The high profile Australian founders of Specsavers, Doug and Mary Perkins hit the headlines in the United Kingdom recently when they joined the £1 billion club.
Their fortune jumped from approx. AUD$523 million (£340 million) to an impressive AUD$1.8 billion (£1.15 billion), making them the 56th richest people in Britain, nearly at the summit of the Sunday Times Rich List of Britain’s wealthiest 1,000 people.
The company’s rapid rise has been attributed in part to its aggressive expansion in Australia. In just three years Specsavers has opened 250 stores around the country. That number is expected to grow to 300 before the close of 2011. In New Zealand, Specsavers opened its 50th store in February 2011. While Specsavers was established in the British Guernsey, where its head office remains, Doug Perkins now lives in Melbourne for around 10 months each year. It’s said that he works very closely with the company’s Australian managing director Peter Larsen to target existing independent optometrists and to convert optometrists from other chains and franchises.
In three years the company has secured nearly 10 per cent of the Australian optical retail market.
