The data controller within the meaning of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is

Südwolle Group GmbH
Wieseneckstr. 26
90571 Schwaig Germany
Phone: +49 911 504 800
E-Mail: yarns@suedwollegroup.de

(hereinafter referred to as “Südwolle Group”, “we” or “us”)

Please contact the above office with any questions or requests regarding the protection of your data.

Südwolle Group GmbH
Wieseneckstr. 26
90571 Schwaig Germany
Phone: +49 911 504 800
E-Mail: privacy@suedwollegroup.de

You have the option of contacting us, for example, by phone or e-mail. In this context, we process your telephone or mobile phone number and/or your e-mail address exclusively for the purpose of communicating with you, e.g. so that we can contact you if you have any queries regarding your request. The provision is voluntary. However, if you do not provide it, we will not be able to contact you if you have any questions.
If you use our contact form to contact us, you will be required to provide your name, a valid e-mail address, the country and the corresponding segment. Further information about yourself can be provided voluntarily. On our contact form, we use the service of “Friendly Capcha” (see below).

When you place an order with our employees or via our webshop, we collect your order or purchase data.

Order or purchase data includes, for example:

• Details of items purchased, such as name, color, purchase price, etc.
• Payment method details
• Delivery and billing address
• Complaints and other communications in relation to the orders and/or purchases
• Order number
• Order Status
• Payment status

We will only use your data to the extent necessary to process your enquiries and for further correspondence with you. The data collected by us will be stored by us for the purpose of processing the enquiry and in the event of follow-up questions and will be deleted under data protection law after the enquiry you have made has been completed, unless there is another statutory retention obligation.

The legal basis for the aforementioned data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 b) GDPR.

Every time you use our website, we collect the data that your browser automatically transmits in order to enable you to visit the website. These are in particular:

• IP address of the requesting device
• Date and time of the request
• Address of the website accessed and the requesting website
• Information about the browser used and the operating system of the end device

The data processing is necessary to enable visitors to visit the website and to ensure the long-term functionality and security of our systems. For the purposes described above, the aforementioned data is also temporarily stored in internal log files in order to compile statistical information about the use of our website, to further develop our website with regard to the usage habits of our visitors (e.g. if the proportion of mobile devices used to access the pages increases) and to maintain our website in general administratively. The legal basis for the aforementioned data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 b) GDPR.

This website uses the consent technology of Usercentrics to obtain your consent to the storage of certain cookies on your terminal device or to the use of certain technologies and to document this consent in accordance with data protection law. The provider of this technology is Usercentrics GmbH, Sendlinger Straße 7, 80331 Munich, Germany, website:

https://usercentrics.com/de/ (hereinafter “Usercentrics”).

When you enter our website, the following personal data is transferred to Usercentrics:

Your consent(s) or revocation of your consent(s)

Your IP address

Information about your browser

Information about your terminal device

Time of your visit to the website

Furthermore, Usercentrics stores a cookie in your browser in order to be able to assign the consent given to you or its revocation. The data collected in this way is stored until you request us to delete it, delete the Usercentrics cookie yourself or the purpose for storing the data no longer applies. Mandatory legal storage obligations remain unaffected.

Usercentrics is used to obtain the legally required consent for the use of certain technologies. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR. We have concluded a contract on order processing (AV) in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR with the above-mentioned provider. This is a contract required by data protection law, which ensures that the provider only processes the personal data of our website visitors in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the GDPR.

We use cookies in order to be able to implement certain technically required functions of our website, to be able to track the use of our offers and for the continuous optimisation of the websites and to be able to provide content tailored to your wishes. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your hard drive by a website. Cookies do not cause any damage to your computer, they cannot run programs and they do not contain viruses. Instead of cookies, so-called tracking pixels or comparable common technologies may also be used, which serve to (temporarily) store information about specific users or usage processes (collectively referred to as “cookies”). You can prevent cookies from being stored on your computer at any time via the settings of your browser, please use the settings or the help function of your browser. The function of our website may then be limited.

Technically necessary cookies

These cookies are mainly used to enable you to use the site’s functions, e.g. to hold form data (e.g. as part of the contact form) or to control the display of information (e.g. the cookie banner). The legal basis for the data processing carried out in connection with the technically necessary cookies is Art. 6 para. 1 f) GDPR, based on our legitimate interest in enabling you to use our website comfortably and individually and to make the use as time-saving as possible. In certain cases, these cookies may also be necessary for the performance of a contract or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures, then the processing is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 b) GDPR. Deactivating these technically necessary cookies is not offered.

Cookie for Analysis and Marketing purposes

We also use cookies for website analysis, advertising and marketing purposes, to enable personalised advertisements and also to show you promotional content on external websites (e.g. Google or You Tube) for our products and offers that you have been interested in on our website or that matches content that we believe is  that they are interesting for you. General information about possible interests of users of our website and other interested parties, which has been collected by third parties on other websites, is also used in the context of the personalized advertising of our content (so-called re-targeting). The information is stored on cookie identifiers. You will not be identified as a person but will be recognized solely on the basis of the end devices you use. If the cookies are deleted, the personalization of the advertising content will also be eliminated. We only use these cookies if you agree to their use. The legal basis for the data processing carried out in connection with marketing cookies is your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 a) GDPR).

If personal data is transferred to the USA, you will obtain your explicit consent in accordance with Art. 49 para. 1 sentence a) via the cookie banner for this data transfer. GDPR. The associated risks can be found below under “Data transfer to third countries”. You can withdraw your consent by going to the cookie settings and changing the appropriate selection there.

You can also access the cookie settings from any page of this website via the footer.

We would like to point out that some pages of our website may also contain cookies that are not directly related to Südwolle Group. If you visit a page with content embedded by third parties, those third parties may have set their own cookies. Südwolle Group has no influence on the use of these cookies and cannot access them due to the way cookies work, as access to cookies is only possible for the person who originally set them. 

Use of Google Analytics

Our website uses functions of the web analysis service Google Analytics. The provider of the web analysis service is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

Google Analytics uses “cookies.” These are small text files that your web browser stores on your device and enable an analysis of website use. Information generated by cookies about your use of our website is transmitted to a Google server and stored there. The server is usually located in the USA.

Google Analytics cookies are set on the basis of Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. As the operator of this website, we have a legitimate interest in optimising our website in order to optimise our website and, if necessary, advertising.

IP anonymization

We use Google Analytics in conjunction with the IP anonymization feature. It ensures that Google shortens your IP address within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area before it is transmitted to the USA. There may be exceptional cases in which Google transmits the full IP address to a server in the USA and shortens it there. On our behalf, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide us with other services related to website and internet usage. The IP address transmitted by Google Analytics will not be merged with other data held by Google.

Browser Plugin

The setting of cookies by your web browser can be prevented. However, some features of our website may be limited as a result. You can also prevent the collection of data relating to your website use, including your IP address, including subsequent processing by Google. This is possible by downloading and installing the browser plugin accessible via the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.

Objecting to data collection

You can prevent the collection of your data by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set that prevents the collection of your data on future visits to our website: Deactivate Google Analytics.

Details on the handling of user data by Google Analytics can be found in Google’s privacy policy: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de.

Data processing

In order to fully comply with the statutory data protection requirements, we have concluded a contract processing agreement with Google.

Demographics on Google Analytics

Our website uses the “demographics” feature of Google Analytics. It can be used to create reports that contain statements about the age, gender and interests of the site visitors. This data comes from interest-based advertising from Google as well as visitor data from third-party providers. It is not possible to assign the data to a specific person. You can disable this feature at any time. This can be done via the ad settings in your Google account or by generally prohibiting the collection of your data by Google Analytics, as explained in the section “Objection to data collection”.

Google Tag Manager

We use Google Tag Manager. The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Google Tag Manager is a tool that allows us to integrate tracking or statistics tools and other technologies on our website. The Google Tag Manager itself does not create user profiles, does not store cookies and does not carry out any independent analyses. It is only used to manage and display the tools integrated via it. However, Google Tag Manager does collect your IP address, which may also be transmitted to Google’s parent company in the United States. The use of Google Tag Manager is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the quick and uncomplicated integration and management of various tools on its website. If a corresponding consent has been requested, the processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR and § 25 (1) TDDDG, insofar as the consent includes the storage of cookies or access to information in the user’s end device (e.g. device fingerprinting) within the meaning of the TDDDG. Consent can be revoked at any time.

Our website uses “Instagram” which is operated by Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA. The “Instagram” buttons featured on our website will notify Instagram that you opened an according page of our website. If you are logged in to Instagram, Instagram may assign your visit to our website to your Instagram account and link your data. Instagram will save the data transmitted by your browser when the “Instagram” button is activated. For the purpose and extent of data collection, further processing and use of data by Instagram and your respective rights and settings options for protecting your privacy, please see Instagram’s Privacy Policy at https://instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/. If you do not want Instagram to assign your visit to our website to your Instagram account, please log out of your Instagram account before visiting our website.

Plugins of the social network Pinterest are used on our pages, which is operated by the company Pinterest Europe Ltd., Palmerston House, 2nd Floor, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. If you use the aforementioned plugins, i.e. click on the respective button, information that you have accessed certain pages of our website will be forwarded to the servers of Pinterest. We may create ads relevant to users, campaign performance reports, build remarketing lists, and build interest-based audiences and lookalikes (so-called statistical twins). For this purpose, a so-called conversion tracking pixel from Pinterest is integrated into our pages, which is used to inform Pinterest when you visit our website that you have accessed our website and which parts of our offer you are interested in. For example, if you were interested in one of our products on our website, you may be shown an ad for our products on Pinterest. Further information can be found on the provider’s website: https://policy.pinterest.com/de/privacy-policy The use of Pinterest is based on your consent according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

You can download or request colour charts and collection books on our website. To do this, we need you to specify the relevant segment, the country and an e-mail address. Your data will only be used to send you the documents for download or by e-mail. For this we use the service of “Friendly Capcha” (see below).

We process the data you provide in order to respond to your request. The legal basis for the data processing described is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR, insofar as your information is required to answer your enquiry or to initiate or execute a contract, and otherwise Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR on the basis of our legitimate interest in you contacting us and being able to answer your enquiry. The data collected when contacting us will be deleted after your request has been fully processed, unless we still need your request to fulfill contractual or legal obligations. For this purpose, we use a program code of the service provider Friendly Captcha GmbH, Am Anger 3-5, 82237 Wörthsee, Germany in our library in order to make the use of our website more difficult by automated programs and scripts (so-called “bots”). The legal basis for the processing is our legitimate interests in protecting our website from improper access by bots, i.e. spam protection and protection against attacks such as mass requests), Article 6 (1) (f) (GDPR)

Our website uses the “Friendly Captcha” service of Friendly Captcha GmbH, Am Anger 3-5, 82237 Wörthsee, Germany (www.friendlycaptcha.com) to make the use of our website more difficult by means of automated programs and scripts (so-called “bots”).

We have integrated a program code from Friendly Captcha in certain areas of our website (e.g. in a contact form or our library). This leads to the visitor’s device establishing a connection to the Friendly Captcha servers in connection with the protected area (e.g. sending a contact form). The visitor’s browser receives a computational task from Friendly Captcha. The complexity of the computational task depends on various risk factors. The visitor’s device solves the calculation task, which takes up certain system resources, and sends the calculation result to our web server. The latter contacts the Friendly Captcha server via an interface and receives an answer as to whether the puzzle has been solved correctly by the end device. In addition, the visitor’s browser transmits connection data, environmental data, interaction data and functional data to Friendly Captcha, which evaluates this data and determines how likely it is that it is a human user or bot and transmits the result to us. Depending on this, we may treat access to our website or individual functions as human or potentially machine.

All of the above data is used solely for the detection and treatment of potential bots and risks as described above. The purpose of the processing is therefore to ensure the security and functionality of our website.

If personal data is stored, this data will be deleted within 30 days. Insofar as data is personal, the legal basis for the processing is our legitimate interests in protecting our website from improper access by bots, i.e. spam protection and protection against attacks (e.g. mass queries), Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR.

We collect and process the personal data that we have received from you in the context of a business contact in the context of a visit to a trade fair or event.

This data shall include, in particular:

• Last name, first name of the contact person
• Company Name
• Address of the company
• Business phone number
• Business Email Address
• Position in the company, if applicable

We collect and process for the purpose of a possible business initiation, for the fulfilment of a contract and to support business development.

The contact details you provide will be collected by us in order to provide you with information about our company, as well as offers, orders and samples of our products that may be of interest to you.

The legal basis for the processing of personal data for the transmission of information about the company and the products and with regard to the initiation of business is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR

Your data will only be used internally within our group for the above-mentioned purposes and will not be passed on to third parties. We store personal data of other business contacts for as long as the person in question is of business importance to us in his or her function. This is checked internally every 12 months. This is followed by archiving of data if this is necessary to fulfil a legal retention obligation.

We use the information you provide as part of the whistleblower system or the ombuds service for purposes such as verifying and documenting reports, for internal investigations, for forwarding to external lawyers, auditors or other professionals bound by professional secrecy and, if necessary, for forwarding to government agencies (such as the police, public prosecutor’s office or courts). We assure all whistleblowers that their information will be handled confidentially.

We only process your personal data if you provide it to us voluntarily. Data of a reported person will be processed within the framework of the requirements of the German Whistleblower Protection Act (HinSchG) in order to follow up and document the report.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data by the internal reporting office is Article 6 para. 1 lit. c (fulfillment of a legal obligation) in conjunction with Section 10 Whistleblower Protection Act (HinSchG) or Section 8 of the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) for notifications under the Supply Chain Act.

The legal basis for the operation of the reporting system is Article 6 (1) lit. f DSGVO (legitimate interest of the controller); our legitimate interest is to establish appropriate reporting channels in order to comply with legal requirements and to be able to follow up on violations within the company. If you disclose your identity when submitting a report, the legal basis for processing your data is your consent pursuant to Article 6 lit. a DSGVO. Furthermore, you are entitled to the data subject rights mentioned in this data protection information.

In principle, the data collected by us will only be passed on if:

• you have given your express consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 a) GDPR,
• the disclosure pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 f) GDPR is necessary for the assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims and there is no reason to assume that you have an overriding interest worthy of protection in refraining from disclosing your data,
• we are legally obliged to disclose pursuant to Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR, or
• this is legally permissible and necessary in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 b) GDPR for the processing of contractual relationships with you or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures that are taken at your request.

Part of the data processing may be carried out by our service providers. In addition to the service providers mentioned in this Privacy Policy, this may include, but is not limited to, data centers that store our website and databases, IT service providers that maintain our systems, consulting firms, suppliers, freight forwarders and postal service providers. If we pass on data to service providers, they may only use the data to perform their tasks. The service providers have been carefully selected and commissioned by us. They are contractually bound by our instructions and have appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to protect the rights of the data subjects.

Within our group of companies, many systems and technologies are shared. This enables us to implement our processes efficiently and in a right-hand manner in the Group. Therefore, within our group of companies, only those companies and departments that need it to fulfil our contractual and legal obligations or to fulfil their respective functions will have access to your data.

We transmit your data in encrypted form within our group of companies:

• for the purposes of the tax documentation and information obligations within the framework of the VAT group on the basis of legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 f) GDPR.
• for the purposes of the group-wide HR department on the basis of legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 f) GDPR.
• for the purpose of conducting internal investigations based on information based on our legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 f) GDPR.

In order to fully comply with the statutory data protection requirements, we have concluded a contract for order processing within our group of companies.

In addition, disclosure may take place in connection with official requests, court orders and legal proceedings if it is necessary for legal prosecution or enforcement (the legal basis for this data processing is, depending on the individual case, Art. 6 para. 1 c) or f) GDPR).

Data transfer to third countries

As explained in this privacy policy, we use services whose providers are partly located in so-called third countries (such as the USA), i.e. countries whose level of data protection does not correspond to that of the European Union. To the extent that this is the case and the European Commission has not issued an adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR) for these countries, we have taken appropriate precautions to ensure an adequate level of data protection for any data transfers. These include, among others, the standard contractual clauses of the European Union or binding internal data protection regulations.

Where this is not possible, we base the data transfer on exceptions to Art. 49 GDPR, in particular your explicit consent (Art. 49 para. 1 a) GDPR) or the necessity of the transfer for the performance of the contract or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures (Art. 49 para. 1 b) GDPR). If a transfer to a third country is provided for and there is no adequacy decision or suitable safeguards, it is possible and there is a risk that authorities in the respective third country (e.g. intelligence services) can gain access to the transmitted data in order to collect and analyse it, and that the enforceability of your rights as a data subject cannot be guaranteed. If you obtain your consent via the cookie banner, you will also be informed about this.

In principle, we only store personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected the data. After that, we delete the data immediately, unless we still need the data until the expiry of the statutory limitation period for evidentiary purposes for civil law claims or because of statutory retention obligations.

For evidentiary purposes, we must retain contract data for another three years from the end of the year in which the business relationship with you ends. According to the statutory standard limitation period, any claims become statute-barred at this point in time at the earliest. Even after that, we still have to store your data for accounting reasons. We are obliged to do so due to legal documentation obligations that may result from the German Commercial Code, the German Fiscal Code, the German Banking Act, the Money Laundering Act and the Securities Trading Act. The periods specified there for the retention of documents are two to ten years.

You have the following statutory data protection rights under the respective legal requirements:

• Right to information (Article 15 GDPR, § 34 BDSG)
• Right to erasure (Article 17 GDPR, § 35 BDSG)
• Right to rectification (Article 16 GDPR, § 34 BDSG)
• Right to restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
• Right to data portability (Article 20 GDPR)

To exercise your rights described here, you can contact the contact details above at any time.

You also have the right to complain to the data protection supervisory authority responsible for us. In Schwaig near Nuremberg, where we are based, the supervisory authority responsible is: Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, P.O. Box 606, 91511 Ansbach. Alternatively, you can contact the data protection authority in your place of residence, which will then forward your request to the competent authority.

Right of revocation and objection

In accordance with Art. 7 (2) GDPR, you have the right to revoke your consent at any time from us. As a result, we will no longer continue the data processing that was based on this consent for the future. The revocation of consent does not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent before the revocation.

Insofar as we process your data on the basis of legitimate interests in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 f) GDPR, you have the right to object to the processing of your data in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR and to give us reasons that arise from your particular situation and which, in your opinion, speak for an outweigh of your interests worthy of protection. If you object to data processing for direct marketing purposes, you have a general right to object, which we will implement even without giving reasons.If you would like to make use of your right of revocation or objection, an informal message to the contact details mentioned above is sufficient.

To protect the security of your information during transmission, we use the encryption protocol TLS (Transport Layer Security), also better known as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). This applies, among other things, to your orders or our contact form. We do not support older versions of the SSL protocol, which is why SSL connections to some older browsers are not accepted by our servers. We therefore recommend that you use an up-to-date browser version.

Further developments in the Internet and in the relevant case law may also affect this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy (including sections specific to this website) in the future to ensure it complies with current legal requirements and/or to reflect any additions or changes to our website.

The current version of this privacy policy applies to your visit; you can access it on every subpage via the “Privacy Policy” link. Date of this privacy policy: August 2026