Specsavers

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"When Doug and Mary started Specsavers Opticians with one store on Bond Street in Bristol, England in 1984, I don’t think anyone could have envisaged that the business would have grown to the size and stature that it has become today."

-John Perkins, Joint Managing Director, Specsavers Optical Group, in 2009.

From operating out of a spare bedroom with a staff of two in Guernsey, England, in 1984 to becoming a global business worth a billion pounds in 2008, Specsavers Optical Group (Specsavers) had come a long way. Started by Mary (Mary) and her husband Douglas (Douglas) Perkins, both entrepreneurs and optometrists, Specsavers had notched up an impressive business record in its 25-year history. By the end of 2008, Specsavers was the leading optical company in the UK with a turnover of £ 1.2 billion and over 1,300 stores in 10 countries worldwide. Mary and Douglas’s vision was to turn Specsavers into a £ 2 billion revenue earning company with 2,000 stores by the end of 2011.

This they planned to do by expanding its retail presence in the UK, North America, Asia, New Zealand, and Australia. The company also planned to foray into other countries in Europe. Industry observers, however, opined that the target was too ambitious and that the rapidly increasing competition in the UK optical market would only make it more challenging.

Mary had gained experience in the optical business after running her father’s store under the name Bebbington in the West Country of England in the late 1970s. The store was sold in 1980 and the couple moved to Guernsey where Mary’s parents lived. It was at this time that the British government deregulated some professions including optometry, allowing them to advertise their products and services. The couple was quick to take action and they started Specsavers stores in Guernsey and Bristol in 1984. Specsavers was launched with the stated aim of offering affordable eye care to customers without any compromise on style.

Mary and Douglas scripted a success story with Specsavers. Experts felt that much of the success was attributable to Mary’s organizational skills and her propensity to avoid risk. During their journey, Mary and Specsavers won several awards and accolades. In 2007, Mary was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List. Moreover, the company won the Reader’s Digest most trusted brands survey for the eighth consecutive time in 2009.

By the end 2009, Douglas and Mary had helped build the largest privately owned optical company in the world with Mary as the co-founder and senior executive and Douglas as the co-founder and chairman of the company. The couple led by their team at Specsavers had turned the company into a market leader in the UK optical market with a 39 percent market share in 2009. Moreover, the company was a retail market leader in contact lenses with a 40 percent market share and was the largest provider of home delivery contact lenses in Europe. The company had also tasted success in the UK hearing aid market. The couple aimed to achieve a market share of 50 percent in the UK optical market by 2011. Spurred by their success in the UK optical market, Mary and Douglas aimed to grow their business further by focusing on global expansion. In addition to growing the business, the couple also focused on succession planning by making their three children well-versed in the intricacies of their business.

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