Collas Crill sponsors Specsavers founder Dame Mary Perkins as Chamber of Commerce guest speaker

James Qualtrough | April 24, 2012 | 0 Comments

Collas Crill is delighted to sponsor Specsavers founder Dame Mary Perkins as guest speaker at the Jersey Chamber of Commerce’s April lunch.

Dame Mary founded the Specsavers Optical Group in 1984 in Guernsey with her husband, Doug. The company has grown to be the largest privately owned optical company in the world with an annual turnover of £1.6 billion.

Collas Crill joint senior partner Chris Bound said: “Specsavers is a remarkable success story, and one that is dear to our hearts because it’s ‘home grown’ in the Channel Islands just like Collas Crill.”

At the event Dame Mary will explain how Specsavers Opticians have grown carefully and steadily from one store in Guernsey in 1984 to 1,600 stores in 10 countries with no debts and no loans.

Dame Mary was honoured by the Queen for her services to business and the community in 2007. She received a Lifetime Achievement award from the IoD in 2011, was the recipient of the First Woman in Business Lifetime Achievement in 2010 and won Outstanding Woman in Business in 2007.

Dame Mary supports numerous charities and is patron of EveryWoman and anti-bullying charity Kidscape, an ambassador for Vision Aid Overseas, Sightsavers and Action Aid, an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University and an Honorary Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors. She is also a Liveryman of Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers and Freeman of the City of London.