Privacy Policy

About Us

At MKM Building Supplies Ltd (MKM), we value the trust of our customers. We understand you are aware of, and care about, your personal data and privacy, which is why we are fully committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

MKM acts as the data controller for all personal data collected through our branches, central support centre and digital platforms and we are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, under registration number ZA116814. Our online services are registered Z2396671, and in addition, each of our branches are registered under their own registration certificate.

About this Privacy Policy

This privacy policy applies to all personal data collected through our branches, central support centre and our digital platforms. It explains our practices regarding the collection, storage, and use of your personal data and outlines your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to inform you of what to expect when we process your personal information. It is important for you to read this policy in full, to understand what information we hold about you, how we may use it and your rights in relation to your data. It should be read alongside our Cookies Policy, which deals specifically with personal data online.

What is Personal Data?

Personal data is any information that identifies you or can be used to identify you, either directly (for example, your name and address in our finance system) or indirectly (for example, your image captured on in-store CCTV).

What information do we collect & why do we need it?

When you interact with us in one of our branches, via our central support services, or through one of our digital platforms we may collect the following information about you.

Name, company name and contact details

• To open your account - when you make an application for an account, either through submission of the application form in one of our branches, or through any of our digital platforms; we use this data to fulfil our contract with you.
• Delivering your items to you - to fulfil our contract with you.
• Keeping you updated with service messages - to fulfil our contract with you (such as letting you know when to expect an order, requesting payment etc). These can be via email, text message, post or by telephone call.
• Keeping you updated on news, products & services that may be of interest through marketing messages by email, text message, post or by telephone, with your consent, or as part of our legitimate business interests, to keep you up to date with news from MKM, your local branch, new products, offers, events and more.
• Determine beneficiaries of your account - if you have multiple contacts on your account, we need to know what levels of access they should have.
• Fraud prevention and credit approval - to conduct credit reference searches and minimise the risk of fraud within our business and to our customers.
• Showing you MKM adverts on partner websites, apps and emails as you browse online So you can see the latest news from MKM, your local branch, new products, offers, events and more.
• Put you in contact with your nearest branch if you submit an enquiry or request a quote, we often use your postcode to determine your nearest MKM branch, stock and delivery information.

Date of birth

• Fraud prevention and credit approval - To conduct credit reference searches and minimise the risk of fraud within our business and to our customers.
• Send you a birthday greeting - We pride ourselves on being able to offer a personal touch and like to make our customers feel valued.
• Identity verification – to make sure we provide information to the right person on any Subject Access Requests you may make.

Hobbies and interests

• Target promotional activities – we want you to hear about promotions, news or events that we feel are relevant to your interests.

Payment information

• Take payment and provide refunds where necessary - to fulfil our contract with you.
• Fraud prevention and credit approval - to conduct credit reference searches and minimise the risk of fraud within our business and to our customers.

Contact history

• Provide customer service and support - to fulfil our contract with you and help us to resolve any queries or issues as quickly and as painless as possible.
• Staff training - to maintain our high customer service standards no matter who you contact.

Purchase history and saved list data

• Sell you products - to fulfil our contract with you, if it can’t be added to a basket then it can’t be purchased.
• Provide customer service and support - to fulfil our contract with you.
• For warranty or safety information - to fulfil our legal obligations, inform you of any possible product recalls, or safety issues and maintain our high customer service standards.
• Find out what products our customers like - purchase data helps us make sure our supplier selection and product offering is relevant to you.

Your device and how you use our website

• Improve our website, app, and other digital services – to give you the best shopping experience, set your default currency, optimise for your screen size, and personalise content based on your previous activity.
• Protect our website, app, and digital services – to prevent fraud within our business and for our customers, and to ensure our digital platforms are safe and secure.
• Understand usage and preferences – we use cookies, analytics, and app tracking to see how our digital services are used, identify trends, and improve functionality.
• Personalise your experience – with your consent, we may use location data from your device or app to suggest relevant products, services, or nearest branch locations.

When you visit us in branch or at any of our offices

• CCTV recordings - to protect us from theft, keep our costs down and keep our customers, employees and visitors safe.

Lawful basis for processing your data

We process your personal data only when we have a valid lawful basis to do so under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. The lawful basis for processing depends on the type of personal data we collect and the purpose for which we use it. Below is a summary of the different lawful bases we rely on.

1. Consent (Article 6(1)(a))

We process your personal data where you have given us permission. This includes sending marketing communications, collecting preferences, or any other activity requiring your consent.

2. Contract (Article 6(1)(b))

We process personal data to fulfil our contract with you. This includes setting up and managing your account, processing and delivering orders, providing quotations or estimates, and carrying out any contractual obligations.

3. Legal Obligation (Article 6(1)(c))

We process your personal data when required by law. This includes compliance with privacy regulations, anti-money laundering rules, financial services requirements, employment law, and health and safety obligations.

4. Legitimate Interest (Article 6(1)(f))

We process personal data for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights are not overridden. This includes managing communication preferences, marketing, training, monitoring and improving our app and website, securely storing data, tracking orders, maintaining contact with you, and understanding how you interact with our services.

Post-Purchase communications

After making a purchase, you may receive communications inviting you to submit a review of your experience with MKM. To facilitate this process, we share relevant customer data (such as your name, email address, and purchase details) with trusted service providers, (such as REVIEWS.io), who manage the review collection and display process on our behalf.

You can opt out of receiving review invitations at any time by following the instructions provided in the communication or by contacting us directly.

When submitting a review, you will be presented with the terms and privacy policy of the relevant service provider. These will also be available to view on their website, and we encourage you to review them before submitting your feedback.

Cookies

We use cookies on our website to improve your user experience. More information on cookies and how they are used can be found in our Cookies Policy.

Sharing your information

We do not sell or rent your personal information to any third party.

In certain limited circumstances, we may share your information with other organisations that we work with, or who provide services on our behalf in order to meet our contractual or legal requirements. We only provide those companies with the information they need in order to deliver the contracted service, or to fulfil our legal obligation, and we make sure that both we - and they - comply with all aspects of data protection law, including the safe transfer of data.

We may share data without first seeking your consent, but only where we have rigorously determined that sharing meets one, or more, or the lawful bases as required by data protection law.

This may be with:

• Payment service providers: To securely process your payments and refunds.
• Delivery and logistics partners: To deliver products to you and manage orders.
• Credit reference agencies and crime prevention organisations: To verify identity, assess creditworthiness, and prevent fraud. Such as HMRC and the Police.
• Analytics providers: To help us understand how our digital services are used, improve functionality, and enhance user experience.
• Consent management platforms: To manage and record your preferences regarding cookies and data sharing.
• Search and merchandising platforms: To optimise product search results and recommendations on our digital platforms.
• Selected manufacturers or suppliers: For the purposes of fulfilment of ‘direct to site’ orders, warranties, maintenance and safety compliance (such as product recalls).
• Survey and feedback tools: To collect customer feedback and improve our services.
• Marketing and advertising partners: To deliver relevant adverts and measure campaign effectiveness.
• Social media platforms: To enable sharing, following, and engagement with our content.
• Selected other partners that provide services on our behalf: For example, our mailing distribution company, our document storage provider, companies that provide trace information in the event of debt, as well as providers of essential technical, security, infrastructure, and data validation services that support the operation, security, and reliability of our digital platforms.
• Duty of disclosure: To comply with request to compliance with legal obligations.
• Prospective buyers: In the event of a sale of one or more parts of our business.

For specific details about the third parties with whom we share your data, or if you have any questions about how your information is used, please contact us using the details provided in the ‘How to contact us’ section of this policy.

Social networks and external websites

Our website may offer you the opportunity to share or follow MKM through third party social networking functionality such as ‘share’, ‘like’ or ‘follow’ buttons. Our website may also contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks and manufacturers.

In the event you follow any links to social media or other external links, these websites will have their own privacy policies, and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these. We would always advise that you check those policies before submitting any information to those websites.

Your choices and Marketing Preferences

We may send you marketing communications or personalise your experience in two ways:

• Based on your consent – for example, if you have agreed to receive emails about offers, promotions, or events. You can withdraw your consent at any time, and we will stop sending these communications immediately.
• Based on our legitimate interests – for example, to provide you with updates about your account, relevant products, or services we think may interest you. You have the right to object to this type of processing at any time. If you object, we will stop using your data for those purposes, unless we have compelling legitimate reasons to continue or are required by law.

You can manage your marketing preferences or object to processing by:

• Updating your preferences in your online account.
• Clicking ‘unsubscribe’ in marketing emails.
• Replying to the stop code in text messages.
• Contacting us at unsubscribe@mkmbs.co.uk

By unsubscribing from our marketing messages, you will still receive service messages from us (such as order updates, confirmation of account payments, confirmation of changes to your account, forgotten password emails (if requested by you) and messages regarding any other important issues that may affect you as a customer.

Please note that whilst we aim to action your request as soon as possible, in some cases it can take up to 30 days for all our systems to be updated, you may still receive marketing messages from us during this time.

Keeping your information secure

We are committed to protecting the security of your personal information using a variety of organisational and technical security technologies and procedures.

We recommend that you also take steps to keep your information safe, this includes using up to date security software and generally being vigilant whilst using our website. Remember, we will never ask you to email sensitive information such as your password.

If you suspect you may be a victim of fraud, please report this to https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ or call 0300 123 2040.

How long we keep your information for

MKM are committed to ensuring the personal information we hold is only kept for as long as necessary. The length of time we retain information for is based on the following criteria:

• For as long as there is a contractual requirement, or legitimate business need for example to maintain our relationship with you, or to fulfil product warranty or guarantee claims.
• For as long as there is a legal requirement - e.g. to fulfil HMRC or accounting requirements.
• In line with legal and regulatory requirements or guidance.

Transfers to other countries

MKM Building Supplies Ltd are based in the UK and most of our data is stored on secure servers inside the UK and EU. However, some of our service providers may store or process your data outside the UK or EU. Where this happens, we ensure adequate safeguards are in place, either through stringent contractual agreements or by implementing the required security measures as per our data security policy.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, you have a number of rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.

 

Your Right	What it Means
Right to be informed	Know how we collect, use, and store your personal data.
Right of access (SAR)	Request a copy of your personal data. We respond within 1 month (up to 2 months for complex requests). Contact datamanager@mkmbs.co.uk.
Right to rectification	Ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Right to erasure	Ask us to delete your personal data when no longer needed or if you withdraw consent. Some data may be retained for legal or contractual reasons.
Right to restrict processing	Ask us to limit how we use your personal data in certain situations. While restricted, we will only store it.
Right to data portability	Request your data in a secure, machine-readable format and transfer it to another organisation where feasible.
Right to object	Object to certain types of processing, including marketing or processing based on our legitimate interests. We will stop unless there are compelling reasons or legal obligations.
Right in relation to automated decisions & profiling	You can request not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing. MKM does not use automated decision-making or profiling.
Right to withdraw consent	Withdraw your consent for processing activities based on consent at any time. This does not affect processing done lawfully before withdrawal.

 

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions relating to the contents of our Privacy Policy, please email datamanager@mkmbs.co.uk or write to: Data Manager at MKM Building Supplies Ltd, Stoneferry Road, Hull, United Kingdom, HU8 8DE.

For all other general enquiries please refer to our Contact Us page.

Escalation of queries

If you feel that we have not answered a data query satisfactorily, or we have neglected to look after your personal data as we should, or we have failed to comply with your rights, you can raise the matter (once you have let us know) with the data regulator:

The Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline: 0303 123 1113 Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

 

Policy Last Updated: December 2025