Doug and Dame Mary Perkins - 4 November 2020

Doug and Dame Mary Perkins, Co-founders of Specsavers, delivered a lecture as part of the Virtual Bristol Distinguished Address Series titled “Building the World's Largest High Street Optics and Audiology Brand”.

Building the World's Largest High Street Optics and Audiology Brand

Doug and Dame Mary Perkins founded Specsavers with the aim of offering affordable eye care to everyone. In their talk, Doug and Mary spoke about how Specsavers began, and the journey it has been on to get where it is today - a world-wide organisation that turns over £3 billion a year, operating in 10 countries and employing 35,000 colleagues.

Doug and Mary also discussed how they came to develop their unique business model, with years of worldwide research of partnership and franchises, which were previously unheard of in the medical sector. They explain that Specsavers have a values-led approach to business, and their model is not built on a stock exchange model but rather on a unique joint venture partnership, where directors part-own and manage their own stores.

Event recording

Watch the event to hear co-founders of Specsavers, Doug and Dame Mary Perkins, speak about how they saw the opportunity to revolutionise the optical market.