbursed for the production cost of these products as well as for the profits that they would have brought you.

This coverage protects you in the event that your suppliers suffer a serious loss, which puts them in the impossible position of supplying you with their products. By adding this coverage to your contract, you will be indemnified for operating losses resulting from this situation. Your loss of revenue will also be covered in the event that one of your main clients suffers a loss that would prevent him from buying your products, resulting in a significant loss of your revenue.

Adding this protection to your business insurance contract allows you to cover yourself, on one hand, in the event of internal fraud, such as the embezzlement of valuables or money by employees or theft of movable property by an employee. On the other hand, this protection can be extended to cover you against external fraud, such as imitation of signature, embezzlement, false emails or social engineering fraud.

The majority of farm insurance policies can include a section for coverage of your property on your vineyard or orchard. By adding this coverage to your contract, your dwelling and belongings overall will be protected. You will therefore be indemnified in the event of a fire, theft, vandalism or water damage.

This protection not only covers liability related to the management of the private information of your customers and employees, but also to the management of your own data in the event of computer hacking.

It also includes these types of protections:

• Protection against accidental computer intrusions;
• Coverage of costs related to data recovery;
• Coverage of costs related to the reporting of data breaches;
• The loss of revenue you may suffer as a result of an event such as “ransomware” or “malware”.