Manufacturing and engineering
Engineering Company Insurance
for UK manufacturers, fabricators and engineering firms
Engineering company insurance packages employers and public liability, products liability, premises and stock, machinery and business interruption into one policy for manufacturers and engineering firms, rather than leaving you to buy each separately.
- Liability, products and premises
- Machinery, plant and breakdown
- UK and export sales covered
Quick answerEngineering company insurance is a combined policy for a UK manufacturing or engineering business. It brings liability, products, premises, stock, machinery and business interruption together in one arrangement, so the workshop, the people and the things you make are covered under a single renewal. Tell MyMoneyComparison.com about the company once, and specialist UK brokers can come back with quotes to compare.
At a glance
Engineering Company Insurance at a Glance
The short answers to the questions engineering businesses ask most, before the detail below.
| Question | Quick answer |
|---|---|
| What does it cover? | Liability, products, premises and stock, machinery, tools and business interruption, in one policy. |
| Is it one policy or several? | One. It is a commercial combined policy shaped for manufacturing and engineering. |
| Is any of it compulsory? | Employers liability is, once you employ anyone. Public and products liability are not, but customers insist on them. |
| Does it cover what I make? | Products liability covers injury or damage your products cause after they leave you. |
| Does it cover exports? | Usually worldwide for goods supplied from the UK. North America is treated differently. |
| Are my machines covered? | Property cover deals with fire and flood. Breakdown of the machine itself is a separate section. |
| What about design work? | Design and specification errors are professional indemnity, not products liability. |
| What does it cost? | It depends on turnover, wageroll, what you make, where you sell it and your claims record. |
The basics
What Is Engineering Company Insurance?
Engineering company insurance is a combined commercial policy built for UK manufacturers, fabricators and engineering firms. It covers your liability to other people, the things you make, your premises, plant and stock, and the income you lose if the business stops.
It is not a single product with a fixed shape. It is a commercial combined policy with the sections a manufacturing business actually needs, which is why two engineering firms of the same size can hold very different policies. A precision machine shop, a steel fabricator and a process plant builder each carry a different mix of risk.
Why engineering firms buy it combined
- One renewal and one broker conversation instead of five separate policies
- Products liability sized to what you make and where you sell it
- Machinery and breakdown cover alongside the building and the stock
- Business interruption that reflects how long a rebuild or a replacement machine takes
One policy, several sections
What usually sits inside
- Employers liabilityRequired by law once you employ anyoneCore
- Public and products liabilityInjury or damage caused by you or by what you makeCore
- Property and stockThe building, the contents, raw material and finished goodsCore
- Machinery and breakdownPlant damage, and the machine failing on its ownAdded
- Business interruptionLost gross profit while you get going againAdded
How it works
How Does Engineering Company Insurance Work?
You describe the business, its turnover and what it makes, then set a sum insured for each section. The policy runs for a year and is reviewed at renewal against your claims. Changes during the year should be declared as they happen.
Describe the business properly
Your turnover split between UK and export, your wageroll by category, and a clear description of what you actually make and what it goes into.
Set the sums insured
Buildings on a rebuild basis, machinery at replacement cost, stock at its real value, and business interruption on gross profit over a realistic recovery period.
Review it as the business changes
A new product line, a first export order or a much bigger machine all change the risk. Telling the insurer costs nothing; not telling them can cost a claim.
The single most useful thing you can do before a quote is get the work split right. Insurers rate on what you make and where it goes, and a vague description gets rated cautiously. Our commercial combined guide explains what each section is buying you.
What it covers
What Does Engineering Company Insurance Cover?
The core is employers, public and products liability, plus your buildings, plant and stock. Machinery breakdown and business interruption are usually added, and design work needs professional indemnity alongside.
Employers liability
Claims from employees injured or made ill at work. Compulsory once you employ anyone, and it covers most labour-only agency staff too. See employers liability insurance.
Public liability
Injury to visitors, customers or contractors, and damage to property that is not yours, whether at your premises or on their site. More on our public liability page.
Products liability
Injury or damage caused by something you made or supplied after it has left you. The section that matters most to a manufacturer.
Buildings, plant and stock
The premises, the machinery inside, raw material and finished goods, against fire, flood, impact, theft and accidental damage.
Machinery breakdown
The machine failing on its own, which standard property cover does not treat as damage. Bought as its own section.
Business interruption
The gross profit you lose while you rebuild or replace, over an indemnity period that should match your real lead times.
Cover worth adding
Professional indemnity
For design, specification and advice, which products liability does not touch. See professional indemnity insurance.
Goods in transit
Finished goods and materials while they are moving between you, your suppliers and your customers.
Computer and cyber
Controls, CAD and production systems. Ours is at cyber insurance.
Exclusions
What Isn’t Covered by Engineering Company Insurance?
Products liability does not pay to recall or replace your own product, and no policy backs a performance guarantee or pays penalties for delay. Design errors need professional indemnity, and North American claims are usually carved out. Wordings differ, so read your own schedule.
Recalling or replacing your own product
If a batch is faulty, getting it back and replacing it is your cost. What is usually covered is the damage that faulty part does to other property, which is often the far bigger number.
Claims brought in North America
Exports are generally covered worldwide, but the United States and Canada are treated separately and often excluded unless you declare and buy them back.
Performance guarantees
If you promise an output rate or an efficiency figure and miss it, that is a commercial risk. Penalties for delay are excluded too.
Design and specification errors
A design that is simply wrong, with nothing damaged, is a professional indemnity claim rather than a products one.
Wear, tear and gradual causes
Corrosion, gradual deterioration and normal maintenance are not insured events. The policy responds to sudden, accidental loss.
Undeclared activities
Work outside what you told the insurer you do, including a new process or a first export order, can affect a claim.
The recall point is the one worth understanding properly. A faulty bearing you supplied is your cost to replace. The gearbox it destroyed is usually the insurer’s. If recall itself is a real risk for you, it is bought as its own policy.
Business types
What Kind of Engineering Business Can Be Covered?
General and mechanical engineering, fabrication and welding, manufacturing, machinery installation, electrical and control engineering, heating and refrigeration, specialist equipment makers and engineering contractors. What changes between them is the products exposure and the machinery values.
General and mechanical engineering
Machining, turning, milling and assembly work, usually to a customer drawing.
Metal fabrication and welding
Structural and sheet metalwork, where hot work and heavy lifting drive the risk.
Manufacturing businesses
Making products in volume for other businesses or for consumers, where the products section does the heavy lifting.
Machinery installation and commissioning
Putting equipment into a customer site, where the riskiest moment is the first run.
See contract works coverElectrical and control engineering
Panels, controls and automation. Ours on that is at
Electrical contractors insuranceHeating, ventilation and refrigeration
Installed plant in other people buildings, often under maintenance contracts.
Pumps, valves and specialist equipment
Components fitted into a customer process, where what your part damages matters more than the part.
Engineering contractors
Working on customer sites rather than only in your own workshop.
See civil engineering insuranceWho it’s for
Who Needs Engineering Company Insurance?
UK manufacturing and engineering companies with employees: machinists, fabricators, component makers, machine builders, exporters and firms with products still in service from years ago. The bigger the products exposure, the more the policy matters.
Precision and subcontract machinists
Working to customer drawings, where a dimension out of tolerance can stop a production line.
Fabricators and welders
Hot work, cranes and heavy material, with employers liability doing a lot of the work.
Component manufacturers
Supplying parts that get fitted into something far more valuable than the part itself.
Machine builders and integrators
Designing and building equipment, which usually needs professional indemnity alongside.
Exporters
Selling outside the UK, where the territorial terms matter more than the premium.
Long-established firms with legacy products
Where something you made years ago is still in service and still your exposure.
If you take design responsibility, even informally by suggesting a better way to do something, that is a professional exposure rather than a products one. It is worth checking whether it is covered, because it usually is not without a separate section.
Compare the options
A Combined Policy vs Separate Policies
A combined policy puts liability, property, machinery and interruption with one insurer on one renewal, which is how most UK engineering companies buy. Separate policies can make sense for an unusual risk, but leave more room for gaps between them.
| Combined policy | Separate policies | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Most engineering companies with premises and staff | Very small firms, or unusual risks no single insurer will take |
| Admin | One policy, one renewal, one broker conversation | Several policies and renewal dates to track |
| Gaps | Fewer, because the sections are written to sit together | More likely, where one policy ends and the next begins |
| Claims | One insurer, so less argument about which policy responds | Two insurers can each point at the other |
| Flexibility | Sections can still be added or left out | Each policy can be placed with the best market for it |
One thing a combined policy does not automatically include is machinery breakdown. It is a separate section, and standard property cover does not treat a machine failing on its own as damage. For a firm whose revenue runs through a handful of machines, that is the section that matches the real failure mode.
Pricing
How Much Does Engineering Company Insurance Cost?
There is no standard price. Engineering cover is rated on turnover and the export share, wageroll, what you make and what it goes into, machinery values and your claims record. Two firms of the same size can pay very different premiums.
Size and people
- Annual turnoverAnd how much of it is export.
- Estimated wagerollSplit between office and shop floor.
- HeadcountIncluding agency and temporary labour.
- Years tradingAnd any change of activity or ownership.
What you make
- Products and end useWhat it does and what it gets fitted into.
- Where it is soldNamed export destinations, because territory is rated.
- Own brand or bought inWhether you badge anything you did not make.
- Guarantees givenAny performance or output promises in your contracts.
Plant and terms
- Machinery valuesAnd the single most valuable item.
- Critical machinesAnd the real lead time to replace them.
- Indemnity periodMeasured against that lead time.
- Claims historyFive years, by section.
We publish no example premiums, because no UK body collects and publishes pricing for this sector. Every average in circulation is one broker or aggregator describing its own book, usually of much smaller firms, so it tells a manufacturer with an export ledger very little.
Before you start
What Information Do I Need for an Engineering Insurance Quote?
Insurers need turnover split between home and export, wageroll by category, a clear description of what you make and its end use, named export destinations, machinery values and critical plant, and a full claims history.
About the business
- Turnover for three years, split UK and export
- Estimated wageroll by category
- Headcount including agency labour
- Five years of claims
What you supply
- A clear description of the products and their end use
- Export destinations, named
- Anything you badge as your own that you did not make
- Any performance guarantees you give
Plant and premises
- Buildings rebuild value and machinery replacement cost
- The single most valuable machine
- Which machines the revenue depends on
- Realistic lead time to replace them
Compare with MyMoneyComparison.com
How to Compare Engineering Insurance Quotes
Read the products section before the premium, check where you are covered to sell, and make sure the business interruption period matches how long it would really take to get running again.
Check the products section first
It is where the biggest claims live. Look at how Product is defined and whether damage to other property is covered.
Look at territory, not just limit
Where you can sell matters as much as how much you are covered for, especially if anything reaches North America.
Match the indemnity period to reality
If a critical machine takes eighteen months to replace, a twelve month interruption period is not long enough.
Tell us about the company once and specialist UK brokers can come back to you. We are an introducer rather than a broker, so we do not sell the policy or recommend one. Our editorial policy explains how we work.
Cutting costs
How Can I Reduce the Cost of Engineering Company Insurance?
An accurate description of what you make, current machinery values, evidence of quality control and properly declared export destinations are what move the price most. Reviewing the excess and fixing a pattern of small claims also help.
Describe the work precisely
A vague trade description gets rated cautiously. An accurate split between product lines usually gets rated better.
Keep the plant record current
Machinery values that reflect replacement cost, and a list of what the revenue actually depends on.
Show your quality control
Batch traceability and inspection records reduce the products exposure an underwriter is pricing.
Declare export properly
Undeclared territory is the expensive kind of surprise. Declared territory is just a rating factor.
Fix the claims pattern
Repeated small losses move a renewal more than one large one. Deal with the cause and say what you did.
Review the excess
Carrying more of the small, frequent losses yourself can bring the premium down noticeably.
Premises you rent out, and property away from the workshop, sit on a separate policy. Ours is commercial property insurance.
Jargon buster
Engineering Insurance Jargon, Explained
The terms that come up most when you read an engineering policy schedule.
- Products liability
- Cover for injury or damage caused by something you made or supplied, after it has left you.
- Definition of Product
- The policy wording that decides where your product stops and other property begins.
- Efficacy
- A product or system failing to do the job it was meant to do, which liability policies exclude.
- Machinery breakdown
- The machine failing on its own, rather than being damaged by fire, flood or impact.
- Indemnity period
- How long business interruption cover will keep paying after a loss.
- Gross profit
- The insurance definition, which is turnover less specified variable costs, not the accounting one.
- Wageroll
- Total employee earnings, usually split between office and shop floor, used to rate employers liability.
- Territorial limits
- Where in the world the policy will respond, which for products is usually worldwide with exceptions.
More terms are unpicked in our plain English jargon guide.
Why MyMoneyComparison.com
Comparing Specialist Engineering Cover
MyMoneyComparison.com is an FCA-authorised UK comparison service that introduces companies to specialist brokers. We do not sell insurance and we do not give advice: the broker you choose arranges the policy. Comparing is free and there is no obligation.
Form for the whole company
Describe the business, what it makes and the cover you need once instead of repeating yourself to each broker.
Advice given
We are an introducer, not a broker. We do not sell policies and we do not recommend one. Read our editorial policy.
Authorised and regulated
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Comparing since
A UK company since 2013, working with specialist brokers across the country.
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Engineering Company Insurance FAQs
The questions UK manufacturers and engineering firms ask most.
What is engineering company insurance?
It is a combined commercial policy for a UK manufacturing or engineering business, bringing employers and public liability, products liability, premises, stock, machinery and business interruption into one arrangement. It is not a fixed product, so two firms of the same size can hold very different policies.
What does engineering company insurance cover?
The core is employers liability, public and products liability, and your buildings, plant and stock. Most firms add machinery breakdown and business interruption. If you take design responsibility, professional indemnity sits alongside it, because products liability does not cover a design that is simply wrong.
Is any of it a legal requirement?
Employers liability is, once you employ anyone, and motor cover is required for vehicles on the road. Public and products liability are not required by UK law at all. They are required by almost every customer, distributor and framework you will supply under, which is a different kind of obligation.
What is products liability?
It covers injury or damage caused by something you made or supplied, after it has left your premises. For a manufacturer it is usually the section carrying the largest single exposure, because a component can end up inside equipment worth far more than the component itself.
Does products liability pay to recall or replace my product?
No. Getting a faulty batch back and replacing it is your cost. What the policy normally does cover is the damage that faulty product causes to other property, which is often the far bigger number. If recall itself is a real risk, it is bought as its own separate policy.
Are my exports covered?
Usually, yes. Product cover is commonly worldwide for goods supplied from the United Kingdom, so selling into Europe, Asia or Australia is often on the same terms as selling at home. North America is the exception and is treated separately, so declare where you sell.
Why are the United States and Canada treated differently?
Because claims brought there cost more and are harder to defend. Policies commonly exclude them unless you declare the exposure and buy it back, and even where cover is given the terms are usually tighter. If any of your product reaches North America, even through a distributor, say so.
Does the policy cover a performance guarantee?
No. If you promise an output rate, an efficiency figure or an uptime level and miss it, that is a commercial risk sitting on your own balance sheet. Penalties for delay are excluded too. Cap those obligations in the contract and price the residual risk into the job.
Is machinery breakdown included?
Not as standard. Property cover deals with fire, flood, impact and similar events. A machine failing on its own is not treated as damage in the same way, so breakdown is a separate section. For a firm whose revenue runs through a few machines it is worth having.
Does business interruption cover a machine breaking down?
Only if you have extended it to do so. Standard business interruption follows the property cover, so it responds to damage by an insured event rather than to a breakdown. Ask for machinery breakdown to be extended to interruption if a single machine could stop you earning.
What indemnity period should I choose?
Long enough to actually recover. Work out how long it would really take to get a replacement machine specified, ordered, delivered, installed and running, and to win back the customers you lost meanwhile. For bespoke plant with long lead times, twelve months is often not enough.
Do I need professional indemnity as well?
If you design, specify or advise, yes. Products liability responds where something physically goes wrong. A design that is simply wrong, with nothing damaged, produces a claim for putting the design right and the losses flowing from it, and that is professional indemnity territory.
Does it cover work I do on a customer site?
Public liability covers injury and damage while you are there. If you are installing equipment into a building under construction, contract works cover may also be needed, and who arranges it depends on the contract. Our contractors all risks page covers that side.
Are agency and temporary staff covered?
Usually yes under employers liability, because the duty follows the reality of the working relationship rather than the label on the invoice. Someone working under your direction, on your site, to your instruction is very likely your employee for this purpose. Declare them in the wageroll.
What should my sums insured be?
Buildings on a rebuild basis rather than market value, machinery at what it costs to replace today, and stock at its real value including work in progress. Business interruption should be on gross profit as the policy defines it, which is not the same as the accounting figure.
How much does engineering company insurance cost?
There is no standard price and we publish no examples, because no UK body collects and publishes pricing for this sector. What moves your premium is turnover and the export share, wageroll, what you make and what it goes into, machinery values, the limits you choose and your claims record.
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About this page
This page explains what engineering company insurance is, what it covers, who needs it and what moves the price, for UK manufacturers and engineering firms with employees rather than one-person workshops. It is general information rather than advice. Policies differ, so read your own schedule and put the questions here to your broker. For building contractors see construction company insurance, for electrical and M and E work see electrical contractors insurance, and for cover on the works themselves see contractors all risks insurance.
How we researched this page
- Six UK liability wordings from different drafting houses, compared on the products exclusions and territorial limits
- Two machinery policies and a commercial combined schedule, for the breakdown and business interruption sections
- Health and Safety Executive guidance on compulsory employers liability insurance
We publish no example premiums, because no UK body collects and publishes pricing for this sector. Where wordings differ we say they differ rather than picking one and calling it the market. Three things in wide circulation are corrected here: that products liability will pay to recall your own product, that exports are generally excluded, and that machinery breakdown comes as standard with property cover.
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