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Industry Practice · Services, health & logistics

Warehousing & Cold Storage

Cover for warehouse operators and cold storage facilities, property, customer goods, refrigeration breakdown and stock spoilage.

Customer goods loss & damageRefrigeration breakdownBuilding & racking fire
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The sector

Customer goods in the operator's care need separate cover from the operator's own property.

Warehouse and cold-storage operators carry both their own property risk and bailee's liability for customer goods. Cold-storage facilities additionally face refrigeration-breakdown exposure where a few hours of plant failure can destroy weeks of stock. The right programme treats each as a discrete cover, not a generic 'warehouse policy'.

Risk profile

Where the exposure lives.

Warehousing and cold storage face fire, stock spoilage and handling liability above all. These four come first.

01
Customer goods loss & damage
Bailee's liability for goods in the operator's custody, fire, flood, theft or handling damage.
02
Refrigeration breakdown
Cold-room plant failure leading to deterioration of stocks, typically excluded from standard fire policies.
03
Building & racking fire
Concentrated stock and racking systems carry elevated fire-spread risk.
04
Forklift & handling damage
Material handling equipment causing damage to stock, racking or building structure.
Recommended cover

The programme we typically place.

Each cover below is a link to the policy page. The combination, the limits and the wording are what we negotiate on your behalf.

01
Fire & Burglary
IPP Fire on warehouse property + bailee's customer-goods extension.
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02
Plant & Machinery
Machinery breakdown for refrigeration plant with deterioration-of-stock cover.
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03
Public Liability
Bailee's and general liability for goods damage and third-party injury.
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04
Commercial Vehicle
Fleet cover for forklifts, reach trucks and yard vehicles.
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Claim reality

What a claim tends to look like here.

A defining claim is fire or a refrigeration breakdown that spoils stored stock, often owned by third parties, which brings both property and bailee-liability exposure. Stacking height and fire protection strongly shape the outcome.

Questions

Questions we get in this sector.

It depends on the storage contract. Where you are liable for customers' goods in your care, warehouse-keeper's liability cover responds; where the owner insures, your cover focuses on the building and plant. We map this before placement.
Deterioration-of-stock cover responds to spoilage from a covered breakdown or power failure, subject to the policy conditions. We confirm the trigger and the standby-power requirements in writing.
Whoever owns it, unless the storage contract says otherwise. Warehouse keepers carry liability cover with limits, not cover for the full value of goods held, so a depositor relying on the warehouse's policy is usually relying on a fraction of the value.
Only with a deterioration of stock extension following a covered breakdown or power failure. Cold storage without that extension is insured against the building burning and not against the thing most likely to destroy the stock.
Considerably. Height, aisle width, separation and the presence of a sprinkler system all change how far a fire spreads before it is controlled, and insurers rate and accept on that as much as on the value stored.

Need a sector-specific risk review?

Speak with an advisor who has arranged cover for warehousing before.

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