Coverage built around what you make and how you make it.
Tell us about your products, machinery and production process. We’ll help you compare coverage for the risks that can stop the operation.
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WHO WE INSURE
Manufacturing operations we place.
Every operation below is placed by a HIFA commercial broker. Not listed? Still worth a call.
Metal Fab
Metal Fabricators
Hot work, and the product liability that follows what you ship.
Plastics
Plastics and Moulding
Tooling is expensive to replace and slow to remake.
Food and Bev
Food and Beverage Processors
Contamination and recall sit on top of ordinary property risk.
Packaging
Packaging Operations
High-speed lines, and what a mis-run costs once it has shipped.
Assembly
Industrial Assembly
You carry liability for a product somebody else designed.
Components
Component Manufacturers
Your part is judged by what it does inside someone else’s finished goods.
Wood Products
Wood Products
Dust extraction and finishing solvents drive how insurers price the fire load.
Specialty
Specialty Manufacturers
Low volume, high value, and machinery with no quick replacement.
NOT SURE HOW YOURS IS CLASSIFIED?
Send us what you make and how the floor runs.
An equipment schedule with replacement values, a short description of the processes, and last year’s revenue split by customer is usually enough to start.
Want to talk now?
WHO THIS IS FOR
Is this you?
If any of these describe your business, a commercial broker is worth the conversation.
1
Manufacturers with production equipment that has a long replacement lead time
2
Product sold on to third parties, or built into someone else’s finished goods
3
Significant raw material and finished goods values sitting on site
4
A single critical production line or press that the whole plant depends on
5
Contract manufacturers producing to a customer’s specification or under another brand’s label
WHAT CAN GO WRONG
The claims we see most in manufacturing.
Common risks
Machinery and equipment breakdown halting production
Fire or explosion in the plant, including from welding, heat processes or dust
Product liability from goods that fail or cause injury after they leave you
Property damage to plant, tooling and stock
Contingent business interruption from a critical supplier’s loss
Employee or visitor injury and machine-guarding risk
Contamination, recall and withdrawal costs, particularly in food manufacturing
Loss of income while a line is down and critical equipment is replaced
Coverage to discuss
General and Products Liability
Business Interruption
Equipment Breakdown
Product Recall and Contamination
Crime
Availability, limits and extensions vary by insurer and by operation. A broker confirms what applies to yours.
WHAT WE’LL ASK YOU
The questions that change the policy.
An online form asks what you are. We ask how you operate before approaching insurers.
01
What do you manufacture, and what is it used in once it leaves you?
02
Which processes run on the floor — welding, heat, solvents, dust extraction?
03
What are the replacement values of machinery and tooling, and the lead time on the critical pieces?
04
How is quality controlled and traced if a single batch has to be identified?
05
Who are your customers, and what do their contracts require of you?
06
What proportion of sales go to the United States, directly or through distributors?
Rather work through these with a broker?
REAL CLAIM EXAMPLES
Two situations worth understanding.
Critical machine stops the line
A transformer failure destroys the drive on the main production line, with a nine-month replacement lead time. Equipment breakdown may respond to the machinery damage, and business interruption to lost gross profit and continuing expenses across the outage.
Illustrative only. Whether a policy responds depends on its wording, limits and exclusions, and the indemnity period must be long enough to cover the actual outage.
A supplied part fails in the field
A component you manufactured is alleged to have failed inside a customer’s finished product, causing damage at the end user’s site. The customer looks to you under the supply agreement. Products liability may respond to defence costs and third-party damage, subject to the territory and jurisdiction the policy covers.
Damage to your own product, and the cost of replacing it, is normally excluded; recall and withdrawal costs sit outside products liability.
WHY HIFA
What a specialist broker does differently.
We underwrite the process, not the classification code
Two shops with the same code price very differently once welding, dust extraction and solvent use are on the table. We put the floor in writing before the submission goes out — what runs hot, what is guarded, how housekeeping is handled — so the rating reflects the plant an underwriter would actually walk through.
We insure the downtime, not just the machine
Replacing a CNC machine, an extruder or a filling line is rarely the largest number in the loss. The larger number is the months of lost production while it is sourced, shipped, installed and commissioned. We set the indemnity period against real lead times, including the requalification that follows.
We review what your part does once it is installed
What a component does inside a customer’s finished goods decides the liability it attracts, and so does where that product ends up. Selling into the United States changes the profile more than almost any other single factor. We check territory and jurisdiction wording against reality, and read what the supply agreement pushes onto you in recall and defence obligations.
WHAT AFFECTS THE PRICE
Two plants making similar products can price very differently.
What affects your premium
Products manufactured, and the liability they carry
Annual revenue and the proportion exported, particularly to the US
Building construction, sprinkler protection and housekeeping standards
Replacement cost of plant, equipment, tooling and stock
Machine guarding, lockout procedures and safety record
For food: HACCP or preventive control plan and audit results
The business interruption limit and the indemnity period you select
Claims history and any prior recall or product events
What to have ready
Description of products manufactured and the processes used
Annual revenue with export and US breakdown
Equipment schedule with replacement values and lead times
Realistic outage estimate for your most critical machine
Building details, sprinkler protection and fire protection systems
For food manufacturers: HACCP documentation and third-party audit results
Customer contracts or supply agreements that set insurance requirements
Loss runs for the past five years
WHERE WE WORK
The western GTA.
Plants and fabrication shops across Burlington, Oakville, Milton, Mississauga and Hamilton, including Hamilton’s industrial north end and the Milton and Mississauga industrial parks.
Common questions
What manufacturers ask.
Does product liability cover the cost of a recall?
How long should my business interruption indemnity period be?
We sell to a distributor who exports to the US. Does that count as US exposure?
What is contingent business interruption?
Do we need cyber insurance for a manufacturing plant?
Is equipment breakdown included in a standard property policy?
READY TO TALK?
A manufacturing programme built around the line you cannot lose.
Send an equipment schedule with replacement values, your revenue split by customer and territory, and five years of loss runs. A broker comes back with what the market will write.
Want to talk now?