CASE STUDY JAMES HARGREAVES GROUP
How a century-old distributor built a modern digital backbone.
James Hargreaves Group, founded in 1923, is a leading plumbing, heating and bathroom distributor in the UK. Strong regional presence. Strong reputation. But its digital structure lagged behind its physical scale.
The challenge
30,000+ products spread across multiple business units
Four separate websites with inconsistent data
Fragmented processes and no single source of truth
Limited ability to scale online sales or maintain data quality
A growing need for structured classification across categories
Approach
1. Establish one PIM–DAM environment
The group centralised all product data, descriptions and digital assets. One cloud-based system for all business units. Structured. Searchable. Maintainable.
2. Introduce ETIM as the data backbone
ETIM became the standard across categories. Product attributes, filters and naming conventions aligned under one classification language. This removed ambiguity and reduced errors.
3. Align PIM, DAM, ERP and e-commerce
Workflows were mapped. Responsibilities fixed. Data now moves cleanly between systems without manual patchwork.
The webshop receives structured product information directly from the central model.
4. Build team capability early
An online training platform enabled fast onboarding. Teams learned not just the tooling but the logic behind structured product data.
“We saw immediate savings in time, resources and cost.”
Impact
Faster content production
New products are created, mapped and published in a fraction of the time.
Predictable data flows
A single data model powers ERP, e-commerce and internal processes.
Operational gains visible early
Less rework. Fewer inconsistencies. Clear savings in time and cost.
Core insight
Digital transformation succeeds when product data leads.
Once the structure is right, everything else scales.