Privacy Policy

PiP Automation respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you visit our website, contact us, request information, submit an enquiry, send us packaging for testing or otherwise deal with us in a business capacity.

1. Who we are

The data controller is:

Partners in Packaging Machine Systems Limited, trading as PiP Automation.

Registered in England and Wales. Company No. 07529045.

Registered Office:

7 Southgate Industrial Park Green Lane Heywood OL10 1ND United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0)1706 369000 Email: sales@pipautomation.com

References in this Policy to “PiP”, “we”, “our” or “us” mean Partners in Packaging Machine Systems Limited trading as PiP Automation.

2. The information we may collect

Depending upon how you interact with us, we may collect the following categories of personal information.

Contact and business information

This may include:

• your name;
• job title;
• employer or organisation;
• business address;
• telephone number;
• email address; and
• other business contact information.

Enquiry and project information

Where you contact us about machinery, service, support, tray testing or another project, we may collect:

• details of your enquiry;
• machinery requirements;
• packaging specifications;
• drawings;
• photographs;
• videos;
• production information;
• technical requirements;
• correspondence;
• quotations and orders; and
• notes made during discussions with you.

Some of this information may relate primarily to your company rather than to you personally. It is personal information where it identifies or can reasonably be linked to an individual.

Packaging and tray-testing submissions

If you use our tray-testing or packaging-testing service, we may record information including:

• your contact details;
• your company;
• the packaging manufacturer or supplier;
• package descriptions and specifications;
• photographs and video of samples;
• test results;
• engineering observations; and
• correspondence relating to the trial.

Customer and supplier information

Where you are a customer, prospective customer, supplier or other business contact, we may also process:

• quotation and order information;
• purchase orders;
• delivery information;
• invoicing and payment records;
• service history;
• machine records;
• installation and commissioning information; and
• contractual correspondence.

Website and technical information

When you use our website, we may collect technical information such as:

• IP address;
• browser type;
• device type;
• operating system;
• pages visited;
• referring website;
• approximate location derived from IP address;
• date and time of visits; and
• information collected through cookies or similar technologies.

Whether this information is collected depends upon the technologies enabled on the website and your cookie choices.

Please see our Cookie Policy for more information.

3. How we collect personal information

We may collect information:

• directly from you;
• when you complete a website form;
• when you email or telephone us;
• when you request a quotation;
• when you send packaging samples or technical information to us;
• during meetings, site visits, testing or project discussions;
• through our ongoing customer or supplier relationship;
• automatically through our website and permitted cookies or similar technologies;
• from your employer or colleagues;
• from publicly available business sources such as company websites or professional directories; and
• from business partners or other organisations where there is a lawful reason for them to provide the information to us.

4. How we use your information

We may use personal information to:

• respond to enquiries;
• discuss potential machinery applications;
• assess packaging or automation requirements;
• arrange and conduct tray or packaging trials;
• prepare quotations and proposals;
• design, manufacture and supply machinery;
• manage orders and contracts;
• install, commission and support equipment;
• supply spare parts and change parts;
• provide technical support and servicing;
• manage customer and supplier relationships;
• process invoices and payments;
• keep appropriate business and accounting records;
• improve our products, services and website;
• protect our business, website and systems;
• establish, exercise or defend legal rights;
• meet regulatory and legal obligations; and
• communicate relevant PiP products, services, developments or technical information to business contacts where permitted by law.

5. Our lawful bases for using personal information

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

Depending upon the circumstances, we may rely upon the following bases.

Contract

We may process information where this is necessary to:

• take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
• perform a contract with you.

This may apply particularly where you are a sole trader or otherwise personally party to a contract with us.

Legitimate interests

We may process personal information where necessary for our legitimate business interests and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.

Our legitimate interests may include:

• responding to business enquiries;
• developing customer and supplier relationships;
• providing quotations and technical information;
• managing projects;
• providing support;
• improving our machinery and services;
• protecting our business;
• preventing fraud or misuse;
• maintaining appropriate business records; and
• undertaking proportionate business-to-business marketing.

Where we rely upon legitimate interests, we consider whether the use of the information is necessary, proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances.

Legal obligation

We may process information where required to comply with legal, accounting, tax, regulatory or other statutory obligations.

Consent

Where consent is required, for example for certain electronic marketing activities or non-essential website technologies, we will ask for it.

Where processing is based upon consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

6. Business-to-business marketing

We may occasionally contact relevant business contacts about PiP machinery, services, technical developments, packaging automation or related information where permitted by law.

Depending upon the recipient and method of communication, we may rely upon legitimate interests or consent.

We will not use your personal information for electronic marketing where consent is legally required unless the appropriate consent has been obtained.

Every individual has the right to object to the use of their personal information for direct marketing.

You can ask us to stop sending marketing communications at any time.

You can do this by using any unsubscribe method provided in the communication or by contacting us at sales@pipautomation.com.

We may retain a minimal suppression record after you opt out so that we can ensure your preference is respected.

7. Sharing personal information

We do not sell personal information.

We may share information where reasonably necessary with organisations including:

• website hosting and technology providers;
• email and communications providers;
• IT support providers;
• customer relationship or business-management software providers;
• analytics providers where permitted by your cookie preferences;
• subcontractors and specialist engineers involved in a project;
• component or equipment suppliers where necessary;
• delivery and logistics providers;
• accountants, auditors, insurers, banks and professional advisers;
• legal advisers;
• regulators, government bodies or law-enforcement authorities where required; and
• another business in connection with a genuine sale, restructuring or transfer of all or part of our business.

We require service providers handling personal information on our behalf to use it only for the relevant authorised purpose and to protect it appropriately.

8. WordPress and website service providers

Our website is built using WordPress technology and may use services provided by WordPress, Automattic and other website service providers.

These services may process limited technical information necessary to host, secure, operate or analyse the website.

The providers and technologies used may change as the website develops.

Non-essential analytics, advertising or similar technologies will be controlled in accordance with our Cookie Policy and your consent choices where required.

9. International transfers

Some of the technology or service providers we use may process information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will take appropriate steps required by applicable UK data protection law.

Depending upon the destination and provider, these steps may include relying upon:

• UK adequacy regulations;
• contractual safeguards approved for international transfers; or
• another lawful transfer mechanism.

You may contact us if you would like further information about safeguards relevant to a particular transfer.

10. How long we keep personal information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including to meet legal, accounting, contractual and regulatory requirements.

Typical retention periods may include:

General enquiries

We will normally retain routine enquiries for up to 24 months after the last meaningful contact, unless there is a reason to retain them longer.

Quotations and potential projects

Quotation, application and project information may be retained for a longer period where the information could remain relevant to future machinery requirements, repeat enquiries or technical history.

We periodically review information that no longer has a reasonable business purpose.

Customers and completed projects

Contract, order, invoice, machinery and project records may normally be retained for at least six years after the relevant transaction or business relationship, and longer where reasonably required for machinery support, technical history, warranty, product safety, legal claims or regulatory purposes.

Because industrial machinery can remain in service for many years, we may retain certain machine-specific technical and service records for the useful life of the equipment where there is a legitimate need to do so.

Marketing information

Marketing contact information will be retained while it remains relevant and lawful for us to use it.

If you object or unsubscribe, we may keep sufficient information on a suppression list to ensure that we do not contact you again for the relevant marketing.

Website information

Retention periods for cookies and similar technologies are described in our Cookie Policy or cookie preference tool.

11. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against:

• unauthorised access;
• accidental loss;
• misuse;
• alteration;
• disclosure; and
• destruction.

Access to personal information is limited to people and service providers who reasonably need it for legitimate business purposes.

No internet-based service can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take reasonable steps appropriate to the nature of the information we handle.

12. Your data protection rights

Depending upon the circumstances and the lawful basis on which we process your information, you may have rights including:

• the right to be informed about how your information is used;
• the right to request access to personal information we hold about you;
• the right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• the right to request deletion of information in certain circumstances;
• the right to request restriction of processing in certain circumstances;
• the right to object to certain processing;
• the right to data portability in certain circumstances; and
• rights relating to decisions made solely by automated means where applicable.

Not every right applies in every situation.

Your right to object

You have the right to object at any time to the use of your personal information for direct marketing.

You may also have the right to object where we rely upon legitimate interests, although we may in some circumstances have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing.

13. Automated decision-making

We do not currently use personal information submitted through this website to make decisions based solely on automated processing which produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

The website’s ROI calculator, if used, produces indicative calculations based upon information entered by the user and does not make automated decisions about individuals.

14. Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites.

Those organisations operate their own privacy practices and policies. We are not responsible for how third-party websites collect or use personal information.

We recommend reviewing the privacy information provided by the relevant third party.

15. Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies for functions such as website operation, security, preferences and, where enabled and consented to, analytics or marketing.

Please see our separate Cookie Policy and cookie preference controls for more information.

16. Complaints and the ICO

If you have a concern about our use of your personal information, we would appreciate the opportunity to resolve it directly.

Please contact us at:

sales@pipautomation.com

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator.

Information about making a complaint is available from the ICO at ico.org.uk.

17. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in:

• our website;
• our business;
• the services we use;
• technology; or
• applicable law.

The latest version will be published on this website with its revision date.

18. Contact us

For privacy questions or requests relating to your personal information, please contact:

Partners in Packaging Machine Systems Limited trading as PiP Automation 7 Southgate Industrial Park Green Lane Heywood OL10 1ND United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0)1706 369000 Email: sales@pipautomation.com