Magrabi’s Visionary CEO Looks to Expand

Amin Magrabi has been CEO of the MAGRABi Group since 2019. He joined the family-led business in 2003, having started his career in financial services. His current role encompasses CEO of the Retail business, Chairman to the MAGRABi Hospitals and Centers network and Chairman of the MAGRABi Foundation.

AMIN MAGRABI

CEO MAGRABI GROUP

Amin Magrabi has a poster on his office wall: “Leave your ego at the door”. It is this determination to stay grounded by the CEO of Magrabi Retail, and his ability to communicate and engage so well with his staff and colleagues, that distinguishes him as a born corporate leader. Having taken over the family business twenty years ago, he has built the biggest eyewear luxury retailer in the middle east region, with 144 stores, an estimated market share of 40% in premium and luxury, 1350 employees and a revenue of $220m a year for the retail arm, aiming to double by 2025. The company’s brands are household names in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf. Magrabi has a clear business strategy, an engaging message as a social advocate and a legacy of 95 years of providing quality optical care since Amin’s grandfather first went into the optometry business. “We were born to care for people’s eyes,” the CEO says. “That has always been our mantra.” The company’s mantra has always been to “never turn away a patient” since its founding, and today Magrabi has a charitable foundation offering equitable eye care. Amin used his background in investment banking and high finance to really take Magrabi to the next level. He has a very clear vision and a strong business strategy to consolidate Magrabi’s position in the region before eventually taking it global and turning it into a publicly listed company. I think international expansion is something we are thinking about,” Magrabi explains. “But in this current period, we are building the platforms, the talent, the technology to enable us to take that next step.” Magrabi, the region’s leading eyecare and eyewear luxury retailers, announced earlier this year that during 2022, it will be investing a total of Dh84m across 57 stores in KSA, UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Kuwait. However, it is not just his business acumen and strategic vision which makes him worthy of the CEO awards; it is his determination also to make Magrabi a social advocate and to set tough, ground-breaking targets for gender equality and fair practices across the company.

Magrabi has recently opened Saudi’s first female-only staff store and has set a target of 50:50 gender equality throughout the company – from board to shop floor – by 2025. “Culture is very important to us,” Amin says. “We have taken positions around gender equity and gender balance in our region. Until very recently in our markets we couldn’t even have one female colleague in the stores, for example, in Saudi Arabia.” Amin has introduced a shrewd, data-driven strategy for the retail group, one which now accounts for both premium and mainstream markets, and the business model of the business includes online as well as bricksand-mortar stores.

“We take tens and tens of data points – whether demographic, social, infrastructure,” he continues. “We use AI models which look at current revenue of the stores, where they are and then highlight other catchment areas that fit those.”

Magrabi has also set up a world-leading Lens Innovation Centre in Dubai, with plans to double the current production of two million per year by 2025 and capitalised on the large market for coloured contact lenses account for around 50% of sales in the middle east. Recently, Magrabi and Amin hosted David Beckham for an exclusive visit in one of their stores for the launch of the latest DB eyewear SS23 and FW23 collections.

These forward-thinking, disruptive innovations mark out Amin Magrabi as a true leader whose star continues to rise.

“We use AI models which look at current revenue of the stores, where they are and then highlight other catchment areas that fit those.”