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Multi-Brand Retail | Optical & Eye Care
Hakim Group Doubled Website Output and Scaled to 120 Concurrent Campaigns Across 450 Brands
Hakim Group, the UK and Ireland's leading portfolio company for independent opticians, was scaling fast. New practices were joining monthly, but the central growth team couldn't hire talent quickly enough to support them. Quality was slipping, deadlines were sliding, and the problem was compounding with every new brand. By embedding a global team through EGS (formerly Concertina), Hakim doubled its website output, scaled campaign volume to levels it had never reached, and freed its senior team to build the systems now driving the group's growth.
RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES
An Embedded Team, Not an Outsourced One
From day one, the global team was integrated into Hakim's huddles, workstreams, briefing processes, and project boards. No external vendor dynamic, no ticket queue. The same people, embedded long term, learning the business deeper every quarter and onboarding newer team members into Hakim's ways of working.
“It wasn't just briefing something out to a freelancer. It was someone who could really embed themselves into the business.”
David Barker, Head of Growth, Hakim Group
That embedded model meant the team didn't simply receive tasks. They understood the context, interpreted briefs, took feedback directly, and acted on it.
“They can interpret a brief, get client feedback directly, and go action that.”
Client-Led Vetting on Top of EGS Vetting
Hakim interviewed every candidate before they joined. With 450 brands to protect, they needed a specific type of operator: someone who could interpret a brief, take client feedback directly, and run without granular instruction. The interview layer gave Hakim's leadership confidence before anyone landed.
Specialist Roles Built Around the Bottlenecks
Rather than generalist support, EGS placed specialists where the constraint was: CRM and communications, creative and video editing, web design, and later SEO and AEO. Each role was scoped to remove a specific capacity ceiling.
Platform Migration at Scale
The web design team led Hakim's move to Webflow, in some cases bringing deeper platform experience than the internal team, and carried hundreds of brand websites through the transition.
Flexibility Without Losing Continuity
As Hakim's needs evolved, roles evolved with them. Functions that were onshored or retired were redeployed into new areas with new specialists, without restarting the relationship from zero.
RESULTS
2x Website Output in One Year
Hakim comfortably doubled the number of websites delivered year on year, the core constraint for a group supporting hundreds of individual optician brands.
“We pretty comfortably doubled the amount of websites we were doing in a year.”
90 to 120 Campaigns Running at Once
With embedded creative and video support, Hakim's social team reached campaign volumes the group had never achieved before.
Senior Team Unlocked
With business-as-usual delivery handled at a high standard, Hakim's senior team moved onto the work that moves the needle: fully redesigned booking journeys rolling out across the estate, dynamic CRM journeys built for the first time, and new agentic capabilities in development.
“It allowed us to free up senior members of staff to focus on the things that were actually going to move the needle.”
Talent That Upskills the Team Around It
EGS team members brought skills Hakim's junior staff learned from, and one won an internal Team Member of the Year award for their delivery on the account.
A Partnership That Escalates to the Top
When challenges came up over a multi-year relationship, EGS founders Tamara and Natalie personally got involved. Urgent hires were sourced fast, at caliber.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Individualization at Scale Needs Embedded Capacity
You can't protect 450 brands with freelancers and agencies. You need people who learn the business and stay.
Interview Your Global Team Like Internal Hires
The vetting layer is where hesitation turns into confidence.
The Real ROI Is What Your Senior Team Does Next
Offshore delivery isn't the win. The win is the strategic work it makes possible.
Flexibility and Continuity Aren't Opposites
Roles can pivot as the business pivots, without losing institutional knowledge.
