When they first developed their business on a table-tennis table in a spare room of the family home, optometrists Doug and Mary Perkins had a simple plan: to offer a wide range of stylish, fashionable glasses at prices everyone could afford, with no compromise on the standards of eye care.
That was 1984. Some 23 years later, the Perkins' family company, Specsavers, is the third largest supplier of eye care in the world with an annual turnover of more than $2.1 billion in 2006, up from $1.7 billion in 2005.
The couple, who met while studying optometry at Cardiff University in Wales, moved their family to Guernsey, in Britain's Channel Islands, after selling a small chain of West Country opticians. In the early 1980s, when the British Government deregulated the professions, including optometry, allowing them to advertise their products and services for the first time, they spotted an opportunity to modernise the industry and offer customers some choice.
They aimed to establish a company that was recognised as being as trustworthy as a local, independent optometrist, but with the huge buying power of a national company.
The couple opened the first Specsavers practices in Guernsey and Bristol in 1984, followed shortly by practices in Plymouth, Swansea and Bath.
The success was staggering.
From just two people with a dream, Specsavers now employs 16,000 people and supports 809 practices around the globe.
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