The Body Shop UK is plunged into administration with 200 retailers in danger
- UK arm of the corporate information for administration weeks are being purchased over
- Online and excessive road shops will proceed to commerce whereas ‘approach ahead’ is discovered
- Could spell the tip of the 48-year-old moral magnificence model in Britain
The Body Shop has entered administration with jobs in danger throughout the model’s 200-plus UK shops.
The beloved chain at present employs 10,000 folks throughout 3,000 shops it operates in additional than 70 nations all over the world – with an additional 12,000 employees working in franchises.
FRP Advisory has been introduced in to deal with the insolvency course of simply weeks after a brand new proprietor took management having vowed to ‘re-energise the enterprise’. The administration at present solely impacts UK employees and shops.
In an announcement, it mentioned ‘directors will now take into account all choices to discover a approach ahead for the enterprise and can replace collectors and staff in the end’.
The enterprise will proceed to commerce each in-store and on-line whereas plans are made for the way forward for the beloved excessive road model.
The Body Shop has begun the method of submitting for administration with job losses a danger
The Body Shop, the close to 50-year-old cosmetics firm famend for its moral hair and pores and skin merchandise, is struggling financially within the UK
The Body Shop was bought to L’Oreal for £675million by founder Dame Anita Roddick in 2006
The Body Shop was famend for its ethically sourced magnificence merchandise, from bathe gels and cleaning butters via to charcoal face masks
It can be famed for its signature White Musk eau de toilette (left) – which has survived a number of rebrands and continues to be a high vendor (proper)
The troubled chain – which has confronted stiff competitors from the likes of millennial and Gen Z-friendly tub bomb purveyors Lush and luxurious model Rituals – had additionally simply shut down its Avon-style home-based business division, The Body Shop At Home.
FRP mentioned: ‘The Body Shop has confronted an prolonged interval of monetary challenges underneath previous homeowners, coinciding with a troublesome buying and selling atmosphere for the broader retail sector.
‘Having taken swift motion within the final month, together with closing down The Body Shop At Home and promoting its enterprise throughout most of Europe and in elements of Asia, specializing in the UK enterprise is the following vital step in The Body Shop’s restructuring.’
The directors added: ‘The Body Shop stays guided by its ambition to be a contemporary, dynamic magnificence model, related to prospects and in a position to compete for the long run.
‘Creating a extra nimble and financially secure UK enterprise is a vital step in reaching this.’
As nicely as threatening 1000’s of jobs, the information may spell bother for the various suppliers of Body Shop items throughout the globe, who’ve been sourced rigorously by the ethically minded agency over a long time.
While administration doesn’t essentially spell the tip of the British model, social media is filled with response from those that concern the worst for the beleaguered agency.
One former employee recalled on X, previously Twitter: ‘Sad information about The Body Shop. Still one in all my fave jobs ever once I was a pupil, labored weekends Oxford St & Kings Rd in late 90s.
‘Met some wonderful folks (cool celebs too) & fell in love with skincare & make-up.’
Another merely mentioned: ‘The physique store is shutting down that is the worst day of my life’; one Londoner wrote: ‘If the physique store in centre court docket (Centre Court Shopping Centre in Wimbledon) goes I’ll truly cry.’
Set up in 1976 by the late Dame Anita Roddick, the corporate grew to become well-known for it is no-nonsense moral buying and selling ethos and refusal to check merchandise on animals.
Popular merchandise which helped set up the model’s title included tub bombs, White Musk perfume and hemp hand cream.
There has been an outcry on social media in response to the information of The Body Shop coming into administration
The retailer grew into an eco-friendly, socially accountable, politically outspoken chain of 1,700 retailers, working in 49 markets all over the world. Dame Anita is pictured above in 1984
Protesting in opposition to animal testing was a key enterprise goal for the model, with Anita main the resistance
Redefining magnificence requirements was one other key intention for The Body Shop, with the target of constructing girls really feel snug in their very own pores and skin
In 2012, British actress and mannequin Lily Cole (pictured) grew to become the model’s first world ambassador
However in recent times it has seen its recognition within the UK with consumers diminish because of the rise of rivals Lush and Holland and Barrett, and a rising on-line market of cheaper alternate options.
The agency additionally fell out of favour with some consumers after being bought to L’Oreal for £675million by Dame Anita in 2006 – a transfer that shocked many who noticed the sale to a big company as working counter to the corporate’s values.
The Body Shop modified palms once more in 2017 when the French cosmetics big bought it to Brazilian cosmetics maker Natura&Co for €1billion.
It was then purchased by personal fairness agency Aurelius simply weeks in the past for £207million.
After buying the model, Aurelius mentioned that ‘regardless of the difficult retail market there is a chance to re-energise the enterprise to allow it to reap the benefits of constructive developments within the high-growth magnificence market.’
It has since emerged that the enterprise has inadequate working capital and suffered from a poor Christmas interval of buying and selling. Aurelius took management of the agency on January 1.
In January, the Body Shop claimed that almost all of its enterprise stemmed from mainland Europe and Asia – and has since bought these companies to an unnamed investor.
It informed Retail Week in January that the transfer ‘additional prioritises the Body Shop’s strategically vital markets and world head franchise companion relationships, which it should search for alternatives to construct.
‘The Body Shop may also deal with extra successfully reaching prospects by strengthening digital platforms, creating new gross sales channels, and through differentiated retail experiences.’
MailOnline has approached The Body Shop and Aurelius for remark.
Anita Roddick: High Street pioneer who constructed £51m fortune then gave all of it away earlier than she died
Founder Dame Anita Roddick pictured in 1984
Founded in 1976, The Body Shop was one of many first cosmetics corporations to ban the usage of elements examined on animals and to advertise truthful commerce with creating nations.
This was largely to its founder, Dame Anita Roddick, who was a human rights activist and environmental campaigner.
She was an avid campaigner for environmental and social points, together with involvement with Greenpeace and The Big Issue.
In 1990, she based a charity known as Children on the Edge, which helped deprived kids in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
She based The Body store to earn an earnings for her and her two daughters whereas her husband was away in South America. Upon her husband’s return, he joined the enterprise.
By 2004, The Body Shop has 1980 shops, greater than 77 million prospects and was voted the second most-trusted model within the UK – advert the twenty eighth high model on the planet.
But that very same yr, Roddick was identified with liver cirrhosis resulting from hepatitis C. She did not reveal this till 2007.
She was an avid campaigner for environmental and social points, together with involvement with Greenpeace and The Big Issue
She introduced it by saying: ‘I’ve hepatitis C. It’s a little bit of a bummer, however you groan and transfer on.’
Subsequently she promoted the work of the Hepatitis C Trust and raised consciousness for the illness.
Roddick was mentioned to imagine she grew to become contaminated with Hepatitis following a blood transfusion after the beginning of her youthful daughter. This was twenty years earlier than the UK screened blood donors for the illness.
She tragically died of an acute mind haemorrhage in September 2007. Earlier, she had sworn to go away her fortune to charities slightly than her households and buddies – a promise she remained true to.
The businesswoman was all the time adamant she had no intention of ‘dying wealthy’ and her Will revealed she had given away her total £15million fortune to charity earlier than she died.
When she died, the gross worth of her property was £665,747 which was swallowed up by inheritance tax, leaving her internet value at nil.
She had beforehand described leaving cash to your loved ones as ‘obscene’ and reduce her daughters Sam and Justine out of her will in 2005, which Sam known as a ‘reduction’.
