The Body Shop

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This article is about the cosmetics company. For other uses, see Body shop.

The Body Shop International Limited
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryCosmetics
Founded27 March 1976; 48 years ago (1976-03-27)
Brighton, UK
FounderAnita Roddick
FateInsolvency, assets sold off
Headquarters
London Bridge, London, UK
Number of locations
~3,000[1]
Key people
  • Ian Bickley (CEO)
  • Domenico Trizio (COO)
  • Tyler Reddien (CFO)
Products
  • Skin care
  • cosmetics
  • fragrances
RevenueIncrease R$ 5.3 billion (2020)[2]
Number of employees
10,000[1] (2017)
ParentL'Oréal (2006–2017)
Natura & Co (2017–2023)
Aurelius Group (2023–present)
Websitethebodyshop.com

The Body Shop International Limited, trading as the Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care, and perfume company founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick. In 2017, it stated that its products were sold in about 3,000 stores, some company-owned and others franchised, in 66 countries.[3][self-published source]

Originally trading from Brighton, the company is now based in London Bridge and Littlehampton, West Sussex,[4] and is owned by the private equity firm Aurelius. The company had been owned by the French cosmetics company L'Oréal between 2006 and 2017. In September 2017, L'Oréal sold the company to Brazilian Natura & Co for £880 million.[5][6] In November 2023, Natura sold it to Aurelius.[7]

On 13 February 2024, it was announced that Aurelius had put the UK business of the Body Shop into administration, that the chain would close up to half of its 198 stores in the UK, and that the number of staff at the chain's head office would be reduced by 40%.[8][9]

History[edit]

An earlier Body Shop, unaffiliated with Anita Roddick or the Body Shop International Limited, was opened in Berkeley, California, in 1970, by Peggy Short and Jane Saunders.[10]

Roddick opened her own health and beauty store, named the Body Shop, in her hometown of Brighton, UK, in 1976. Her motivation was to "make a living for herself and her two daughters while her husband was away travelling".[11]

The business's original vision was to sell products with ethically sourced, cruelty-free, and natural ingredients. None of Roddick's products were tested on animals, and the ingredients were sourced directly from producers.[12]

The store began trading with just 25 products. Roddick had purchased urine-sample bottles from a nearby hospital to sell her products in but did not have enough of them, creating the business's refillable bottles policy. Labels were handwritten, and Roddick did not advertise explicitly, using the local press instead.[13]

In the late 1970s, Roddick's partner, Gordon, returned to Brighton from America and suggested the business foster growth through franchising. By 1984, the company had 138 stores, 87 of which were outside the UK. By 1994, 89% of the business's locations were franchises.[13]

The Body Shop in the Prudential Center in Boston
The Body Shop at Rotuaari in Oulu, Finland

The company went public in April 1984 and was floated on London's Unlisted Securities Market, opening at a price of 95p, with the Roddicks keeping 27.6% of shares in the company and Anita continuing as managing director so as to retain control of the company's direction. After it obtained a full listing on the London Stock Exchange, share prices in the company increased dramatically, rising 10,944 percent in the first eight years.[13]

In 1987, Roddick paid the owners of the original Body Shop in the US, Peggy Short and Jane Saunders, US$3.5 million for the exclusive rights to the brand name. The US company became Body Time in 1992;[14] it closed in 2018.[15]

In 1991, the Body Shop sued Bath & Body Works, resulting in the latter company rebranding.[16][clarification needed]

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, the company joined a number of campaigns related to social responsibility and environmental issues. These included a "Trade Not Aid" campaign in 1987, wherein the company sourced some of its ingredients directly from the native communities they originated from. The company also made alliances with Greenpeace and Amnesty International.[13]

1994 Business Ethics exposé[edit]

In September 1994, the magazine Business Ethics published an investigative article entitled "Shattered Image: Is The Body Shop Too Good to Be True?", written by Jon Entine, on the company's practices.[17][18] The article was mentioned on The New York Times' business section front page.[19] Entine reported that Anita Roddick had stolen the name, store design, marketing concept, and most product line ideas from the earlier, American Body Shop.[17]

L'Oréal[edit]

In March 2006, the Body Shop agreed to a £652.3 million takeover by L'Oréal. The Roddicks made £130 million from the sale.[20]

The takeover caused some media controversy, particularly surrounding L'Oréal's use of animal testing. Although L'Oréal itself ceased animal testing in 1989,[21] the company had begun selling its products in China in 1997,[22] where the law required cosmetics to be tested on animals before sale to the public. Roddick stated that she believed the takeover could allow her to be a "Trojan Horse" within the larger company, working through the Body Shop to improve its standards on animal testing and environmental issues.[23]

In September 2007, Roddick died following a major brain haemorrhage.[24]

Natura[edit]

In 2017, L'Oréal sold the Body Shop to Brazilian cosmetics company Natura for £880 million (€1 billion).[25]

In 2019, the Body Shop received its B-Corp certification.[26]

Aurelius and insolvency[edit]

In November 2023, Natura sold the Body Shop to Aurelius, a global private equity group, for £207 million ($254.32 million).[27]

On 15 February 2024, Aurelius put the Body Shop's UK division into administration and hired administrators to help the company through the procedure. The Body Shop warned that a significant number of its UK stores could close within the coming months.[28] The administration process revealed that the UK division owed over £276 million to creditors, of which about £143 million was owed to other parts of the group.[29]

On 16 February 2024, just one day after the UK division went insolvent, the Body Shop Germany collapsed into administration and announced that all 60 stores were to be closed within the coming months. That same day, the Body Shop hired administrators for its Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Luxembourg, and France divisions, all of which were expected to be put into administration as soon as the following week.[30]

On 29 February 2024, the Body Shop's Belgian and Denmark divisions were placed under administration, and it was announced that all stores in both countries would close.[31][32] That same day, it was announced that 75 stores would close in the UK over the next six weeks, close to half of its locations.[33]

On 1 March 2024, the Body Shop Canada filed for creditor protection and announced that they would cease online operations and close 33 locations out of 105. On the same day, the Body Shop USA closed all of its stores and ceased operations online. On 10 March, the Body Shop USA filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.[34][35]

The Body Shop at Home: direct sales, multilevel marketing channel[edit]

In addition to retail channels, products from the Body Shop were available through the "Body Shop at Home" multilevel marketing network, established in 1994.[36] Distributors (or consultants) could also recruit others to sell the products.[37] The Body Shop at Home announced they would cease trading on 23 February 2024 in the UK and Australia.[38][self-published source]

The multilevel marketing program was known as "the Body Shop Direct" in Britain and was first trialled in Australia in Gippsland in 1997.[39] In 1998, the Australian division was featured in Australian Financial Review for their motivational-based policy of funding unrelated courses for home distributors, such as tarot reading or French polishing.[40]

In 2014, an unfair dismissal case ruled against the Body Shop (Adidem Pty Ltd T/A the Body Shop v Suckling [2014] FWCFB 3611). The plaintiff, Nicole Suckling, worked in an administrative support role for the Body Shop at Home as an independent direct candle seller for the company PartyLite. The Body Shop alleged that Suckling's access to their confidential contractual information could threaten the company's commercial interests.[41][clarification needed]

Social activism[edit]

The Body Shop long held aims of social activism as part of its business practices. Roddick herself took on gradually more critical views of both business broadly and the cosmetics industry in particular, criticising what she considered the environmental insensitivity of the industry and its traditional views of beauty, and aimed to change standard corporate practices through her brand.[42]

In 1997, Roddick launched a global campaign to raise self-esteem in women and against the media stereotyping of women. It focused on unreasonably thin models in the context of rising numbers of bulimia and anorexia.[43]

Community Trade[edit]

Launched in 1987, the Body Shop's Community Trade programme was based on the practice of trading with communities in need and giving them a fair price for natural ingredients or handcrafts, including Brazil nut oil, sesame seed oil, honey, and shea butter. The first Community Trade product was a wooden roller, supplied by a small community in southern India, Teddy Exports, which continued to be a key Community Trade supplier.[44]

Fair trade activists have criticised the programme: "The company...displayed claims...to pay fairer prices to the Third World poor but covered less than a fraction of 1 percent of its turnover", wrote Paul Vallely, the former chair of Traidcraft, in the obituary for Anita Roddick published in The Independent.[45]

The Body Shop regularly invited employees and stakeholders to visit Community Trade suppliers to see the benefits that the programme has brought to communities and Body Shop products.[46]

As part of the Community Trade programme, the Body Shop undertook periodic social audits of its sourcing activities through Ecocert.[47]

A campaign by Christian Peacemaker Team protested the alleged role of the Body Shop in purchasing palm oil from Daabon, a third-party supplier in Colombia, who forcefully evicted 123 families from their land at Las Pavas on 14 July 2009.[48][49] The Body Shop initially denied intentionally purchasing palm oil from the area[50] but later dropped Daabon as a supplier after the company failed to provide proof that it was not involved in the land seizures.[51][52][53]

Policy on animal testing[edit]

See also: Testing cosmetics on animals

The Body Shop has campaigned to end animal testing in cosmetics alongside animal cruelty NGO Cruelty Free International (CFI) since 1989. The company's products are non-animal tested and are certified cruelty-free by CFI's Leaping Bunny logo.[54]

In June 2017, the Body Shop and CFI launched Forever Against Animal Testing, its largest-ever campaign, aimed at banning animal testing in cosmetics everywhere and forever.[55]

In October 2009, the Body Shop received a lifetime achievement award from the RSPCA in Britain, in recognition of its uncompromised policy, which ensures ingredients are not tested on animals by its suppliers.[citation needed]

In 2021, the Body Shop announced that all their products would be certified vegan by the Vegan Society as of the end of 2023.[56]

The Body Shop Foundation[edit]

The Roddicks founded the Body Shop Foundation in 1990, which supports innovative global projects working in the areas of human and civil rights and environmental and animal protection.[57] The foundation was formed to consolidate all the charitable donations made by the company. To date, it has donated over £24 million in grants. The foundation regularly gives gift-in-kind support to various projects and organisations, such as Children on the Edge.[58]

In 2017, the Body Shop announced its new approach to corporate philanthropy, the World Bio-Bridges Mission (Re-Wilding the World), whose purpose is to increase biodiversity around the world while creating sustainable supply chains where possible.[59][self-published source]

Products[edit]

The Body Shop stand at New Zealand department store Farmers

The Body Shop carries a wide range of products for the body, face, hair, and home. The company claims its products are "inspired by nature" and feature ingredients such as marula oil and sesame seed oil, sourced through the Community Trade program.

Products include:

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Schipani, Andres (27 June 2017). "L'Oréal sells The Body Shop to Natura Cosméticos". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  2. ^ "2020 Annual Report". Natura & Col. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  3. ^ "About Us". The Body Shop. 2017. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017.
  4. ^ Chesters, Anna (21 November 2011). "A brief history of The Body Shop". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  5. ^ Butler, Sarah (9 June 2017). "L'Oréal to sell Body Shop to Brazil's Natura in €1bn deal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Body Shop bought by Brazil's Natura". BBC News. 27 June 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  7. ^ "The Body Shop changes hands again for £200m". BBC News. 14 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  8. ^ Butler, Sarah; Davies, Rob (13 February 2024). "The Body Shop collapses into administration in UK". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  9. ^ Hooker, Lucy (20 February 2024). "The Body Shop to shut up to half of its UK stores". BBC News. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  10. ^ Bronstein, Zelda (3 February 2004). "Made in Berkeley: Berkeley's Body Time the original Body Shop". The Berkeley Daily Planet. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  11. ^ Hope, Katie (9 February 2017). "What went wrong for The Body Shop?". BBC News. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  12. ^ Chesters, Anna (21 November 2011). "A brief history of the Body Shop". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  13. ^ a b c d Gale, Thomson. "The Body Shop International Plc". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  14. ^ "Made in Berkeley: Berkeley's Body Time the Original Body Shop. Category: Features from". The Berkeley Daily Planet. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  15. ^ Lee, Wendy (26 April 2018). "Berkeley's Body Time, once known as the Body Shop, closes". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  16. ^ Shapiro, Eben (19 October 1991). "The Sincerest Form of Rivalry (Published 1991)". The New York Times.
  17. ^ a b Entine, Jon (1 September 1994). "Shattered Image". Business Ethics: The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility. 8 (5): 23–28. doi:10.5840/bemag19948558. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  18. ^ Entine, Jon. "The Body Shop File: Beyond "Shattered Image"". Jon Entine. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  19. ^ Stevenson, Richard W. (2 September 1994). "Market Place; Body Shop's Green Image Is Attacked". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  20. ^ "L'Oreal buys Body Shop for £652m". The Independent. 17 March 2006. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  21. ^ "The Question of Animal Testing". L'Oréal. L'Oréal Group. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  22. ^ "L'Oreal celebrates 20 years in China". L'Oreal Media Room. L'Oreal Group. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  23. ^ Cahalane, Claudia (3 November 2006). "Interview: Anita Roddick, Body Shop founder". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
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  28. ^ "The Body Shop enters bankruptcy, hires insolvency practitioners". AFAQS. 14 February 2024. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
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  30. ^ Butler, Sarah (16 February 2024). "The Body Shop's German arm falls into administration". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  31. ^ Carrara, Alessandro (29 February 2024). "The Body Shop in Denmark files for bankruptcy with 15 stores to close". Cosmetics Business. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  32. ^ Clapson, Colin (29 February 2024). "Belgian branch of The Body Shop declared bankrupt". VRT. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  33. ^ Kollewe, Julia (29 February 2024). "The Body Shop to close 75 stores across UK and cut hundreds of jobs". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  34. ^ Benchetrit, Jenna (1 March 2024). "The Body Shop Canada to close 33 stores, end online sales". CBC News. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  35. ^ Butler, Sarah (10 March 2024). "The Body Shop files for bankruptcy in the US and Canada". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
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  37. ^ "Body Shop targets homes". The Times (United Kingdom). 30 April 2004. p. 27.
  38. ^ "The Body Shop at Home | Joyful Collective".
  39. ^ Dabkowski, Stephen (20 October 1997). "A beauty business with more hope than hype". BRW. p. 70.
  40. ^ Hepworth, Annabel (5 June 1998). "Belly dancing and tarot cards: learn on the job". The Australian Financial Review. p. 54.
  41. ^ Byrnes, Michael; Cheema, Sadaat. "The servant of two masters: Competing employees and poorly drafted restraints – Knowledge – Clayton Utz". claytonutz.com. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  42. ^ "The Bodyshop, Inc". University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  43. ^ Elliott, Stuart (26 August 1997). "The Body Shop's campaign offers reality, not miracles". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 20 April 2020.(subscription required)
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  46. ^ "Nicola will be no stranger to fair trade (From This Is Cheshire)". Thisischeshire.co.uk. 22 October 2009. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  47. ^ "The Body Shop Values Report". Archived from the original on 9 November 2006.
  48. ^ "Episode 19: Sarah Thompson on Charlottesville, CPT and confrontational nonviolence". soundcloud.com.
  49. ^ CPTDeutschland (2 November 2009). "Christian Peacemaker Teams public witness at The Body Shop outlets in London". Archived from the original on 18 November 2021 – via YouTube.
  50. ^ Simmons, Shelley (15 September 2010). "A Commitment to Colombia: The Body Shop's Solution for Palm Oil Sourcing". HuffPost.
  51. ^ Syal, Rajeev; Brodzinsky, Sibylla (2 October 2010). "Body Shop drops supplier after report of peasant evictions in Colombia". The Guardian.
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  53. ^ "What we do – Christian Aid". christianaid.org.uk.
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  55. ^ Wallwork, Ellen (2017). "The Body Shop Launches Campaign for a Global Ban on Cosmetic Animal Testing". HuffPost. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  56. ^ Snoeck, Jorg (3 June 2021). "The Body Shop wants to be 100% vegan by 2023". RetailDetail EU. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  57. ^ "The Body Shop Foundation". The Body Shop Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 February 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  58. ^ "Home". Children on the Edge. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  59. ^ "World Bio Bridges Mission | The Body Shop". www.thebodyshop.com. Retrieved 29 January 2018.

External links[edit]

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