Body Shop collapses into administration

The Body Shop, established by the beauty entrepreneur Anita Roddick in 1976, has slumped into administration, just three months after it was bought by private equity group Aurelius in a deal worth £207 million.

Most recently, it has been owned by Brazilian beauty giant Natura, which bought the company in 2017 for £880 million.

In a statement released in November last year, Aurelius said despite the challenging retail landscape, there was an opportunity to "re-energise" The Body Shop business.

It has failed.

This is the second recent retail failure for Aurelius. Another brand it bought in 2022, Lloyds Pharmacy, went into liquidation just a few weeks ago.

When The Body Shop, which had its global headquarters in Littlehampton, first opened its doors in 1976, it was a little green-painted shop in the streets of Brighton. Its approach to beauty was radically different to the big players in the beauty industry. It was simple – ethically sourced and naturally-based ingredients from around the world, in plain refillable packaging. Products and beauty rituals made for every body, men and women alike.

This editor worked as a Saturday girl at The Body Shop's Shrewsbury store. Anita Roddick was revered and respected for her very high standards by her shop managers. A week ahead of an expected visit by the boss, the staff would be put to work scrubbing the store from top to bottom, ensuring all the refill Demi-johns in the store room were as clean and neat as the rows of unguents on the public-facing shelves.

It was The Body Shop which pioneered ethical beauty in the UK in the 1980s with its smelly (in a good way) and colourful unguents in their refillable plastic bottles lined up on rustic wooden shelves.

The Body Shop listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984. This enabled the company to raise money for expansion, but Anita found investors more demanding. By 2002 she had stepped away from day-to-day management of the firm in 2002 and in 2006 it was sold to L'Oreal for £652 million.

For those of us who wanted to continue to shop there – the sale to the multi-national lost The Body Shop its heart, and its authenticity. And shopping there in the following years the dizzying array of offers meant it was clear to any shopper that it was on a downwards spiral.

You don't need complicated offers if the product is sound, the presentation is great and the staff are friendly and engaged.

There have been two subsequent sales since then (most recently to investment company Aurelius Group which has now sent it into administration). Anita, by then a Dame, sadly died of a brain haemorrhage in 2007.

Earlier this month, The Body Shop also announced the closure of its The Body Shop At Home direct-sales business. 

For the last 20 years or so its ethically and socially responsible successor has another south coast business, Poole-based Lush Cosmetics, still owned and led by its founders Mark Constantine and his wife Mo.

Mark knew Anita well because he made products for The Body Shop. That was before he set up another company, Cosmetics to Go, a successful mail order business which grew faster than it should – and went bankrupt in 1994. 

However, from its ashes arose Lush a year later, using more than a decade’s worth of experience of its founders and which has since grown into a global cosmetic brand with an annual turnover of more than £650 million. 

As The Body Shop company slumps into administration, it puts more than 2,000 jobs at risk and around 200 UK stores at risk of closure.

A sad end to an entrepreneur's dream.