Privacy Policy

Keeping your information safe and sound

At Robinsons, we collect data to give you a better experience, improve our products and services, bring you the very best offers and competitions, and fulfil our responsibilities in accordance with the law. Put simply, we can give you more of what you love, when we understand you better.

That’s why we take your privacy very seriously and take great care to protect your information. In particular, we want to reassure you that Robinsons is not in the business of selling, renting or trading email lists with third parties. We just don’t do that sort of thing. But just in case you don’t believe us, in this Privacy Policy, we’ve provided lots of detailed information to explain when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it, the limited conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. So, grab a brew (tea or beer, your choice) and read on.

We may change or update this Privacy Policy from time to time and without notice, so make sure you check back occasionally.

1. Who we are and how you can contact us

Based in the heart of Stockport, and owning around 260 tenanted and managed pubs, inns and hotels across the North West, ‘Robinsons’ is one of oldest and most respected names in British brewing history. Since we began in 1838, we've remained an independent family-run business. Read more about our history.

“Robinsons”, or “Robinsons Brewery”, (referred to in this policy as “we”, “us” or “our”) is a trading name of:

Frederic Robinson Limited
Unicorn Brewery
Lower Hillgate
Stockport
SK11 1JJ

Registered Company Number: 00170679
ICO Registration Number: Z5515535

“Robinsons” have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO), who can be contacted in the following ways should you have any questions or feedback about the way your data is handled:

Email: dpo@frederic-robinson.co.uk

F.A.O Data Protection Officer
Frederic Robinson Limited
Unicorn Brewery
Lower Hillgate
Stockport
SK11 1JJ

Robinsons are the data controller in respect of any personal data we collect about you.

2. Where we collect your personal information form

We may collect personal information about you in the following ways:

Data you give to us:

When you make a purchase from our website;
When you register to use our services, such as a brewery tour;
When you talk to us on the phone or at our Visitors Centre;
When you use our website;
When you send emails or letters to us;
When you take part in our competitions or promotions;
When you sign up to our newsletter or marketing;
When you apply to run one of our pubs;
When you give us feedback; and
When you use the free WiFi service inside our pubs.
When you place an online table reservation at our pubs.
When you place an online accommodation reservation at our pubs.
When you make a purchase through our table ordering web app.

Data we collect when you buy or products or use our services:

Payment and transaction data;
Profile and usage data, including data we gather from the devices you use to connect to those services such as computers and mobile phones, using cookies and other internet tracking software.

Data from third parties we work with:

Social networks
Public information sources
Agents working on our behalf
Credit reference agencies
Google analytics – collects information about how visitors use our Digital Applications.
Sitecore Analytics – collects information about how visitors use our Digital Applications.
Booking systems such as our online table and accommodation systems.

3. What data do we collect about you

We will only collect data we need to:

give you a better experience
improve our services
fulfil our responsibilities in accordance with the law
send our customers marketing communications

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

You provide some data yourself - For instance, by contacting us by phone, as part of signing up to our mailing list, making a purchase or booking, or using the free WiFi service:

Identity data – name, title, date of birth of those buying our products or using our services.
Contact data – location, postcode, email address or telephone numbers.
Transaction data – details of the products and services you have purchased from us, including date and time of booking or purchase and spend in relation to that transaction.
- Marketing Preferences – Put simply, we can give you more of what you love, when we understand you better. This enables us to send tailored and specific marketing communications to you; including competitions, special offers and News. You may even receive a free drink on your birthday. You always have the option to opt-out at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of every email you receive from us.
- Marketing Consent – When you use our free WiFi service or sign up to our newsletter, this is the collection of your consent to allow us to send you marketing communications. As always, you can opt-out at any time.

We collect some data automatically – By contacting us by phone, as part of using our website and/or services we collect and process the following information:

Contact data – location, email address or telephone numbers when you call our pubs, Visitors Centre or Contact Centre.
Technical data - internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, device type, network, browser type and version, data usage, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
Profile data - purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses, preferences about the use of the services (including whether you are interested in certain events that we offer)
Usage data – information about how you use our website, products and services.
Credit information – information about your previous credit history.

We may also record or monitor calls, emails, text messages and other correspondence for training purposes to improve the quality of our offering and to prevent and detect fraud.

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any special categories of personal data about you. This includes details about race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and bio-metric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

Legal Purchase Age

You must not provide us with your personal information if you are not of legal age to purchase alcohol in the jurisdiction in which you reside and (if different) in the jurisdiction in which you are accessing the website. We do not intend to collect personal information from any individuals under the legal purchase age or market alcoholic beverages to anyone under the legal purchase age.

4. Use of Cookies

In common with many websites, we use ’cookies’ to help us gather information from visitors to our website.

A cookie is a small data file that our server sends to your browser when you visit the website. The use of cookies helps us to assist your use of certain aspects of the website and helps us to improve the website to deliver a better service for you.

We may use your personal information from cookies for the following purposes:

the IP address from which you access the site
the type of browser and operating system used to access the site
the date and time of your access to the site
the pages you visit
the Internet address of the website from which you accessed the site
to recognise repeat visitors for statistical / analytical purposes.
anonymous tracking of interaction with online advertising. e.g. to monitor the number of times that a banner ad is displayed and the number of times it is clicked.

You can delete cookies at any time or you can set your browser to reject or disable cookies. If you do disable cookies some functions on the site may not work correctly.

5. How we use your personal information

We may use your personal data for any or all of the following purposes:

To provide a high level of customer service (including assisting with any of your enquiries, purchases and bookings) and to notify you of any security and data breach alerts, and technical notices (including services messages and updates to our Digital Applications and terms)
To help operate, maintain, and improve our offering and our Digital Applications
To understand our customers better and to improve our service
To communicate with you about our offers, promotions, upcoming events, reviews, and other news
To facilitate profiling, segmentation, and personalisation – these may be based on location, preferences, interests, and past actions (including online or in-pub purchases or bookings)
To meet our legal obligations and for establishing, exercising, or defending our legal rights
To compile reports and to help us understand and improve our Digital Applications
To enable us to carry out targeted online advertising more likely to be relevant to you

We will only use personal information about you if we have a legal basis to do so, and we are required to tell you what that legal basis is. We have set out in the table below: the personal information which we collect from you, how we use it, and the legal ground on which we rely when we use the personal information.

In some circumstances we can use your personal information if it is in our legitimate interest to do so, provided that we have told you what that legitimate interest is. A legitimate interest is when we have a genuine and legitimate business or commercial reason to use your information which, when balanced against your rights, is justifiable. If we are relying on our legitimate interests, we have set that out in the table below.

What we use your personal information for	What personal information we collect	Our legal grounds for processing	Our legitimate interests (if applicable)
To register you as a new customer or new tenant.	Identity Contact	Performance of a contract with you
To process and deliver your booking/purchase	Identity Contact Transaction	Performance of a contract with you Legitimate interests
To manage payments or collect and recover money owed to us	Identity Contact Transaction	Performance of a contract with you Legitimate interests	To recover any debts owed to us
To manage our relationship with you, including notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy notices	Identity Contact Transaction	Performance of a contract with you Necessary to comply with a legal obligation Legitimate interests	To keep our records up to date
To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or to complete a survey	Identity Contact Transaction	Performance of a contract with you Legitimate interests Consent	To study how customers use our services and to grow our business
To administer and protect our business and our website	Transaction Technical Usage	Legitimate interests	Running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security
To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you	Identity Contact Marketing and communications Usage Profile	Legitimate interests	To study how customers use our services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy
To use data analytics to improve our website, products / services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences	Technical Usage Profile	Legitimate interests	To define types of customers for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy
To make credit checks in relation to the appointment of a tenant	Identity Contact Credit information	Performance of a contract with you Consent
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about the services that may be of interest to you	Identity Contact Marketing and communications Technical Profile Usage	Legitimate interests Consent	To develop our services and grow our business
To provide you with a free Wi-Fi service in our pubs	Identity Contact Technical Marketing and communications Technical Profile Usage	Legitimate interests	To understand our customers better and improve our service. To ensure you are using our service in a lawful manner.

When we process your personal information for our legitimate interests, we will consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights under data protection and any other relevant law. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests – we will not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).

6. Who we share your personal information with

Your trust is very important to us. So, we’re committed to keeping your data safe and secure and we promise to never sell your personal details to anyone without prior permission. In order to provide you with our services and meet our legal obligations, we only share your data with 3rd parties, in the following circumstances:

to fulfil your order;
to verify your identity;
to authorise debit/credit card payments and any other transactions authorised by the customer;
to manage and maintain the accuracy of your records;
to handle complaints and improve customer service;
to administer marketing on behalf of Robinsons;
to meet legal obligations, for example, for the purposes of national security, taxation and criminal investigations;
to perform credit checks on prospective tenants;
if Robinsons is acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it, about its customers, will be one of the transferred assets.

We’ll never make your personal data available to anyone outside Robinsons for them to use for their own marketing purposes without your prior consent.

7. Third Party Links

Our website may include links to third party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice or policy of every website you visit.

8. Transferring your personal information outside the EEA

The EEA is the European Economic Area, which consists of the EU Members States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. If we transfer your personal information outside the EEA we have to tell you.

We use data processors that provide our email marketing system (MailChimp), table ordering payment solution (Braintree) and Customer Contact Centre (Twilio) that reside outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This means that the processing of your personal data may involve a transfer of data outside of the EEA.

Our data processors are based in the United States and all are EU-US Privacy Shield certified, which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data as it has in Europe under GDPR.

9. Data security

We are committed to protecting your personal data and to keeping it safe and confidential. We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator (including the ICO) of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

10. How long do we keep your personal information

We will keep your personal information for as long as you are our customer or tenant.

After you stop being a customer or tenant, because you have stopped regularly using our services or buying our products, we may keep your personal information for up to 6 years for one of the following reasons:

to respond to any questions or complaints from you;
to maintain our records;
to comply with laws applicable to us.

We may, however, keep your personal data for longer than 6 years if we need to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, the law requires us to maintain it for a longer period or you have not withdrawn your consent.

11. Marketing

At Robinsons, we collect data to give you a better experience, improve our products and services, and bring you the very best offers and competitions that we think you’ll be interested in. Put simply, we can give you more of what you love, when we understand you better. Here we explain the choices you have when it comes to receiving marketing communications and being invited to take part in market research.

If you have made a booking or purchase with us, we may use your personal information under our legitimate interest to tell you about relevant services, upcoming offers, competitions, and news in a number of ways including by email. You may even receive a free drink on your birthday. Cheers!
If you have not made a booking or purchase with us, you may still receive these marketing communications if you have used our free WiFi service or signed up to our newsletter, but only if you have given your consent.
We also like to hear your views to help us to improve our services, so we may contact you to invite you to take part in market research via a questionnaire. You always have the choice about whether to take part in this or not.
We can only use your personal information to send you marketing messages if we have either your consent or a legitimate interest to do so.
You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time – you just need to contact us or use the opt-out (unsubscribe) link found at the bottom of every email you receive from us.
Where you opt out of receiving marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of purchasing our services or any other transaction between you and us.

You have certain rights which are set out in the law relating to your personal information. The most important rights are set out below.

12. Your Rights

You have certain rights which are set out in the law relating to your personal information. The most important rights are set out below.

Getting a copy of the information we hold

You have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you, by writing to the Data Protection Officer (in Section 1). This is known as a data subject access request and should be provided to you within 30 days.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data, unless we believe that your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. In such circumstances we can charge a reasonable fee or refuse to comply with your request.

We will try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month.

Telling us if information we hold is incorrect

We want to make sure that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and up to date. If any of your details are incorrect, please let us know and we will amend them. Please contact the Data Protection Officer if you want to question any information we hold about you that you think is wrong or incomplete and we will take reasonable steps to check its accuracy and, if necessary, correct it.

Telling us if you want us to stop using your personal information

You have the right to:

Object to our use of your personal information, for example to unsubscribe from marketing communications (known as the right to object); or
Ask us to delete the personal information (known as the right to erasure); or
Request the restriction of processing; or
Ask us to stop using it of there is no need for us to use it (known as the right to be forgotten).

There may be legal reasons why we need to keep or use your data, which we will tell you if you exercise one of the above rights.

Withdrawing consent

You can withdraw your consent to us using your personal information at any time. Please contact the Data Protection Officer if you want to withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with our services.

Request a transfer of data

You have the right to data portability in certain situations. You may ask us to transfer your personal information to a third party. This right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Automated decision making

In the case you apply to be a tenant of one our pubs, you may have to go through a standard credit check. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects him or her.

13. Not happy? Making a complaint

Please let us know if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information by contacting the Data Protection Officer (details can be found in section 1) so that we can try and help.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or believe we are not processing your data in accordance with the law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can find their contact details at www.ico.org.uk. We would be grateful for the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

14. How to contact us

F.A.O Data Protection Officer
Frederic Robinson Limited
Unicorn Brewery
Lower Hillgate
Stockport
SK11 1JJ

Telephone: 0161 612 4061

Email: dpo@frederic-robinson.co.uk

We may change or update this Privacy Policy from time to time and without notice, so make sure you check back occasionally. If we change our Privacy Policy, we will publish those changes on this page.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. Now you can go and get on with your life and enjoy your pint.