Privacy Policy
Version 1.2 last updated on 13th April 2026
Introduction
At Import Export Services Ltd., your privacy is important to us. We ask that you read this Privacy Notice carefully as it contains important information about what to expect when we collect personal data about you and how we will use your personal data.
Import Export Services Ltd., hereinafter referred to as 'IES' including all its group companies (IES Semiconductor Parts, Integrated Equipment Services, and IES Electrical) is registered as a Data Controller with the UK Information Commissioners Office, registration number Z2650982.
Import Export Services Ltd. (“IES”) acts as a data controller in relation to personal data relating to its employees, prospective employees, suppliers, professional contacts, and prospective and existing customers where IES determines the purposes and means of processing.
In certain circumstances, IES acts as a data processor on behalf of its customers, where it processes personal data strictly in accordance with the customer’s documented instructions and the terms of the relevant data processing agreement.
Where IES acts as a data processor, the relevant customer is responsible for providing privacy information to data subjects and for responding to data subject rights requests. Where appropriate, IES will assist its customers in meeting those obligations in accordance with contractual requirements and applicable law.
This policy applies to information we collect about:
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Visitors to our website
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Our customers
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Prospective customers
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Professional contacts and suppliers of services to us or our customers
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Current and ex-Employees
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Potential employees
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Complainants, correspondents and enquirers
If you have any questions about data protection at IES, please contact us at dataprotection@ies.co.uk or alternatively write to us at Data Protection Team, IES, 1 Portview Road, Avonmouth, Bristol, BS11 9LS, UK.
The information we collect about you
When you do business with us, become a customer or supplier, or subscribe to our newsletters, register an interest in any of our services, work for us or apply for job vacancies with us, we collect some or all of the following personal information from you:
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Name
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Address
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Contact details including email, telephone, mobile number
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Bank details (for sole trader suppliers for accounting and payment purposes)
We process personal data for different purposes and rely on different lawful bases depending on the context. These include:
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Contract – where processing is necessary to perform a contract with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (for example, providing services or managing supplier relationships);
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Legal obligation – where processing is required to comply with applicable laws and regulatory requirements (for example, employment, tax, or accounting obligations);
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Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as managing business relationships, improving our services, or preventing fraud, and where those interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms;
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Consent – where required by law, particularly in relation to certain marketing activities or optional processing.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object to such processing at any time.
1. Visitors to our Website
You may manage or withdraw your cookie preferences at any time.
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For detailed information on cookies and how we use them please refer to our detailed Cookie Policy.
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We may record IP addresses (internet protocol addresses) of our website visitors for administration purposes.. We may collect IP addresses and other technical information when you visit our website. IP addresses are treated as personal data and are used for purposes such as website administration, security, and generating aggregated statistical information about website usage.
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Where analytics cookies are used, IP addresses are processed as personal data in accordance with our Cookie Policy and applicable data protection law.
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Use of Sites by Minors Our website and services are intended for business users and are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect or process personal data relating to children. If we become aware that personal data relating to a child has been collected inadvertently, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.
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IES do not collect personal data directly from consumers. We may hold your personal data on behalf of our customers, under contract, in order to fulfil our contractual commitments. In these cases, we only process personal data as instructed by our customer, the data controller. This data may be held for up to 8 years after the end of our contract.
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For prospective B2B customers our basis for processing is legitimate interest and where we hold any personal data on individuals, sole traders or partnerships it will be based on consent.
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We may also receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. In this case we will have informed you when we collected that data that it may be shared internally.
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In limited circumstances, we may process special category personal data or criminal records data, primarily in the context of employment, recruitment, or compliance with legal obligations.
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Where such processing occurs, it is carried out in accordance with Article 9 UK GDPR and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018, and only where a relevant legal condition applies.
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Appropriate safeguards are applied, including access controls and confidentiality obligations.
2. Employees (including current and ex-employees)
In order to fulfil our contractual commitments, we hold and process your personal data under the legal basis of Contract. The personal data we hold for you may include:
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Name
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Address
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Contact details including email, telephone, mobile number
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Bank details (for accounting and payroll purposes)
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Contact details including email, telephone, mobile number
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Occasionally we may receive information about you from other sources (such as DBS England & Wales, UK Visa and Immigration or other similar bodies) which we will add to the information that we already hold about you in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
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IES is an Equal Opportunity Employer, we may collect some sensitive information that is legally required as part of the recruitment process. Sensitive information includes data relating to physical or mental health or criminal records.
How we may collect information?
We may collect your personal information in a variety of ways, including:
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While working/delivering projects together
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Website
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Social Media
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Trade fair & Exhibitions
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Networking
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Referral
Retention Period
We will retain your personal data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in the Privacy Notice unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
Where you apply for a role with us, we process your personal data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract and, where applicable, to comply with our legal obligations.
If you are unsuccessful we will hold your data for no longer than 6 months.
For customers, we maintain and keep your job files including any relevant communication for another 8 years after the job completion date for auditing purposes.
Further details of our retention periods are available on request.
How we will use the information about you
We gather this information to allow us to:
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Maintain our records for administrative, accounting and marketing purposes.
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Respond to your enquiries and provide the contracted services.
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Carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us.
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Process your payments, have your order delivered to you, communicate with you regarding your purchase.
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Provide you with updates and announcements concerning our products and services and notify you regarding any changes or terms to our services.
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Seek your views or comments on the services we provide to improve the quality of our services including quality calls or other similar methods.
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Send you periodic emails including communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you.
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Use re-marketing across trusted websites, including Google AdWords serving relevant adverts to you on social media channels, including Twitter and LinkedIn (Refer to our cookies policy).
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Process any application for employment.
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Verify your identity when necessary.
Access to your information, updating and correcting your information
You have the right to:
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request access to your personal data;
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request rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data;
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request erasure of your personal data;
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request restriction of processing;
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object to processing, including processing based on legitimate interests and direct marketing;
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request data portability, where applicable;
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withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection matters.
If you have questions regarding the processing of your personal data, or if any of the information that you have provided us changes - for example, if you change your email address or name - please let us know the correct details by sending an email to dataprotection@ies.co.uk or send a letter to our Data Protection Team at 1 Portview Road, Avonmouth, Bristol, BS11 9LS, UK.
The Data Protection team is also available to help with information requests, take suggestions or handle complaints and can be contacted via email at dataprotection@ies.co.uk or by sending a letter to our Data Protection Team, 1 Portview Road, Avonmouth, Bristol, BS11 9LS, UK.
We want to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us, or we may ask you, to correct information you or we think is inaccurate, and you may also ask us to remove information which is inaccurate.
Who we share your information with
We may share personal data with third parties where necessary for legitimate business purposes, to provide our services, or where required by law.
We only share personal data where appropriate safeguards are in place and in accordance with applicable data protection law.
We share information with the following categories of firms:
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Data controllers (under contract)
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IES Group of companies
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Business and professional advisers
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Data processors
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Legal and regulatory authorities
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Government & local authorities (if required by law)
How we protect your information
We have put in place various security measures, both technical and organisational, to protect your personal data from loss, misuse, alternation or destruction. We follow our security procedures and apply suitable technical measures, such as encryption where appropriate, to protect your information. Our security and privacy policies are regularly reviewed.
All IES employees have agreed to a confidentiality clause within their contract of employment and only authorised persons will have access to your personal data.
Consent
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about our services, then you can use the unsubscribe link located at the bottom of each email newsletter or contact us to be removed.
We may send marketing communications where permitted by law.
Where marketing is carried out on the basis of legitimate interests, this is limited to relevant business-to-business communications and you have the absolute right to object at any time.
Where consent is required, we will only send marketing communications where you have provided that consent, and you may withdraw it at any time.
You may change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: info@ies.co.uk.
You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting dataprotection@ies.co.uk
If you unsubscribe from our newsletter we may retain minimal data to ensure you do not receive future email communications.
Overseas transfers
In certain circumstances, personal data may be transferred outside the United Kingdom, for example where service providers or customers are located overseas.
Where such transfers occur, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with UK data protection law. These may include UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with transfer risk assessments where required.
Changes to Privacy Notice
We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. If we change our Privacy Notice we will post the changes on this page, and place notices on other pages of the website, so that you may be aware of the information we collect and how we use it at all times. This Privacy Notice will be reviewed regularly and updated as required to reflect changes in law, regulation, or our processing activities.
Links to other websites
Our website contains links to other websites. This Privacy Notice applies only to this firm’s website so when you access links to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.
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IES Semiconductor Parts – www.iessemiconductorparts.com
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Integrated Equipment Services -www.integratedequipmentservices.com
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IES Electrical – www.iese.co.uk
Contacting us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy notice you may contact us using the information below.
Data Protection Team
IES
1 Portview Road
Avonmouth
Bristol BS11 9LS
UK
Email: dataprotection@ies.co.uk