Mary Perkins jokes that if you cut Specsavers workers open, “they'll get green blood”.
It's a nod to the culture and employee loyalty, she says, that permeates the British optical retailer she co-founded, whose logo and branding are bright green.
“We're a family-run business, and I think we treat everyone like a big family – if someone has a problem, you help them.”
Perkins never worked for anyone else. She has built a £3bn Specsavers chain over the past four decades, selling glasses and carrying out eye tests in 11 countries, alongside her husband Douglas.
At 80, she still works full time and focuses on staff wellbeing – her son John became joint managing director in 2007 and is now chief executive. She is a director and attends board meetings, but says she “doesn't have a job title anymore.” She fills much of her time with an unusual administrative task: writing greeting cards. “I spent the entire weekend writing 500 birthday cards,” she says.
“If someone has a child or someone's relative has died, I'll write a card… It's caring for people who are on the edge, working hard every day, to make sure no one falls through the net.
She and Douglas co-founded Specsavers in 1984 from their spare bedroom after selling a small chain of optical shops in southwest England they had previously established.
The chain benefited from then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's deregulation of the profession in the 1980s, allowing opticians to advertise their services and prices to customers for the first time, and is now one of the most successful private companies in Britain, with more than £3 billion. In annual sales.
It has more than 40,000 employees and 4,900 partners – which co-own stores alongside the Specsavers group – in countries including Australia and Canada. It sold more than 23 million pairs of glasses last year and offers a variety of services, including eye tests in stores and increasingly through home visits to customers who cannot travel.
The company's marketing skill – almost all of its advertising is created in-house – gave rise to the slogan “I should have gone to Specsavers”, which remains a staple of the British vocabulary more than two decades after it was conceived.
As the company grew beyond the UK, leadership training became increasingly important to ensure that “everyone knew what the goals were, what the values were and how to work,” says Perkins, but leading by example was just as important. “It's a question of who [them] He watches me and what I do and how I act.”
Specsavers has deliberately taken a consistent approach to growth at home and abroad, in contrast to some other private companies that have expanded at breakneck speed to establish their presence in other regions.
Perkins cites the company's entry into Canada in 2021 as an example of its cautious approach. She says she had her eyes examined by about 50 different optometrists in the country in 2012 to get a sense of the demand and it wasn't until nearly a decade later that Specsavers was established there. “It was always on the cards but it was what it was [about] Choose the right time.
“If you know you're doing something right, keep doing it, it might just take a little longer. . . . if it's right for [customers]”You're holding on to it.”
A Day in the Life of Mary Perkins
6.30am: Wake up and exercise. I work out twice a week with a personal trainer, and I also do Pilates and walk a lot. It is very important to stay fit and fit, especially as you get older.
7.30am: Porridge with berries and seeds for breakfast – but I prefer hot chocolate. Then I get to work. I'm about to receive a new bike, and I'm hoping you'll encourage me to ride more as summer comes.
In the morning at the office, I make calls and answer emails. One of the calls was to a store that had an 80-year-old employee who had been in the store since it opened 35 years ago — and we're going to make a big fuss about it.
12.30 Head to the cafeteria for a quick lunch. My husband, Doug, and I make time for each other by eating together in the cafeteria when we're in the office.
In the afternoon, more calls and meetings, often with the communications team, and submission of entries for business awards.
17.00 I leave the office but take a lot of work home. I travel a lot for work and charity events, and I'm an avid reader.
Perkins says she grew up oblivious to gender stereotypes in 1950s Britain. She had a younger brother and grew up with her three cousins who were orphaned at an early age. “It never occurred to me that there was such a difference,” she says.
Only when I went to school, “I stumbled upon it a little bit . . . [Women] “You were still expected to be a secretary or a nurse – teaching was my favourite.”
Not dissuaded, but inspired by her ophthalmologist father, she went on to study optometry at Cardiff University in 1962, one of only five women to take the course that year. There she met Douglas and after they qualified, they set up their first optometry business in Bristol. The series was later sold for around £2 million.
In 1980, the couple moved to the Channel Island of Guernsey to be near Perkins' parents and founded Specsavers, this time as a joint venture with other shop owners. Perkins rejects suggestions that the transfer was for tax advantages.
“Every country we trade in, we pay tax there. Our support services are based in the UK… UK tax is paid.
“I pay too much tax in Guernsey, as they all say [it’s] A tax haven, but no, it's lower tax, and you'll still pay tax if you live there.
The early days were challenging, with Perkins doing everything from accounting to training employees and performing eye exams. “I like holding hands a little bit, which is why they can't get rid of me now,” she says. “It's a certain type of business and we knew it well. We lived it and grew it.”
This resulted in them spending long hours and a lot of time away from home and their three young children. “There was nothing written about him [work-life balance] in this days. If I didn't do this work – I was self-employed – I didn't get paid. I think you can miss out a bit on a young family life and I'm all for people getting a work-life balance – just be strict with yourself and put that in your diary.
“I didn't know that all those years ago. . . . I tell people now, 'Don't miss the opportunity because you can't get it back or go back.' And that applies to the men in the family as well. I was working seven days a week. . . . Of course being practical I was able to participate [my children] in it.”
The company is a joint venture between the partners in each Specsavers store and the parent ship which is headquartered in Guernsey. Each store is partly owned and operated by store associates, who receive a significant portion of the profits. The group has a controlling stake in each store, although Perkins says “it never gets to the stage where you have to crack the whip.”
Specsavers holds all leases or owns the property and collects sales-based fees from partners for a range of services such as payroll, branding and marketing, as well as selling products to stores based on customer orders.
The group recorded revenues of £3.4bn and pre-tax profits of £327m for the year to 28 February 2023. The revenue figure was up slightly on the previous year but profits fell from £449m, after the board decided to accommodate inflation. Instead of increasing prices, invest more in marketing and technology. The company said it had no external debt and paid an interim dividend of £15m to its Guernsey-based parent during the period, which is being reinvested into the wider business.
About a year ago, Perkins and her husband placed the company in a family trust in a move aimed at preserving its culture by preventing any major structural changes and preventing a sale to private equity. Two of their three children and a handful of grandchildren currently work at Specsavers.
“I hate to think that making portfolios depends on me or my husband,” she says. “This is not responsible for the thousands of people who work at Specsavers.”
“[But] I didn't really like the way we work – the culture, the partnership in joint ventures in the countries we are in – [be] It has changed and perhaps in the future it will become just a big company.
“I'm very happy with that and I [shall] I keep working as much as I want.
