How Much Is Mary Douglas Perkins Worth - Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth How Much Is Mary Douglas Perkins Worth Read more... Mary Douglas Perkins Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth is .. Dame Mary Lesley Perkins, DBE (born 14 February 1944) is co-founder and a senior executive of Specsavers, a leading bricks and mortar United Kingdom eyeglass company. The wife of Specsavers co-founder and chairman Doug Perkins, Dame Mary ha... Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth is . Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth is . Dame Mary Lesley Perkins, DBE is co-founder and a senior executive of Specsavers, a leading bricks and mortar United Kingdom eyeglass company. The wife of Specsavers co-founder and chairman Doug Perkins, Dame Mary has three children, all of whom work for Specsavers and are eventually expected to take over the privately owned company. She attended Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol. She then went to Cardiff University to train as an optometrist. At Cardiff, she met Doug Perkins, whom she would later marry. The couple established their first business in Bristol in the 1960s.

This was a chain of opticians around Bristol, which they sold for A?2 million in 1980, and continue to receive income from. After the sale the couple moved to Guernsey, where Mary's father had retired. Mary and Doug Perkins established Specsavers in Guernsey in 1984. In 2007 it was the largest privately owned opticians in the world, with nearly 900 stores across the UK and Eu... Dame Mary Perkins Dame Mary Perkins ? I have done this site especially for Dame Mary Perkins in order to visit crazybillionaire.org Dame Mary Perkins - Wikipedia Known for Founder of Specsavers Title Dame Commander Dame Mary Perkins (born 1944) is co-founder and a senior executive of Specsavers, a leading bricks and mortar United Kingdom eyeglass company, and was made a Dame in 2007. She was born on February 14, 1944 and is the wife of Specsavers co-founder and chairman Doug Perkins. They have three children, all of whom work for Specsavers, and are eventually expected to take over the privately owned company. Early life - Dame Mary Perkins Perkins attended Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol.

She then went to Cardiff University to train as an optometrist. At Cardiff, Mary met Doug Perkins, whom she would later marry. The couple established their first business in Bristol in the 1960s. This was a chain of opticians around Bristol, which they sold for £2 million in 1980, and continue to receive income from. After the sale the couple moved to Guernsey, where Mary's father had retired. Specsavers - Dame Mary Perkins Mary and Doug Perkins established Specsavers in Guernsey in 1984. In 2007 it was the largest privately owned opticians in the world, with nearly 900 stores across the UK and Europe.[2] Her current title at Specsavers is "founder". Dame Mary sits on the company board, oversees business development and has particular responsibility for running PR. She has admitted donning disguises and visiting Specsavers stores, posing as a customer. Awards - Dame Mary Perkins Perkins was made an honorary fellow of Cardiff University in 2005.

The same year she received the Rotary International Community and Vocational Service Award for her services to charity and in 2006 won the inaugural Spirit of everywoman Award. Mary Perkins was the first female optician in the UK to receive the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. It was awarded in recognition of her services to business and to the community in Guernsey. After receiving the accolade Dame Mary commented: I am absolutely thrilled, as you can imagine. This is a huge honour, not just for me but for everyone at Specsavers, as we all work as a team to give our customers what they want – quality, value for money professional eyecare. This makes me even more determined to passionately pursue the path we set ourselves 25 years ago and to continue to serve the British public. The accolade was also in recognition of her other charity work including the Guernsey annual "Specsavers Liberation Tea Dance for pensioners", and her directorship of Women's Refuge and Age Concern. Dame Mary also won the “Spirit of everywoman” Award in 2006, created to honour one woman considered to have changed the landscape for women in business.

------------------------ Dame Mary Perkins - timesonline.co.uk The biggest private employer on Guernsey, Specsavers had 1,260 outlets globally at the end of last year. New Zealand is the latest new territory for the business built by husband and wife team Douglas, 66, and Dame Mary, 65. They met during an optician course at the University of Wales in the 1960s and married when they graduated. An early spectacles chain was sold in 1980 for £2m and Specsavers was started in 1983 after advertising restrictions on opticians were lifted. Each shop is a joint venture between the company and individual opticians, and the formula has been expanded to hearing aids. Specsavers saw global sales jump from £879m in 2006-07 to £1.02 billion in 2007-08. It is owned by the Perkins family and has no debt. ----------------------- Decisions: Dame Mary Perkins - Specsavers optical group, Co-founder of the opticians' chain MY BEST... ... was when I decided to start Specsavers in 1984.

I'm an optometrist and had a small optical business, but I sold that in 1980. How I started Specsavers in '84 was slightly different. It was based on a joint-venture partnership with optometrists owning their own stores but using Specsavers' services such as marketing and products. At the time, the joint-venture partnership was unique to Specsavers, and it has revolutionised retail optics. It was good to give a support system to everybody, particularly young opticians who wanted to own and run their own practices. Women as well, because up until then, optometry was considered a bit of a male thing. It fits very well with family life because if you're boss of a business, you work how you need to. I also kept the firm private. Optical companies or chains are usually run by corporate finance concerns or investment companies - big global players - but ours is still a private company with a family culture, rather than a global head office dictating according to shareholder needs. MY WORST... We're now the biggest supplier of digital hearing aids in the UK and we started that business only three years ago. In hindsight, it would have been great to have started it earlier.

I'm very risk-averse because, in a joint-venture partnership, you don't want to risk the optometrists' livelihood. I concentrate on our core business, but hearing does fit very well with eyecare - it's the same sort of older customer. If we had started it earlier in the UK, we could have rolled it out quicker in other countries. Another bad decision: when we started in the Netherlands 10 years ago, we were advised by consultants that Specsavers wasn't a good name, so we entered the Dutch market under another name. Within two months, I realised it was a huge mistake and reverted to the Specsavers name. When you're a marketing company, to bring in another brand is ridiculous; half the people there knew the Specsavers name anyway. Since then we have gone into all the other countries as Specsavers and it has been fine. I should have gone on my gut instinct. ----------------- Dame Mary Perkins interview Christine Mathers - financialradio.co.uk As the co-founder of Specsavers, who now have over 1000 branches the world over, how did Dame Mary Perkins do it? An optometrist by trade, Mary knew her market.

"When Margaret Thatcher deregulated the industry, opticians were allowed to advertise. We became the first showroom which allowed people to come in and try on glasses." "Instead of just the optician's wife having several pairs of fashionable glasses, I wanted everybody to be able to do this." She proved her joint venture partnership business model worked with two stores, then five.... then hundreds. So how did she expand so quickly? "My motto is: always recruit the best people! After about six years I realised we had to go up a gear so we got some specialists in - marketing, IT, retail. You need to have world-class people if you want to be world-class." Listen to the full interview to hear Dame Mary Perkins' advice for starting out in business - and why you should employ your family. Dame Mary Perkins spells out Specsavers internet strategy Author: Alex Thomas - opticianonline.net Specsavers' joint venture partners will not be adversely affected by the company's forthcoming online venture, Dame Mary Perkins, Specsavers' founder, has confirmed. 'It's extra business to them, nothing's coming my way,' she said speaking exclusively to Optician last week.

News of Specsavers' incentive had attracted negative publicity over the impact on its partners but she insisted the complaints were 'misinformed', maintaining that the move had been 'designed by the joint venture partners, not by head office.' Click here Dame Mary rejected criticism that the initiative would increase footfall in stores as online customers came in for fittings, but not necessarily overall frame sales. She claimed the move would 'ease the workload' for store staff since customers who had browsed online would not need their assistance to choose frames, while producing extra customers 'which is all to the benefit of the joint venture partners and their staff'. Under the plans, customers would choose their frames online before coming into the practice to have them fitted and glazed with lenses. Join venture partners were perfectly happy with the online launch, Dame Mary asserted: 'We haven't had to give reassurance as every person can see that it's all common sense what's happening - it's all to their advantage and there are no disadvantages.' Rebuffing rumours that buying frames online would be cheaper than purchasing them in the practices, Dame Mary declared the starting price for frames online would be £25, 'the same as in every Specsavers store'.

Negative press speculation in The Financial Mail on Sunday, was 'blown out of context' Dame Mary said. She insisted Specsavers 'was never going to start selling glasses straight to people's homes'. That would remain the case so long as the current General Optical Council guidelines existed, added a spokeswoman as a point of clarification. The message was very much that customers would choose their frames online but they would be fitted and glazed in store. Dame Mary said 'there is no big marketing push' and disclosed that there was, as yet, no date for when glasses would be sold online.

She affirmed Specsavers' commitment to selling frames through its practices: 'We've over 700 bricks and mortar stores within easy reach of everyone and as far as we're concerned you need proper measurements, proper fitting and the care and attention that goes into selling a pair of glasses.' Asked if selling frames online was a reaction to the increasing competition from Asda and Tesco, who both offer contact lenses online as well sunglasses, Dame Mary said: 'We'd be fools to ignore the competition whoever they are.' Making reference to Specsavers' own spectacular rise to become the largest retailer of eyewear in the UK, she commented: 'When we first came into the market nobody noticed we were there.' She recalled how other opticians thought they were going to be 'just a flash in the pan'. With Tesco now having opened 72 in-store opticians and Asda owning 81, Dame Mary is determined not to treat the supermarkets with the same complacency: 'I wouldn't say we were worried, but it is a wake-up call when somebody comes into your part of the market with similar pricing.

Tesco and Asda are very big brands, people go into their stores every week to shop and they're going to attract lots of footfall past their optical departments.' However she does not feel the supermarkets beat Specsavers on price, claiming after coatings and trade-ups 'it's more expensive in the end to buy a pair of glasses from Tesco than it is from Specsavers'. Dame Mary said Specsavers was determined not to 'sit back and rest on its laurels'. She spoke of the company's other new plans for 2008 which centre on an ambitious expansion into the Australian eyewear market. She said the first stores would open in the state of Victoria, where Specsavers has located its Australian headquarters and distribution centre, before expanding one state at a time throughout the rest of the country. In total, Dame Mary expected Specsavers to have opened between 200 and 250 stores over a three-year period. She added that Specsavers' brand awareness had been greatly boosted by the number of British expatriates living in the southern hemisphere, who were 'always calling us asking when we're going to open our stores in Australia'.

---------------------- Clear vision - Dame Mary Perkins by Sarah Hanson - director.co.uk Dame Mary Perkins, founder of Specsavers, revolutionised the High Street optical market by building a £1bn brand. With her eyes fixed firmly on future growth, she talks here about innovation, why the customer is king and supermarket competition My staff are falling around laughing right now," says Dame Mary Perkins, the 65-year-old founder of Specsavers who is regaling me over the telephone with the story of how she had lost a pair of glasses for the first time. "You'll never believe it, I've been wearing them for years, since school, and I've just lost my first pair ever." The loss, albeit a minor one, is uncharacteristic of the woman whose finely honed organisational skills (she is a mother of three) and propensity to avoid risk have helped her and optometrist husband Doug Perkins build the largest privately owned opticians in the world. The company, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last month, now has a total of 1,318 stores across the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.

Last year Specsavers turned over £1.2bn, sold around 20 million frames and has captured 39 per cent of the UK glasses market and 40 per cent of the contact lenses market. But Dame Mary didn't always want to be an optometrist. "I would have loved to have been a librarian—I adore books," she says. "Either that or a maternity nurse, one of those people who go out and look after rich people's babies for a month to get them into a routine." As it was, Dame Mary developed an interest in optometry after spending Saturdays and school holidays helping her optician father. "If my father hadn't been [an optometrist], possibly I'd have never have thought of it, because it was a fairly male-dominated profession years ago, and I wouldn't be me and I wouldn't be where I am." Dame Mary gained her optometry degree in 1965 at Cardiff University, where she met Doug. In 1967, they founded Bebbington and Perkins, a group of 23 wholly owned opticians around Bristol.

They sold these for £2m in 1980 when they decided to move to Guernsey-not for tax purposes, according to Dame Mary, but to be near her parents, who had retired. For three years she "dabbled at things", and then in 1984 Margaret Thatcher's government loosened regulation of the professions, including opticians. "It was a great temptation to come back into optics," she recalls. Where before opticians had been banned from advertising products and services, now they were allowed to do so. "We were the first to advertise, have showrooms and let people know what our prices were. Buying glasses then was quite expensive so people were not visiting opticians. There is a health aspect as well, so we wanted to get people to visit opticians on a regular basis and provide more choice at affordable prices for everyone." With her husband, Dame Mary visited the US to look at how franchise optical outlets were run there, but she was not keen on the model. "The franchisor was charging the franchisee a fee, but not doing much for them.

We wanted to stay hands on and make sure this was going to be successful." Instead, with money from the sale of their previous business, the couple set up the company as a joint venture partnership where each Specsavers opticians is legally a separate business, with 50 per cent of the shares owned by the Specsavers Optical Group and the other half held by the practice partners (one of whom has to be an optometrist, but who can also be the dispensing optician, technician or senior manager). Each practice pays a fee to the group for services and support such as IT, marketing, operations and retail training—"so all he has to do is what he's been trained for, which is to be an optician". After paying for services out of turnover, any profits belong to the partners in that store and their staff. "It's very much a working partnership, quite different to a franchise," says Dame Mary, "which is one of the reasons why nobody's ever failed at being a joint venture partner—we've never had to close a store." Specsavers has used the same model to gain a major foothold in the hearing aid market.

In only three years it has become the biggest provider of hearing aids outside the NHS, with 142 centres throughout the UK and Europe. "The type of people needing hearing assistance are very much those who have to wear glasses as they get older, so the database matches up well," says Dame Mary. But she also reckons hearing loss is a future bombshell waiting to go off. "People are having hearing losses younger because of all these iPods and things we have sticking out of our ears, playing loud music." In the early days it was a challenge to get opticians to sign up. "In the first year we started with five company stores so we could get the figures to show future joint venture partners that if they lower their prices, they'll see a lot more people and have a very good business." After a slow start the number of stores grew quickly. By 1991 there were around 150 practices in the UK. This was a turning point for Specsavers. "It was felt that if we needed to move on and become a household name, we needed different people at board level. We needed world-class people who were specialists in their field." With a new board, Dame Mary had to find a new role.

When she's not at board meetings or speaking to the press, she is customer champion. "I bore people at meetings and almost sit there with a label on my head saying 'think customer'. The thing that keeps us going is the end person who gives us their money, the customer." She visits Specsavers stores as the firm's mystery shopper—using wigs and disguises—to ensure customers are receiving a good service. But how, when the company is growing so rapidly, does it maintain standards and company values? "Constant, constant, constant communication. And because staff who have been here from the beginning are still very much hands on—for example, my husband has been setting up Specsavers in Australia," she says. Despite its size, Dame Mary says the company is definitely a family business, which will one day be handed over to their children. "I only wish I'd had more than three," she says. The couple's son, previously finance director, became joint managing director with Doug in 2007 while their elder daughter is head of internal audit and their younger daughter country manager for the Netherlands and Scandinavia. "The business is well set up now with succession planning at all levels.

You think about succession planning for the owners, but you've got to have succession planning at board level, senior level, right the way through for a company to be going forward." Dame Mary owes the success of the business to "sticking to what Specsavers stands for", differentiation and "staying one step ahead of the competition". She adds: "It's important to know your customer and know what the need out there is. For us, the joint venture partnership is like having thousands of eyes out there with the customer, feeding back rather than trying to run something behind a desk in an office. Any retailer will tell you that you don't run retail from behind a desk." Service and value are also important. "If you try to lead on price alone that's just a recipe for disaster." The company's manufacturing plants—in the UK, Hungary, the Far East and Australia—have also given it competitive advantage. "We can move quicker on new products and things if we're doing it ourselves," she says. "It also enables us to control costs." A rapid expansion programme-including 150 stores opened in Australia last year alone—has cemented Specsavers' dominant market position. "Staying ahead of the competition is relatively easy," says Dame Mary.

"That's a horrible thing to say because it sounds as though we're complacent but it's not, it's just that at the moment, and this is how we intend to keep it [in the UK], we have three times market share of our nearest High Street competitors." At the time of writing, Boots Opticians has announced it is to merge with Dollond & Aitchison, creating the UK's second-largest chain of opticians and knocking Vision Express down to third place in the UK's optical chain pecking order. If the deal, which is subject to the approval of competition authorities, is completed, Boots Opticians, as it will trade, will give Specsavers a run for its money. "Both Boots and D&A had a small market share, so it makes sense for them to merge for economies of scale and cost savings in these turbulent times. It will be interesting to see how 'competing' outlets in the new Boots/D&A company manage," says Dame Mary. But she adds that her main competitors are supermarkets, in particular Tesco, which has 100 optometry outlets in its stores.

"They only have a small market share, but people do a grocery shop each week so they are going past a Tesco opticians more than a Specsavers. And they have the ability to drop prices to ridiculous levels." But there is some contention between Specsavers and smaller independent opticians unable to compete on price. "Specsavers is an interesting financial model. It is able to combine many elements of the independent practice with a worldwide supply chain," says Bob Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Optometrists. "If you are the only independent practice in a little town you've got a good business, but if Specsavers moves in it will affect you." What about internet competition? "We've sold contact lenses over the internet for years," Dame Mary explains. But she says selling glasses online is harder because you have to be measured for them. "You can choose glasses on the internet, but what we can't do, because we're registered with the General Optical Council, is make those glasses and post them to the customer's home. You can do it on a single-vision, low-ish prescription, but people with multi-focal lenses have to be measured to make sure their eyes look through the right part of the lens.

Nobody can sell those over the internet." But James Murray Wells, founder of internet optical retailer Glasses Direct, says his company, also registered with the General Optical Council, asks customers with vari- and bi-focals glasses to send in their existing frames, which it then uses to measure the new pair. The firm also uses dispensing opticians to make home visits. "We are investing in technology which, in the future, will allow us to take measurements from a photo or a webcam," he says. By cutting overheads Glasses Direct is able to offer spectacles at a fraction of the price of its High Street competitors. Over the next four years Murray Wells wants the company to become the world's largest direct seller of glasses. "In the 1980s Specsavers did a fantastic job of innovating and bringing something new into the optical market-they were the new kids on the block. But recently they have struggled to innovate because of the franchise model," he says. But Hughes argues that buying multi-focals over the internet is "money down the drain". He adds: "It's a personal piece of fitting that has to be done by people who know what they are talking about.

[The internet] has a niche, but I question how big that niche will be." For now there's no doubt Specsavers is in a strong position and plans to stay there. But if the merger between Boots Opticians and Dollond & Aitchison gets the go-ahead, and if internet optical retail does take off, there will be interesting times ahead. But Dame Mary is ready. "If it [the optical industry] changes, we'll be ready to change with it," she says. "You never finish a job, the goalposts always move, but it's fun," she adds, chuckling. "Somebody asked me only the other day 'why do I go to work?' And I said 'well what would they have me do? Sit at home?' I love coming into work." -------------------- For a man, what's the key to choosing the right pair of glasses? - Dame Mary Perkins uk.askmen.com Justin Conran: I can only talk about the way I think about them. I want to look like Johnny Depp at all times; we’re often mistaken for each other. No really, it’s about the way you wanted to be perceived. When I look at you in my glasses I want you to know I mean business.

That said, the chances are you’ll buy one serious pair and then something else that you wouldn’t normally buy. That gets you into the world of different kinds of spectacles and a more fun time with them. Dame Mary Perkins: They do say it’s a woman that chooses the man’s glasses. Or at least somebody who can see them as they are, and just tell the truth. Jasper Conran: I’ve been told a man will come and pick the glasses that he wants and the woman will take them out of his hand and put another pair in. It’s never the pair that he thinks looks good -- so yes, the woman does choose, definitely. Women choose most of men’s clothes too -- the woman definitely still rules that one. It’s the person that actually cares about you won’t let you look like a fool, so a man will actually allow that to happen. Men aren’t that confident in general. What trends should we be looking forward with regards to specs? Dame Mary Perkins: It’s what that person looks good in. It’s what suits that person or their face shape. People have more choice now and the quality is there.

Jasper Conran: I think there’s been a lot of people wearing frameless glasses. I think you’ll see a lot more frame-defined glasses enter the market. Finally, Jasper, which are your favourite pair of glasses from your range? Jasper Conran: The ones I’m wearing now: Jasper Conran 05. Not unlike Chanel Number 5. These are Jasper Conran Number 5, ha-ha.... Learn and talk about Mary Perkins, Alumni of Cardiff University, Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire, English billionaires, English businesspeople Early life[ edit ] She attended Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol. She then went to Cardiff University to train as an optometrist. At Cardiff, she met Doug Perkins, whom she would later marry. The couple established their first business in Bristol in the 1960s. This was a chain of opticians around Bristol, which they sold for £2 million in 1980, and continue to receive income from. After the sale the couple moved to Guernsey , where Mary's father had retired. [3] Specsavers[ edit ] Mary and Doug Perkins established Specsavers in Guernsey in 1984.

In 2007 it was the largest privately owned opticians in the world, with nearly 900 stores across the UK and Europe. By 2011 the company had an annual turnover of £1.5bn and over 30,000 staff in markets in the UK, Europe and Australasia. [4] Her current title at Specsavers is "founder". Dame Mary sits on the company board, oversees business development and has particular responsibility for running PR. She has admitted donning disguises and visiting Specsavers stores, posing as a customer. [3] Awards and honours[ edit ] Perkins was made an honorary fellow of Cardiff University in 2005. The same year she received the Rotary International Community and Vocational Service Award for her services to charity and in 2006 won the inaugural Spirit of everywoman Award. Perkins was the first female optician in the UK to receive the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2007.

The accolade was also in recognition of her other charitable work, including the Guernsey annual "Specsavers Liberation Tea Dance for pensioners", and her directorship of Women's Refuge and Age Concern . [5] She was awarded the Spirit of Everywoman Award in 2006. [6] She is also a patron to leading children's charity Kidscape [7] In 2012 Dame Mary Perkins was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business from Plymouth University [8] In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 . [9] "Decisions: Dame Mary Perkins - Specsavers Optical Group, Co-Founder of the Opticians' Chain" - Management Today, January 1, 2008 | Online Research Library: Questia Article excerpt MY BEST... At the time, the joint-venture partnership was unique to Specsavers, and it has revolutionised retail optics. It was good to give a support system to everybody, particularly young opticians who wanted to own and run their own practices.

Women as well, because up until then, optometry was considered a bit of a male thing. It fits very well with family life because if you're boss of a business, you work how you need to. I also kept the firm private. Optical companies or chains are usually run by corporate finance concerns or investment companies - big global players - but ours is still a private company with a family culture, rather than a global head office dictating according to shareholder needs. MY WORST... We're now the biggest supplier of digital hearing aids in the UK and we started that business only three years ago. In hindsight, it would have been great to have started it earlier.

… Subscribe to Questia and enjoy: Full access to this article and over 10 million more from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers Over 83,000 books Access to powerful writing and research tools Article details Dame Mary Perkins: Specsavers | Startups.co.uk: Starting a business advice and business ideas Startups.co.uk: Starting a business advice and business ideas The Specsavers' co-founder on successful organic growth, managing a vast network, and dealing with tough calls by The Startups Team Tools: Compare supplier quotes to help you start a business From the outset, Doug and Mary Perkins planned Specsavers as a business that would not be sold or floated. Their three children all work in the company, and she hopes that their grandchildren will too. She believes the culture of the business – “still a private company with family values” – has been integral to its success. With over 30,000 staff and a total turnover of £1.5 billion in 2010/2011, Specsavers is clearly a vast business. Yet it retains the feel of being a family firm, and this is one of its strengths.

Dame Mary Perkins gives a sense that she is deeply involved in the company, and deeply interested in its operations on the ground. “I never lose sight of the customers. We wouldn’t have a business if it wasn’t for them, so they… are my best friends, the most important people in my life.” Among the many awards won by Specsavers since 1984 is being voted most trusted optician by British consumers for 10 years in a row. Mary Perkins herself was made a Dame in 2007, in recognition of her services to business and the community in Guernsey. Nothing to do with timing or luck After its slow first year, Specsavers has achieved growth year after year. It has never closed a store, and has no loans or outside investment. This is nothing to do with luck or timing, asserts Dame Mary Perkins, but the result of “careful appraisal of everything”. Specsavers rigorously researches aspects such as locations and partners, and its senior management style seems to be micromanagement in the best sense, with headquarters closely involved with the day-to-day running of each store. “We have a close working relationship with all the stores, and we’re very hands-on with them,” explains Perkins.

“We don’t just give a manual and say this is how you do it. A board member will meet with all the opticians in every country every eight weeks. We sit down for the day and ask what’s been happening, and whether something’s worked … It’s not all done from behind a desk, we’re very much involved at the sharp end.” The optician chain’s joint venture structure, whereby each partner has a 50% stake in his or her store, offers partners a long-term incentive to perform well and grow. This structure, points out Perkins, offers greater rewards and motivation to each partner than a franchising arrangement. It’s an excellent formula for growing a company and getting staff to buy into its vision. The joint venture arrangement encourages opticians to nurture their own patch. Perkins explains: “Reputation is ever more important with the new media around. Companies should stay close to their customers and be part of their communities.” It’s an interesting paradox that in the days of global online purchasing, local engagement and individual customer care are more important for retailers than ever. A small local problem or small group of disgruntled customers can quickly become a national or even international story.

Perkins warns that the internet has also changed customer expectations, and the difficult economic landscape has exacerbated this. “Customers are searching for more value – for more for less. They’re more demanding, and more knowledgeable, using the internet to find out things for themselves, and they want better service. So they need to be told why they should spend money with you.” One of the challenges for Specsavers has been to keep growth at a steady and manageable rate. A common cause of failure, advises Perkins, is “trying to run before walking, trying to get big in a hurry – there’s no need to do that”. She warns against being too thinly spread, and of losing your culture, vision and values when you expand into other markets. She continues that if you have good senior managers and good leaders in your team, they may be eager to “forge ahead and do everything. But sometimes you have to put a brake on and say ‘Hold on a minute, this may not be the right thing to do.

We need perhaps to look at what we’re doing already, and consolidate it.’ So I think entrepreneurs who want to grow a business have to think really hard about whether they want to add on another country, or whether they should be strengthening what they’ve got.” This judgment about when to expand and when to consolidate is especially important in the current decade, when the economic landscape in the UK, Europe and the US is so tough. Finally, one more piece for advice: different growth stages need different people at board level. This may involve some difficult conversations. “We started with generalists, we could all do a bit of everything. Then there comes a stage when you need specialists – a marketing director and so on. Later when you go out to different countries, you need global experience. So there are times when you have to say goodbye to someone… The people who start the business with you are not always the people you need as you get bigger.” Growing a business necessitates some ruthless decisions. Stick to the knitting A favourite phrase of Dame Mary Perkins is “Stick to the knitting”. She explains that companies like Specsavers, with huge customer databases, are continually approached by people with an idea for a new activity or market they might enter.

But it’s important to stick to core skills or activities that mesh with your existing skills and customer base. “You might think an idea sounds glamorous, but you have to say, ‘Is it really going to help the company?'” Again, this applies more than ever in the current decade. The homeliness of the phrase also tells us more about Specsavers’ culture, an element that has fuelled its decades of growth. Dame Mary Perkins may appear in the Sunday Times Rich List, but she wears her achievements lightly. She speaks of the importance of good business leaders being willing to listen and learn, and she says: “I am willing to lead from the front and will muck in when needed. I treat others as I would like to be treated – whoever they are, staff, suppliers, anyone I meet.” Remember that as you try to grow as big as Specsavers. This article is an excerpt taken from the new book published by Regus called Growth in a Difficult Decade. All proceeds from the book will go to charity. You can order a copy on Amazon . Specsavers: A great British growth story Dame Mary Perkins set up Specsavers with her husband Doug in 1984 in their spare bedroom in Guernsey.

At the time the UK government was deregulating professionals, including opticians, allowing them to advertise for the first time. They opened early branches in Bristol and Guernsey. And by 2011 the company had an annual turnover of £1.5bn and over 30,000 staff in markets in the UK, Europe and Australasia. Despite its size, Specsavers remains a privately owned business, with no outside debt or shareholdings. The Perkins family describes it as “a family business with thousands of family members”. As that phrase suggests, Dame Mary Perkins emphasises the importance of creating a good corporate culture, despite the challenges of doing so as a business grows. She sets great store by good customer service, strong links with local communities, and an extensive charity programme. She also emphasises that, in the current economic climate, entrepreneurs need to make careful judgments about the relative merits of expansion and consolidation.

The modest lifestyle of Specsavers founder Dame Mary Perkins | Life | Life & Style | Daily Express The modest lifestyle of Specsavers founder Dame Mary Perkins The optician-turned-businesswoman who owns 30 pairs of reading glasses has built a business worth more than £1billion 01:31, Thu, Dec 19, 2013 Dame Mary refuses to change her modest lifestyle [REX] BRANCH managers at Specsavers used to live in fear of a bespectacled middleaged lady who would stand dithering in front of a display unit until a member of staff approached her. For she was not just another customer bewildered by the array of colours and styles available but the founder of the company, wearing a wig as disguise, on the lookout for any shortcomings in customer service. The hairpieces have since been consigned to the wardrobe because Specsavers' highest-ranking mystery shopper Dame Mary Perkins now counts as Britain's richest selfmade woman and is liable to be rumbled straight away. Dame Mary, 69, and her husband Doug this week added another £32million to their fortune after awarding themselves a dividend on UK sales of £347million.

Global turnover meanwhile has topped £1.8billion and the company employs 30,000 people in 1,650 stores in 10 countries. No wonder it has been valued at £1.15billion. Given this background you would be entitled to assume that the Perkins live in a big house, drive fancy cars and enjoy vacations at the world's most glamorous hotspots. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dame Mary and her husband live in the same four-bedroom house in Guernsey that they bought more than 30 years ago. Until recently she drove a 12-year-old car and only got a new one because she needed four seats rather than two. As for holidays she did go to Mauritius a few years ago but that was her first proper break "for ages". Specsavers is a market-leading brand [ALAMY] None of our friends have second properties or jet-set lifestyles so it's never occurred to us to live in any other way Dame Mary Perkins, Specsavers founder "Some people's homes in Guernsey look like they have come out of the pages of Homes And Gardens but that's not for me," she told one interviewer.

"We don't move in rich circles, none of our friends have second properties or jet-set lifestyles so it's never occurred to us to live in any other way." So what motivates the optician-turned-businesswoman who owns 30 pairs of reading glasses? She once said: "Somebody asked me only the other day, 'Why do I go to work?' And I said, 'Well what would they have me do? Sit at home?' I love coming into work." One of the most inspirational partnerships in British business started off as a romance between two students who met on the first day of term at Cardiff University in the 1960s. Both were studying optometry and when they had completed their degrees it made perfect sense for Doug to borrow some money from his grandparents and buy the opticians owned by Dame Mary's father in Bristol. Not that they had everything given to them on a plate. "When Doug and I started out we didn't have a television or a car or even a telephone," Dame Mary recalled.

With husband and co-founder Doug [REX] "We worked long hours because we "We worked long hours because we knew if our business folded we wouldn't get paid and we wouldn't be able to look after our family." Far from folding the business prospered. From one practice the couple proceeded to build up a chain of 23 outlets called Bebbington and Perkins and in 1980 sold it to a company that was swallowed by Dollond and Aitchison for £2million. That is £7.2million in today's terms, more than enough to set them up for life. Having signed a three-year noncompete agreement they moved to the tax haven of Guernsey not for financial reasons but to be closer to Dame Mary's retired parents. Their story might have ended there in a round of whist drives and do-goodery. But the couple were still only in their 30s and when four years later Mrs Thatcher loosened regulation of the profession they smelled an opportunity. Up to then opticians had not even been allowed to put so much as a sticker in the window saying they accepted credit cards.

It may sound hard to believe now at a time when "Should've gone to Specsavers" is one of the best-known advertising slogans around but in those days opticians were not allowed to advertise their products and services. By this time Mary was working part time for Citizens Advice and Doug was a college lecturer in accountancy but the couple had mulled over various business ideas in their spare time and the deregulation legislation was just the opening they had been waiting for. Now there was scope for returning to the business they knew and creating a brand. They started up Specsavers from their spare room, requisitioning a redundant table-tennis table on which to do their paperwork in the absence of a desk. Using money from the sale of their previous business they opened their first branch in Guernsey in 1984 but their ambitions were never limited to their home patch. Related articles Pietersen payout over Specsavers ad At the time the industry was made up of hundreds of independent opticians but the Perkins' vision was to create a chain of showrooms under the Specsavers brand name.

"We knew then we did not want to run a chain of shops with all the issues of staffing and local administration so we set about building a completely new business model for the company," Dame Mary has said. "We would have partners in every shop we started who invest their money with us on a real 50/50 basis. If the shop was a success then we would all prosper." Today the chain sells 12 million frames a year in more than 1,000 styles and colours in the UK giving it 39 per cent of the market, well ahead of Boots the Chemist and Vision Express. It has moved into the hearing-aid market too and is now the biggest private seller of digital hearing aids in the country. Mary was appointed a Dame by the Queen in 2007 for services to business and the community and she is an active supporter of a wide range of charities from Age Concern to Women's Refuge. With this level of success behind them no one would blame the couple if they sold the business and lived the good life but they have no such plans. Instead of selling the company or floating it on the stock market they intend to hand it on to their children.

"They were involved with the business from a very early age," Dame Mary once recalled. "I'd have the kids there handing out Specsavers goodie bags with leaflets inside - they helped with the business tremendously." The couple's son John, 41, became managing director in 2007 after a stint as finance director and is regarded as the natural successor to his parents. Daughter Cathy, 45, is head of internal audit and 44-year-old Julie is country manager for the Netherlands and Scandinavia. The future of the company may be in good hands but Dame Mary cannot help but feel a twinge of regret sometimes: "There have been many times in my life when I've had to pinch myself because life has been so good to me. My only regret is that life is passing by so quickly." Most read in Life Mary Douglas Perkins Salary - Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth Mary Douglas Perkins Salary Read more... Mary Douglas Perkins Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth is .. Dame Mary Lesley Perkins, DBE (born 14 February 1944) is co-founder and a senior executive of Specsavers, a leading bricks and mortar United Kingdom eyeglass company.

The wife of Specsavers co-founder and chairman Doug Perkins, Dame Mary ha... Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth is . Mary Douglas Perkins Net Worth is . Dame Mary Lesley Perkins, DBE is co-founder and a senior executive of Specsavers, a leading bricks and mortar United Kingdom eyeglass company. The wife of Specsavers co-founder and chairman Doug Perkins, Dame Mary has three children, all of whom work for Specsavers and are eventually expected to take over the privately owned company. She attended Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol. She then went to Cardiff University to train as an optometrist. At Cardiff, she met Doug Perkins, whom she would later marry. The couple established their first business in Bristol in the 1960s. This was a chain of opticians around Bristol, which they sold for A?2 million in 1980, and continue to receive income from. After the sale the couple moved to Guernsey, where Mary's father had retired. Mary and Doug Perkins established Specsavers in Guernsey in 1984. In 2007 it was the largest privately owned opticians in the world, with nearly 900 stores across the UK and Eu...

Published: 01 Jan 2008 Last Updated: 09 Oct 2013 ... was when I decided to start Specsavers in 1984. I'm an optometrist and had a small optical business, but I sold that in 1980. How I started Specsavers in '84 was slightly different. It was based on a joint-venture partnership with optometrists owning their own stores but using Specsavers' services such as marketing and products. At the time, the joint-venture partnership was unique to Specsavers, and it has revolutionised retail optics. It was good to give a support system to everybody, particularly young opticians who wanted to own and run their own practices. Women as well, because up until then, optometry was considered a bit of a male thing. It fits very well with family life because if you're boss of a business, you work how you need to. I also kept the firm private. Optical companies or chains are usually run by corporate finance concerns or investment companies - big global players - but ours is still a private company with a family culture, rather than a global head office dictating according to shareholder needs. MY WORST...

We're now the biggest supplier of digital hearing aids in the UK and we started that business only three years ago. In hindsight, it would have been great to have started it earlier. I'm very risk-averse because, in a joint-venture partnership, you don't want to risk the optometrists' livelihood. I concentrate on our core business, but hearing does fit very well with eyecare - it's the same sort of older customer. If we had started it earlier in the UK, we could have rolled it out quicker in other countries. Another bad decision: when we started in the Netherlands 10 years ago, we were advised by consultants that Specsavers wasn't a good name, so we entered the Dutch market under another name. Within two months, I realised it was a huge mistake and reverted to the Specsavers name. When you're a marketing company, to bring in another brand is ridiculous; half the people there knew the Specsavers name anyway. Since then we have gone into all the other countries as Specsavers and it has been fine. I should have gone on my gut instinct. Tags:

Question: Dame Mary Lesley Perkins is a co-founder of which chain of UK opticians?
Answer: Specsavers