2024-02-13 18:26:03
It is an iconic brand that has become known for its ethical commitments. And today it is threatened with extinction. Beauty chain The Body Shop has filed for bankruptcy in the United Kingdom with several thousand jobs at risk in the country. Consulting firm FRP has been appointed to manage the bankruptcy filing and restructuring of the company’s UK operations in order to “revitalize this iconic brand”, it said in a press release.
This procedure only concerns the United Kingdom and not the rest of the global network of this brand known for its early commitments on recycling or once morest animal testing.
The company was sold at the end of 2023 by its former Brazilian owner Natura Cosmeticos to the German investment fund Aurelius. Its headquarters are in London and the company employs around 7,000 people worldwide, including 2,200 in the UK.
Sold to L’Oréal in 2006, the start of the fall
The Body Shop brand was founded in 1976 in Brighton (south of England) by British entrepreneur Anita Roddick, a pioneer of environmentally friendly cosmetics, not tested on animals and a supporter of fair trade.
L’Oréal bought the brand in 2006 for around 940 million euros, when it was at the height of its glory, and the charismatic businesswoman was criticized for this choice, accused by some of making a pact with the enemy. The brand’s star faded following the disappearance of Anita Roddick and the sale to L’Oréal. Having lost its pioneering side, despite significant investments and an acceleration of its international development, its profitability has declined.
“In the 1980s, The Body Shop was the go-to place for young female shoppers to spend money on scented bubble baths or beauty lines with a deep environmental conscience, focus on social justice and conservation. nature,” notes Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter. “But stores like Lush are attracting a larger share of the teen and pre-teen wallet now, with innovative ingredients and scented bath bombs,” she continues.
A dark year in 2022
And if Anita Roddick was “a visionary, proposing refillable bottles to limit plastic pollution, decades ago, this policy was silently abandoned in the 90s in favor of gift baskets, and only revived a few years ago, too little and too late,” concludes Susannah Streeter.
For Russell Pointon, analyst at Edison Group, “the possible disappearance of a brand that has been a fixture on shopping streets for nearly 50 years is a harsh reminder of the difficulties faced by small retailers.”
According to him, the brand saw a sharp fall in turnover in 2022, from £487 million to £408 million, and “a poor Christmas season was the final nail in the coffin”.
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