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Specsavers‘ owners have placed their optical chain in a family trust: a precautionary measure to prevent the company from falling into the hands of external investment funds.
Succession assured
Founders (and still owners) Mary and Doug Perkins, now aged 78 and 79 respectively, want their company to remain in family hands. They have therefore placed the company in a so-called family trust as a precaution, they told British newspaper The Times. A trust is legal device in which people entrust their assets to a trustee, who has to manage the company according to predefined conditions.
The conditions here are crystal clear: Specsavers must not fall into the hands of a venture capital fund after the eventual death of its founders. Currently, succession is assured: their son John Perkins is the CEO, daughters Julie and Cathryn fill senior management roles and two of their seven grandchildren also already work for the company.
The founding couple started Specsavers in 1984 on the Channel Island of Guernsey. Since then, the optical chain expanded to the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and – since November last year – Belgium. The chain has some 2,500 shops worldwide, generating a combined turnover of 3.43 billion pounds (3.9 billion euros).
