Privacy and Data Protection Notice

Last updated: 30 June 2026

1. About this notice

McFarlane Telfer Limited, trading as MCFT Food Service Engineers (“MCFT”, “we”, “us” or “our”), respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This notice explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information when you:

  • Visit or interact with our website;

  • Complete an enquiry, contact or request form;

  • Request information about our services;

  • Subscribe to marketing communications;

  • Communicate with an MCFT regional office or team;

  • Attend an MCFT event, webinar or campaign;

  • Apply for a role or apprenticeship through a page linked to this website; or

  • Otherwise engage with us as a customer, prospect, supplier, partner or business contact.

This notice applies to the MCFT website, its associated regional pages and any online forms or services that link to this notice.

Some MCFT services, portals, recruitment platforms or regional companies may provide additional privacy information where their use of personal information differs from that described here.

2. Who is responsible for your information?

For personal information collected through this website, the data controller is:

McFarlane Telfer Limited
Trading as MCFT Food Service Engineers
Company number: 03646063
Bray House
Maidenhead Office Park
Maidenhead
England
SL6 3QH

For questions about this notice, the use of your personal information or your data protection rights, contact:

Email: info@mcft.com
Post: Data Protection, MCFT, Bray House, Maidenhead Office Park, Maidenhead, England, SL6 3QH

Where your enquiry relates to an MCFT business operating outside the United Kingdom, your information may be shared with the relevant MCFT regional company or office. That organisation may also act as a controller of your information under the laws applicable in its location.

3. Personal information we collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with us.

Information you provide to us

This may include:

  • Your name;

  • Job title and employer;

  • Business or organisation name;

  • Email address;

  • Telephone number;

  • Business or postal address;

  • Country or region;

  • Details of your enquiry or service requirement;

  • Information about your sites, assets or equipment;

  • Communication and marketing preferences;

  • Information submitted through surveys, feedback forms or event registrations;

  • Correspondence between you and MCFT; and

  • Any documents, images or other information you choose to provide.

Please do not submit sensitive or special-category personal information through a general website form unless we have specifically requested it and explained why it is required.

Information collected automatically

When you use our website, we and our technology providers may collect information including:

  • Your IP address;

  • Browser type and version;

  • Device type and operating system;

  • Network information;

  • Approximate location derived from your IP address;

  • The website or page you visited before arriving on our website;

  • Pages viewed on our website;

  • Dates and times of visits;

  • Links and buttons selected;

  • Searches made on the website;

  • Scrolling and navigation activity;

  • Referring website or campaign information;

  • Cookie identifiers; and

  • Information about errors, performance and website security.

Information received from other sources

Where lawful, we may receive business contact information from:

  • Other MCFT group companies and regional offices;

  • Customers, suppliers, manufacturers and business partners;

  • Professional networking platforms;

  • Event organisers;

  • Publicly available business websites and directories;

  • Marketing and lead-generation providers;

  • Referrals and recommendations; and

  • Service providers that help us operate our website and communications.

4. How we use your information

We only use personal information where we have a lawful reason to do so.

Operating and protecting the website

We use technical and usage information to:

  • Deliver website pages and features;

  • Maintain website security;

  • Detect suspicious or fraudulent activity;

  • Diagnose technical problems;

  • Manage website performance; and

  • Protect our systems and users.

Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in operating a secure, reliable and effective website.

Responding to enquiries

We use information submitted through our website, by email or by telephone to:

  • Respond to questions;

  • Contact you about your enquiry;

  • Arrange meetings or site visits;

  • Prepare quotations or proposals;

  • Recommend relevant services or equipment;

  • Route your enquiry to the appropriate MCFT team or region; and

  • Take steps towards entering into a contract.

Our lawful basis will normally be taking steps at your request before entering into a contract or our legitimate interest in responding to business enquiries and developing customer relationships.

Providing services and managing relationships

We may use your information to:

  • Deliver contracted services;

  • Manage customer, supplier and partner relationships;

  • Coordinate maintenance, equipment, warranty or support requirements;

  • Maintain business and service records;

  • Process payments and invoices;

  • Provide account management;

  • Respond to complaints; and

  • Communicate important service or operational information.

Our lawful basis may be performance of a contract, compliance with a legal obligation or our legitimate interest in managing our business relationships.

Where you act on behalf of a company or organisation, our lawful basis will generally be our legitimate interest in managing our relationship with that organisation.

Marketing and business communications

We may use your contact details to send relevant information about:

  • MCFT services;

  • Maintenance and equipment support;

  • Industry insights and resources;

  • Events, webinars and training;

  • Company news;

  • Regional updates; and

  • Other services that may reasonably interest you in your professional role.

Depending on the circumstances, we rely on consent or our legitimate interests in promoting relevant business services. We also comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations where they apply.

You can unsubscribe at any time by:

  • Using the unsubscribe link in a marketing email;

  • Updating your communication preferences where available; or

  • Contacting us using the details in this notice.

We may retain limited information on a suppression list after you unsubscribe so that we can respect your request and avoid contacting you again for marketing purposes.

Website analytics and improvement

With your consent where required, we use analytics information to:

  • Understand how visitors find and use our website;

  • Measure traffic and engagement;

  • Assess the performance of pages and campaigns;

  • Identify content that visitors find useful;

  • Improve website design, navigation and accessibility; and

  • Produce aggregated reports.

Non-essential analytics and performance cookies will only be used in accordance with your cookie preferences.

Recruitment

Where our website includes or links to recruitment, apprenticeship or work-experience opportunities, information submitted as part of an application may be used to:

  • Assess your application;

  • Communicate with you;

  • Arrange interviews or assessments;

  • Verify information you provide; and

  • Meet employment-law and safeguarding requirements.

Additional recruitment privacy information may be provided on the relevant careers, people or application website.

Legal and regulatory purposes

We may use personal information to:

  • Meet legal, tax, accounting and regulatory obligations;

  • Respond to lawful requests from courts, regulators or public authorities;

  • Establish, exercise or defend legal claims;

  • Prevent fraud and misuse;

  • Enforce our contractual terms; and

  • Handle data protection requests and complaints.

Our lawful basis may be compliance with a legal obligation or our legitimate interest in protecting MCFT, its customers, employees and business partners.

5. Website forms

When you submit information through a form on our website, we collect the information requested so that we can track, manage and respond to your submission.

Our forms may be operated or supported by Squarespace, monday.com or another approved form and customer-relationship-management provider. Information you submit may therefore be:

  • Transmitted through the form provider;

  • Stored within that provider’s systems;

  • Sent to an MCFT email address;

  • Added to an MCFT customer or enquiry management system; and

  • Shared with the appropriate MCFT team or regional office.

Only provide information that is relevant to your enquiry.

6. Squarespace and website hosting

This website is hosted by Squarespace.

When you visit the website, Squarespace may process information such as:

  • Your browser, network and device information;

  • Your IP address;

  • Pages viewed before and during your visit; and

  • Information required to operate, secure and improve the website platform.

Squarespace may also process website analytics information on our behalf, depending on our settings and your cookie choices.

Squarespace acts as a service provider to MCFT for certain processing activities. It may also process limited information for its own legitimate platform, security and legal purposes, as explained in its own privacy documentation.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files or pieces of text stored on a computer, mobile phone or other device when a website is visited.

We use cookies and similar technologies for the purposes described below.

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are required to:

  • Securely deliver the website;

  • Enable core website functions;

  • Remember privacy and cookie choices;

  • Prevent fraud and malicious activity; and

  • Maintain website stability.

These cookies cannot generally be disabled through our website because the website may not function properly without them.

Analytics and performance cookies

With your consent, these cookies help us understand:

  • How many people visit the website;

  • Which pages are viewed;

  • How visitors navigate the website;

  • Where traffic comes from;

  • Whether pages or features work correctly; and

  • How website content and campaigns perform.

Squarespace analytics cookies may remain on a device for up to two years, although some session cookies expire after approximately 30 minutes.

Functional and embedded-content cookies

Some pages may contain content supplied by third parties, such as:

  • Videos;

  • Maps;

  • Social-media features;

  • Interactive tools;

  • Forms; or

  • Document viewers.

These providers may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser information and the page being viewed. Where required, this content or its associated cookies will not load until you have provided consent.

Advertising and marketing cookies

Where enabled and accepted, advertising technologies may help us:

  • Measure the effectiveness of advertising;

  • Understand whether someone visited the website after seeing an advertisement;

  • Build aggregated campaign audiences;

  • Limit repeated advertising; and

  • Show more relevant business content.

These technologies may be provided by platforms such as Google, LinkedIn or Meta. The specific providers used may change as campaigns are updated.

Managing your cookie choices

When you first visit the website, you can accept, reject or manage non-essential cookies through our cookie banner.

You can change your preferences at any time using the Cookie Settings link on the website.

You may also control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking certain cookies may affect the way some parts of the website work.

A current list of cookies, providers, purposes and durations should be available through the website’s cookie settings or cookie policy.

8. Email communications

We may send:

Service and enquiry communications

These include responses to enquiries, quotations, meeting information, service updates and other messages needed to manage your request or business relationship.

These communications are not marketing messages, and it may not always be possible to opt out while we are dealing with an active request or contractual relationship.

Marketing communications

Where permitted, we may use an email marketing provider such as Mailchimp or another approved platform to send newsletters and marketing communications.

Our email provider may process your:

  • Name;

  • Email address;

  • Organisation;

  • Communication preferences;

  • Subscription status; and

  • Information about whether an email was delivered, opened or selected.

You can unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time using the link included in the message.

9. Who we share information with

We may share personal information with:

  • MCFT companies, offices and teams where necessary to handle your enquiry or provide services;

  • Website hosting, form, CRM and communications providers;

  • IT, cybersecurity and cloud-storage providers;

  • Email marketing providers;

  • Analytics and advertising providers, subject to your cookie choices;

  • Equipment manufacturers, distributors and service partners where necessary to meet your request;

  • Accountants, auditors, insurers, legal advisers and other professional advisers;

  • Regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies and public authorities where legally required;

  • Organisations involved in a proposed sale, restructuring, merger or transfer of part of our business; and

  • Other organisations where you have asked us or authorised us to share the information.

We require service providers acting on our behalf to use personal information only for agreed purposes and to protect it appropriately.

Some third-party platforms may act as independent controllers for their use of information. Their own privacy notices will explain how they process that information.

We do not sell personal information.

10. International transfers

MCFT operates internationally, and some of our group companies and technology providers are based outside the United Kingdom.

As a result, personal information may be accessed, processed or stored in countries outside the UK.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we take steps designed to ensure that it remains protected. These may include:

  • Transferring information to a country covered by UK adequacy regulations;

  • Using the UK International Data Transfer Agreement;

  • Using the UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses;

  • Entering into other approved contractual safeguards;

  • Completing appropriate transfer-risk assessments; or

  • Relying on another lawful transfer mechanism.

You may contact us for further information about the safeguards used for a particular transfer.

11. How long we keep information

We retain personal information only for as long as it is reasonably required for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, regulatory, accounting and reporting requirements.

Our normal retention periods are:

  • Website enquiries and prospective-customer correspondence: up to 24 months after the last meaningful interaction, unless the enquiry develops into an ongoing relationship;

  • Customer, supplier and contractual records: for the relationship and normally up to seven years after it ends;

  • Marketing contact information: while you remain subscribed or engaged, with inactive records normally reviewed after 24 months;

  • Marketing suppression records: for as long as necessary to respect an opt-out request;

  • Website analytics and cookie information: according to the duration shown in our cookie settings, with some Squarespace analytics cookies lasting up to two years;

  • Data protection requests and complaints: normally for three years after the matter is closed, or longer where required for a legal claim;

  • Recruitment applications: normally six months after the recruitment process ends, unless a longer period is required by law or you agree to join a talent pool; and

  • Financial and transaction records: for the period required under applicable tax and accounting law.

We may retain information for longer where there is an active dispute, legal claim, regulatory investigation or another lawful reason.

12. How we protect information

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

  • Unauthorised access;

  • Accidental loss;

  • Misuse;

  • Alteration;

  • Disclosure; and

  • Destruction.

These measures may include access controls, authentication requirements, staff training, secure systems, supplier assessments, backups, monitoring and incident-management procedures.

Access to personal information is limited to people who reasonably need it for their work.

Although we take reasonable precautions, no website, email service or internet transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

13. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you may have the right to:

  • Be informed about how your personal information is used;

  • Request access to the personal information we hold about you;

  • Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;

  • Request deletion of your information;

  • Request restriction of how your information is used;

  • Object to certain processing based on legitimate interests;

  • Object to direct marketing at any time;

  • Request data portability in certain circumstances;

  • Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and

  • Challenge certain solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects.

These rights are not absolute, and exemptions may apply.

We will normally respond to a valid rights request without undue delay and within one month. We may ask for information needed to confirm your identity before disclosing personal information.

To exercise a right, contact info@mcft.com

You will not normally have to pay a fee. However, data protection law may allow us to charge a reasonable fee or refuse a request where it is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

14. Automated decision-making

We do not currently use information collected through the website to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

We will update this notice if that changes.

15. Data protection complaints

You may complain to us if you are unhappy with how we have collected, used, shared or protected your personal information, or how we have handled a data protection request.

Complaints can be submitted using the contact details in section 2.

We will:

  • Acknowledge receipt of a data protection complaint within 30 days;

  • Investigate the matter without undue delay;

  • Keep you appropriately informed about the progress of our investigation; and

  • Explain the outcome and any action taken without unjustifiable or excessive delay.

We would appreciate the opportunity to investigate and resolve your concern directly.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator for data protection. You may contact the ICO at any time and do not have to complete our internal complaint process before doing so.

16. Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to websites, platforms or services operated by other organisations.

We do not control those services and are not responsible for their privacy practices. You should review the privacy information provided by the relevant third party before submitting personal information.

18. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice to reflect:

  • Changes to our website or services;

  • New technologies or suppliers;

  • Changes to how we use personal information;

  • Changes to data protection law; or

  • Guidance issued by regulators.

The latest version will be published on this page with the date it was last updated. Where a change materially affects how we use personal information, we may provide an additional notice.