Doug Perkins Doug Perkins Douglas John David Perkins (born April 1943) is a British billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder of Specsavers, an international optical retail chain. Douglas John David Perkins was born in April 1943 in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. "His father was a policeman and his grandparents were farmers in the county for generations." He was educated at the Llanelli Boys Grammar School, and he graduated from Cardiff University. Perkins began his career as an optometrist in Llanelli and Carmarthen. In the 1970s, he took over his father-in-law's optician store in Bristol and subsequently opened 22 stores. Perkins co-founded Specsavers with
Thiele (retail opticians) Thiele (retail opticians) Thiele is a chain of retail opticians headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company is owned by Jens Henrik Brandt (95%) and Profil Optik (5%). The company was founded in 1817 when Frederik Anton Thiele (1792-1859) was granted a royal license to "manufacture and sell any kind of astronomic, mathematical, chemical, physical, optical, mineralogical and mechanical instrument or device". His son Johan Christian Thiele, who had studied both at the College of Advanced Technology and abroad, took on the company following the death of his father in 1859. He expanded the business but died died just 39 years