What's your fit-out and contents worth?

What it would actually cost to replace everything — kitchen equipment, bar gear, furniture, fit-out and stock — not what you paid for it originally or what it is worth secondhand. Replacement after a loss almost always costs more than the original purchase, because equipment has to be sourced and installed urgently, and gas, electrical and fire-suppression work has to meet current standards even if the original fit-out did not.

Three reasons show up on almost every claim. Exhaust and fire-suppression systems have to meet current AS 1668 standards, which is a higher bar on an older fit-out. Gas and electrical work needs fresh compliance certificates rather than reusing what was there. And equipment bought and installed at short notice after a loss costs more than the same job planned months in advance, which is how most fit-outs are actually built.

Food and beverage stock on the premises at the time of loss. Declare it at a typical busy-week level, not a quiet one and not an average — insurers price to the peak exposure, and understating it here is a common way venues end up under-insured on the stock component specifically.

From your gross profit, not your revenue. Gross profit is what is left after cost of goods — the food and beverage cost that stops when you stop trading — and it is what an indemnity period is meant to replace, since wages, rent and other overheads keep running whether the venue is open or not. Multiply your weekly gross profit by the number of weeks in the indemnity period you choose and that is the figure to insure.

Because reinstatement in this class is rarely fast. Commercial kitchen equipment can have months of lead time, council health and food-safety inspection has to happen before you can trade again, and if a liquor licence lapses during a long closure, reinstating it takes time too. A 12-month period is only realistic for a quick reinstatement — cosmetic damage, or equipment that is readily available. Anything involving a full kitchen rebuild or approvals usually needs longer.

The arithmetic is exact, but it is only as good as the figures you put in, and we deliberately do not invent fit-out cost benchmarks or a default trading figure — every venue's kitchen, fit-out and trading pattern is different, and a generic number would produce exactly the underinsurance this tool exists to avoid. Treat the result as a real starting figure for a conversation, not a quote.