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
Boots UK a new manufacturing plant in Cramlington, Northumberland. In the early 1990s, Boots began to diversify and bought Halfords, the bicycle and car parts business in 1991. It also developed the Children's World business but sold it in 1996 to Mothercare. Halfords was sold in 2002. Boots Opticians Ltd was formed in 1987 with the acquisition of Clement Clarke Ltd and Curry and Paxton Ltd. Boots Opticians became the UK's second largest retail optics chain. In 2009 Boots Opticians acquired Dollond & Aitchison, an optician chain which was founded in 1750. Boots diversified into dentistry in 1998, with a number of