Mary Perkins sold for £2 million in 1980, and continue to receive income from. After the sale the couple moved to Guernsey, where Mary's father had retired. Mary and Doug Perkins established Specsavers in Guernsey in 1984. In 2007 it was the largest privately owned opticians in the world, with nearly 900 stores across the UK and Europe. By 2011 the company had an annual turnover of £1.5bn and over 30,000 staff in markets in the UK, Europe and Australasia. Her current title at Specsavers is "founder". Dame Mary sits on the company board, oversees business development and has particular responsibility for
Samuel Perkins Pick Samuel Perkins Pick Samuel Perkins Pick (1858 – 23 May 1919) was an English architect strongly associated with Leicestershire, and co-founder of the architecture and civil engineering firm Pick Everard. The son of a veterinary surgeon, Pick was born in Kettering and educated at Kibworth Grammar School, where he was introduced to two artists (Harry Ward and John Fulleylove) who encouraged him to produce drawings of buildings, some of which were published in "The Builder". In 1884, when he was awarded a medal by the Worshipful Company of Plaisterers, he was described as an architectural apprentice of John Breedon Everard