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Reviewed by Apex Insurance Brokers · Last reviewed 2026-08-08
A lot of trading premises in Stoke-on-Trent are Victorian industrial stock: brick works built for pottery manufacture, now split into units for joiners, gyms, printers, storage firms and studios. Two things follow from that. First, rebuild cost and market value have almost nothing to do with each other here — an old works might change hands cheaply, but reinstating period brickwork after a fire costs far more than the purchase price suggests. If your sum insured is based on what you paid, you're probably underinsured, and the average clause means a partial claim gets scaled down too.
Second, kiln heritage brings conservation strings. A number of the surviving bottle kilns are protected structures, and if one stands in your yard or is built into your unit, reinstatement has to satisfy heritage requirements — matching materials, specialist trades, longer timescales. That pushes up both the buildings sum insured and the business interruption indemnity period you should be carrying. Twelve months is rarely enough when conservation officers are involved; we'd usually want to talk about twenty-four or more.
The city still makes things. Studio potters, small-batch ceramics firms, decorators and tile businesses all run heat processes — and a kiln left on an overnight programme is exactly the kind of detail an insurer treats as a material fact. So are gas firing, spray glazing and solvent storage. The duty to give insurers a fair presentation of your risk sits with you, and an undisclosed kiln is one of the easier ways to end up arguing about a fire claim rather than being paid for one.
The same honesty applies to employers' liability. Dust is a long-standing hazard in ceramics work, and EL policies respond to disease claims that surface years later. Keep records of who worked for you, when, and what extraction and protective equipment you provided — and keep old EL certificates, because a claim from past employment lands on the policy that was in force at the time.
Few Potteries businesses make a finished product alone. One firm supplies clay or glaze, another makes ware, another decorates it, another packs and hauls it. That chain creates insurance questions people often miss. If you decorate or finish another company's ware, their stock sits in your building — do you have cover for goods held in trust, and at the right value? If you move finished ceramics, your goods-in-transit limit needs to reflect how breakable a vanload actually is, and how it's packed.
Product liability matters all along the chain too: tableware, giftware and tiles end up in homes and commercial kitchens, and a defect claim can pass back down the line to whoever made or supplied the faulty element. And if your production genuinely depends on one specialist supplier, ask about a suppliers' extension on your business interruption cover — losing them to their fire can stop your output just as surely as your own.
Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton grew up as separate towns, and the city still trades that way — separate centres, spread out, stitched together by vans. Practical consequences: plenty of businesses here run more than one site, so every trading address needs to be on the policy schedule, not just the head office. Trades serving all six towns live out of their vehicles, which makes overnight tool theft cover and its conditions — forced entry requirements, overnight exclusions — worth reading before you need them, not after. And if staff drive between sites in their own cars, check your motor arrangements actually cover business use.
Only one piece of this is compulsory: if you employ anyone, the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires employers' liability cover, and that includes casual, part-time and temporary staff. Public liability is not a legal requirement — but try winning council work, a landlord's lease on an industrial unit, or a subcontract from a main contractor without it. In practice it's the first certificate anyone asks to see. Beyond those, what you need depends on what you do: professional indemnity if you design or advise, contract works if you build, cyber if your orders and invoicing live online.
To be clear about who we are: Apex Insurance Brokers is based in Bristol and arranges cover for clients across the UK, Stoke-on-Trent included — everything is handled by phone, email and our online proposal system. For the broader picture of what we place, see our commercial insurance page or our UK business insurance hub, which includes dedicated pages for trades such as builders and carpenters.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This article is general information, not advice on a specific policy.
