The investigation found that several Welsh businesses presented as independent opticians were under the corporate ownership of Hakim Group, an optical company based at India Mill Business Centre in Darwen, Lancashire.
The group trades through HO2 Management Limited and markets itself as the largest independently operated optician family in the UK and Ireland.
It also invites practice owners to consider selling their businesses or forming a partnership with the group.
Although the practices involved retain their established names, employees, premises and local connections, company records show links to HO2 Management and its founder Imran Hakim.
Hakim was listed as having 524 active directorships at Companies House.
Julian Davies Opticians is one of the businesses in the group.
It operates seven practices across Cardiff, Newport, Blackwood and Usk, while its website promotes the company as a family-run independent optician serving south-east Wales.
Companies House records HO2 Management Limited as having significant control over Julian Davies Limited, company number 05385749, since January 2023.
That control includes the ability to appoint and remove directors.
Hakim became a director on the same date, and the registered office is at India Mill in Darwen.
Julian Davies and Gaynor Davies, who belonged to the founding family, left the board in 2015.
Osmond Drake in Penarth has a similar ownership structure.
Its website describes the business as a third-generation family optician, with Marc Drake identified as owner and lead optometrist.
Companies House shows HO2 Management holding at least 75% of both the shares and voting rights in Osmond Drake Optical Limited, company number 14679256.
The notification was recorded on 21 February 2023, when Hakim was appointed as a director.
Marc Drake and Alison Drake joined the board six weeks later on 5 April 2023, and neither has a recorded holding of shares or votes.
Marc Drake’s significant-control registration ended on 30 September 2026.
Each of the three directors lists Unit 317, India Mill Business Centre, Darwen, as a correspondence address, although Companies House records their residence as Wales.
Evans & Hughes operates four practices in Ammanford, Llandeilo, Lampeter and Pontarddulais.
Its website begins with the Welsh greeting Croeso and identifies three men as the company’s owners, with one of them leaving the board in 2021.
HO2 has held significant control since June 2023, the same month in which Hakim became a director, and the registered office is located in Darwen.
Correspondence addresses filed by the remaining owners based in Wales also point to Unit 317 at India Mill Business Centre rather than Carmarthenshire.
The Optic Shop has branches in Swansea, Carmarthen, Porthcawl, Bridgend and Cross Hands.
HO2 acquired outright control in March 2024, including authority to appoint and remove directors.
The two former individual shareholders ended their holdings on that date.
Monnow Eyecare in Monmouth describes itself as an award-winning independent practice and received three Optometry Wales awards in 2025.
HO2 has exercised significant control since December 2020.
Hakim is a director, the registered office is in Darwen, and the local co-owner’s correspondence address is likewise in Lancashire rather than Monmouth.
Chalmers was established in Cardiff in 1940 and has traded on Albany Road and, more recently, Wellfield Road.
Although its website refers to independent opticians in Cardiff, an account of the business entering a new chapter under new ownership does not identify the owner.
Recruitment material issued by Hakim Group also referred directly to Chalmers in connection with a vacancy in Cardiff.
The investigation examined website disclosure requirements introduced by the 2015 rules covering company and limited-liability-partnership naming and trading disclosures.
Regulations 24 and 25 require a company to display its registered office address, registered name, company number and the part of the UK in which it is registered.
None of the practices reviewed provided the current registered-office address on its website.
Julian Davies included a company number but omitted that address, while the same omission applied to Monnow Eyecare, Chalmers and Allport.
Footers on several of the websites used closely similar wording, and the sites appeared to have been produced from a shared design template.
Pritchard Cowburn provided neither a registered company name nor a number, listing only branch addresses in Narberth and Cardigan.
The corporate structure brought questions about the use of the term independent.
Hakim Group’s ownership, central services and common back office resemble features commonly associated with an optical chain, even though the practices do not use one shared trading name.
The term itself has no statutory protection in the sector.
Within optometry, independent can mean a practice that is not part of a national chain, retains clinical freedom, selects its own frames and does not follow a prescribed national script.
Under that interpretation, practices within Hakim Group can remain independent in their clinical operations.
For customers, however, the description may instead signify local ownership, local management and financial benefits remaining within the community.
Several of the businesses were described as profitable local enterprises, leading some customers to expect spending to be retained in the local economy.
Where a controlling or near-controlling interest has been sold to the Lancashire group and back-office services are purchased centrally, money can leave Wales through dividends, management or service charges, and central purchasing margins.
Choosing a high-street practice rather than a chain may reflect considerations beyond price, including who employs local residents, where profits are distributed and whether the high street remains under local ownership.
The central issue identified was therefore a lack of disclosure rather than wrongdoing.
Relevant ownership and registered-office information could allow customers to make an informed choice, but that information was absent from the websites reviewed.
A request for comment sent to Hakim Group did not receive a response.