The Body Shop has collapsed into administration in the UK after new owners who took over less than three months ago said they have been unable to revive the fortunes of the iconic high street brand.
Aurelius, the German private equity company that bought Body Shop for £207 million in November, has called in administrators from FRP to take over and sell assets to repay debts. Speculation had been mounting that such a move could be in the offing following poor trading during the festive period.
“Today, the directors of The Body Shop International Limited have appointed Tony Wright, Geoff Rowley, and Alastair Massey of business advisory firm FRP as joint administrators of the company, which operates The Body Shop’s UK business," administrators said.
READ MORE: Retailer Next predicts year of 'zero inflation' in prices
“The Body Shop has faced an extended period of financial challenges under past owners, coinciding with a difficult trading environment for the wider retail sector. Having taken swift action in the last month, including closing down The Body Shop At Home and selling its business across most of Europe and in parts of Asia, focusing on the UK business is the next important step in The Body Shop’s restructuring.”
The company has nearly 200 shops in the UK which will remain open for the time being, and employs more than 2,200 people.
“Taking this approach provides the stability, flexibility and security to find the best means of securing the future of The Body Shop and revitalizing this iconic British brand," FRP said. "The joint administrators will now consider all options to find a way forward for the business and will update creditors and employees in due course."
Set up by the late Dame Anita Roddick when she opened her first shop in Brighton in 1976, the brand became a worldwide symbol of fair and sustainable trading.
READ MORE: The Body Shop: What went wrong and what happens next?
The company remained under family ownership for three decades until it was sold to the French cosmetics corporation L’Oréal, the owner of Maybelline and Garnier, in 2006. It was subsequently sold to Brazil's Natura, who in turn sold the business to Aurelius.
"While the official announcement that The Body Shop has gone into administration is no surprise, the potential disappearance of an almost 50-year-old high street staple is a sorry reminder of the difficulties currently facing retailers and increasing competitive pressures," said Russell Pointon, a director at Edison Group.
"Now will come a painful cost-cutting exercise that will surely extend the brand’s shelf life but likely come at the expense of a sizeable number of the company’s 2,000-strong UK workforce."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here