Mary Perkins: The Co-Founder Who Helped Build Specsavers

Last Updated on July 17, 2026 by Business Blog Media Editorial Team

Introduction

Mary Perkins is a British optometrist, entrepreneur and business leader best known for co-founding Specsavers with her husband, Doug Perkins. The couple started developing the company from a spare room, where they used a ping-pong table as their first working desk.

Specsavers was founded in 1983, and its first stores opened in Guernsey and the United Kingdom in 1984. The business was created to provide modern and stylish glasses at prices more people could afford.

As of July 2026, Mary Perkins remains publicly identified as a Specsavers co-founder. Her current public profile says she continues to play an active role in the company, especially in customer service, company values and corporate responsibility.

Mary Perkins Quick Facts

• Full professional name: Dame Mary Perkins DBE
• Nationality: British
• Profession: Optometrist, entrepreneur and business founder
• Known for: Co-founding Specsavers
• Husband and business partner: Doug Perkins
• Education: Studied optometry at Cardiff University
• Current status: Active Specsavers co-founder
• Major honour: Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• Main business areas: Optical care, hearing care and healthcare services

Who Is Mary Perkins?

Mary Perkins is one of the founders of Specsavers, a company known around the world for eye tests, glasses, contact lenses and hearing care.

She trained as an optometrist before becoming a business founder. This professional experience gave her a clear understanding of customers, eye care and the problems people faced when buying glasses.

Mary did not build the business alone. She founded Specsavers with Doug Perkins, whom she met while they were both studying to become optometrists at Cardiff University.

Their partnership combined professional knowledge with a simple business aim: make good eye care and fashionable glasses easier for ordinary people to access.

Why Is Mary Perkins Famous?

Mary Perkins is famous because she helped turn Specsavers from a small home-based project into a major international company.

The business started with very limited office space. Mary and Doug worked from a spare room and used a ping-pong table to organise their early documents and plans.

This small beginning later became part of the company’s identity. It showed that a business does not always need an expensive office or a large team on its first day.

People who are exploring their own low-cost opportunities can also read these small business ideas from home for beginners.

Mary Perkins’s Education and Early Professional Direction

Mary Perkins met Doug while studying optometry at Cardiff University during the 1960s.

Optometry is the healthcare profession concerned with eyesight, eye tests, visual problems and the use of glasses or contact lenses.

Their education was important because Specsavers was not created by people who only understood retail. Mary and Doug also understood the professional care that customers needed.

This combination helped them build a company that treated glasses as both a healthcare product and an everyday item people wanted to feel comfortable wearing.

Mary’s career shows the value of learning an industry before trying to change it. She understood the work of an optometrist before becoming the founder of a large optical company.

How Did Mary Perkins Start Specsavers?

Mary and Doug Perkins founded Specsavers in 1983 after changes in UK regulations allowed professionals to advertise their products and services more freely.

They recognised that these changes could create a new type of optical business. Customers could be shown prices more clearly and offered a wider choice of modern frames.

The first Specsavers stores opened in Guernsey and the UK in 1984. According to the official Specsavers history, the early aim was to provide stylish and affordable glasses for everyone.

The founders focused on a problem that customers could easily understand. People needed professional eye care, but they also wanted choice, clear prices and attractive glasses.

Why the Specsavers Business Idea Worked

Specsavers did not grow only because it sold glasses.

The business worked because it connected several useful ideas:

Professional Eye Care

Customers could receive eye tests and advice from trained professionals.

Affordable Products

The company aimed to make glasses available at prices that more families could manage.

Modern Frame Choices

Glasses were presented as something practical and stylish, not simply as a medical product.

Local Business Leadership

Specsavers developed a partnership approach that allowed local professionals to become closely involved in operating stores.

Clear Brand Identity

The company created advertising and messages that were easy for customers to remember.

Mary’s attention to customer service also helped protect the company’s reputation as it expanded.

How Specsavers Expanded

Specsavers grew steadily after opening its first stores.

Important milestones in its official company history include:

• The first international store opened in Ireland in 1990.
• The first store in the Netherlands opened in 1997.
• Specsavers expanded into hearing care in the UK in 2002.
• The “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” slogan launched in 2003.
• The company opened 100 stores in 100 days across Australia and New Zealand in 2008.
• Its first Canadian store opened in 2021.
• Specsavers celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024.
• Its 1,000th UK and Irish store opened in Harpenden in 2024.

These milestones show that the company did not remain limited to British optical stores. It expanded into new countries and added hearing and wider healthcare services.

What Is Mary Perkins’s Current Role?

Mary Perkins is not the person responsible for every daily decision inside Specsavers.

However, she has remained involved in important parts of the company.

As of July 2026, the latest public profile reviewed says she continues to play an active role. Her main areas of interest include:

• Improving customer service standards
• Protecting company values
• Supporting corporate responsibility
• Encouraging a caring business culture
• Supporting charitable work

Her role shows that founders can continue influencing a company without controlling every store or department.

Mary has focused on the human side of the business. This includes how customers are treated, how employees understand the company’s values and how Specsavers supports communities.

Her current public leadership profile describes her as an active co-founder who remains passionate about customer service and responsible business.

Mary Perkins and Doug Perkins

Doug Perkins is Mary Perkins’s husband and Specsavers co-founder.

They met while studying optometry and later became professional partners as well as a married couple.

Building a company with a spouse can be difficult because business pressure may affect personal relationships. However, Mary and Doug developed a partnership that continued through decades of company growth.

Their shared professional background gave them a common understanding of eye care. They could discuss the business from the viewpoint of both healthcare professionals and company founders.

Mary became strongly connected with customers, company values and staff culture, while Doug also played an important role in strategy and business development.

Mary Perkins’s Leadership Style

Mary Perkins’s public work suggests a leadership style centred on people.

Put Customers First

Mary has remained interested in how customers are treated inside stores.

A company may have good products, but people will not trust it for long if its service is poor.

Protect Clear Values

As a business becomes larger, its original purpose can become less clear.

Mary’s continued involvement has helped keep attention on accessible care, customer service and responsible behaviour.

Understand the Industry

Mary entered business with professional optometry knowledge.

This helped her understand customers and the work carried out by store professionals.

Start With a Real Problem

Specsavers was created around a clear need. Customers wanted professional care, affordable prices and greater choice.

Grow Without Forgetting People

Mary has continued to support a caring company culture even after Specsavers became an international organisation.

Other leaders have also built influential work around long-term values and community needs. One example is Barbara Dalio’s leadership in education.

Awards and Recognition

Mary Perkins was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007.

The honour recognised her services to business and the community.

Becoming a Dame is one of the United Kingdom’s most important public honours. It showed that Mary’s work was recognised for more than company growth.

Her contribution included creating jobs, developing the optical industry and supporting community projects.

She is also publicly identified as a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers.

Charity and Community Work

Mary Perkins has been involved with national and international charitable organisations.

Her public profile names Modern Muse among the causes she supports. Modern Muse works to help girls make informed decisions about future careers.

Specsavers’ official history also records the opening of the Dame Mary Perkins Optometry Training Centre in Zambia in 2012.

The centre connected Mary’s name with professional training and wider access to eye care.

Her charity work is closely linked with the main purpose of her career: helping people receive better opportunities, professional support and healthcare.

What Can New Founders Learn From Mary Perkins?

Mary Perkins’s story provides several practical lessons for entrepreneurs.

Begin With Knowledge

Mary and Doug understood optometry before building an optical company.

A founder does not need to know everything, but strong industry knowledge can prevent expensive mistakes.

Use What You Have

The business began in a spare room with a ping-pong table.

The founders did not wait for a perfect office before starting their work.

Make the Customer Problem Clear

Specsavers offered a simple promise: professional care, more choice and affordable glasses.

Customers could quickly understand the benefit.

Build a Trusted Team

A growing company cannot depend on its founders forever.

It needs trained professionals, responsible managers and local leaders.

Keep Improving

Specsavers expanded beyond glasses into hearing care, home services and other forms of healthcare.

The company continued developing instead of depending only on its original products.

Protect the Original Purpose

Growth can damage a company when profit becomes more important than customers.

Mary’s continued focus on service and company values helped keep the original purpose visible.

Mary Perkins’s Wider Business Impact

Mary Perkins helped change how optical businesses presented their services to the public.

Specsavers made prices, frame choices and professional care easier for customers to understand. It also helped make glasses feel like part of a person’s everyday style.

The company’s international growth showed that the idea could work in different markets.

Mary’s influence is therefore not limited to one company. Her work also demonstrates how trained professionals can use their knowledge to create customer-friendly businesses.

She is an example of a founder who combined healthcare knowledge, retail thinking and people-focused leadership.

Interesting Facts About Mary Perkins

• She trained as an optometrist before becoming a major business founder.
• She met Doug Perkins while studying optometry at Cardiff University.
• Specsavers began in a spare room.
• A ping-pong table served as the founders’ first working desk.
• The first Specsavers stores opened in 1984.
• Specsavers entered hearing care in 2002.
• Mary became a Dame in 2007.
• An optometry training centre in Zambia carries her name.
• She remains involved in customer service and company values.
• Specsavers celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Mary Perkins?

Mary Perkins is a British optometrist and entrepreneur who co-founded Specsavers with her husband, Doug Perkins.

What is Mary Perkins known for?

She is known for helping build Specsavers from a spare-room project into an international eye and hearing care company.

Who is Mary Perkins’s husband?

Her husband is Doug Perkins, an optometrist and fellow co-founder of Specsavers.

Where did Mary Perkins study?

She studied optometry at Cardiff University, where she met Doug Perkins.

When was Specsavers founded?

Specsavers was founded in 1983. Its first stores opened in Guernsey and the United Kingdom in 1984.

How did Specsavers begin?

Mary and Doug Perkins started planning the company in their spare room and used a ping-pong table as a desk.

Is Mary Perkins still involved with Specsavers?

As of July 2026, the latest public profile reviewed says she still plays an active role, with particular interest in customer service, company values and corporate responsibility.

Why was Mary Perkins made a Dame?

She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007 for her services to business and the community.

What can entrepreneurs learn from Mary Perkins?

Her career shows the importance of industry knowledge, solving a real customer problem, starting with available resources and protecting company values during growth.

Conclusion

Mary Perkins is best known as the optometrist and entrepreneur who co-founded Specsavers with Doug Perkins.

The company began with a simple idea and a modest working space. Mary and Doug wanted to make professional eye care and stylish glasses more affordable and accessible.

Their spare-room project later became an international business offering optical, hearing and healthcare services.

Mary’s lasting contribution is not only the size of Specsavers. It is also her focus on customers, company values and responsible leadership.

Her career shows that a strong company can begin with professional knowledge, a clear customer need and the willingness to start small.