The Body Shop
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"Body Shop" redirects here. For other uses, see Body Shop (disambiguation).
The Body Shop International plc, known as The Body Shop, is a British chain of cosmetics stores, now found all over the world. On 17 March 2006, The Body Shop agreed to a £652 million takeover offer by L'Oréal, the French cosmetics group. The company's headquarters is situated in Littlehampton, West Sussex, United Kingdom. It was founded by Anita Roddick, noted for selling its own line of products not tested on animals, and produced in an ecologically sustainable manner.
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[edit] History
In 1970, Anita Perella and Gordon Roddick (who would later marry) visited the San Francisco Bay Area, and encountered a store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley selling shampoos, lotions, and body creams. The store, founded by two local entrepreneurs and also called "The Body Shop", publicized environmental concerns, and offered customers discounts for bringing in their own bottles instead of using new ones from the store. The original "Body Shop" business continues in the Bay Area as a small chain under the name "Body Time", a name they adopted after they sold Roddick the US rights to the "Body Shop" name in the early 1980s.
The Roddicks' first Body Shop opened on 26 March 1976 in Brighton, United Kingdom with only about 25 natural handmade products. This store opened next to an undertaker, who complained to the local council about the name of the store. The local bookmaker nearby took bets on how long it would be before The Body Shop closed. In response to these oppositions Anita Roddick wrote a letter to the council stating that she was a housewife with children trying to make a living.
Like the San Francisco store, The Body Shop offered homemade skin care and moisturizing lotions advertised to be made with natural ingredients. Products featured exotic ingredients such as jojoba oil and rhassoul mud from local herbalists and had simple, descriptive names such as Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash and Mango Dry Mist. In contrast to high street retailers, the packaging included details about ingredients and their properties. Customers could return to the store to refill product containers for a 15 percent discount.
Products were priced between the mass market and exclusive designer brands, and were never sale priced. Eschewing traditional cosmetics marketing, the company promoted itself with offbeat brochures, exotic ingredients, and a founder who made herself extremely accessible and popular with the press. Roddick made social and environmental activism the centerpiece of her company's marketing.
These were revolutionary ideas in the industry, and inspired a loyal clientele. By the end of the 1970s a chain of outlets had sprung up throughout the UK, and Anita Roddick hired a public relations firm to manage the ever-growing press attention.
The Body Shop experienced rapid growth, expanding at a rate of 50 percent annually. Its stock was floated on London's Unlisted Securities Market in April 1984, opening at 95 pence. In January 1986, when it obtained a full listing on the London Stock Exchange, the stock was selling at 820 pence. By 1991 the company's market value stood at £350 million ($591 million). After a volatile period of ups and downs, including the selling of the Littlehampton manufacturing plants and outsourcing of manufacturing in 2000, its 2004 market value would end up about the same as in 1991 (£334 million as of September 2004).
[edit] Social activism
From early on, The Body Shop reflected the activism of its founder Roddick, through billets posted on shop windows to sponsorship of local charity and community events. Roddick criticized what she considered the environmental insensitivity of the industry and traditional views of beauty, and aimed to change standard corporate practices.
In 1986 The Body Shop formed an alliance with Greenpeace, campaigning to "Save the Whales", despite some concerns among franchisees that the head office was becoming too political. By 1990 Roddick had switched allegiances to Friends of the Earth, following disagreements with Greenpeace.
The Body Shop also promotes many values such as Community Trade, reflecting its avowed practice of trading with communities in need and giving them a fair price for natural ingredients or handcrafts they purchase from these often marginalized countries. The first CT activity in 1986 was a footsie roller which was supplied by a small community in Southern India (today known as Teddy Exports) and still a key CT supplier of the Body Shop[1]. Since then, The Body Shop has found many trade partners in parts of the world - in over 24 different countries - that often are overlooked by the local as well as the global society.
Critics of The Body Shop in the 1980s and 1990s called the organisation hypocritical in its pursuit of profit while espousing "social equality". It is said that some shareholders complained the company was failing to maximize profits, instead funneling money into social works projects overseas. In 1994, Jon Entine reported that the records of Britain's Charity Commission records show no charitable contributions from the company in its first 11 years of operation, and less than 1.5% of pretax profits (which is the US corporate average) in subsequent years (up until fiscal year 1993, the latest year reported at the time). The criticisms were redoubled in 1999, however, when poor trading decisions led to the loss of 300 jobs at the Littlehampton manufacturing plants.
Advocates of the Body Shop however, enjoy their nature-inspired products and appreciate the fact that this company induces to promote these humanitarian values to such a wide audience.
The Body Shop and its franchisees fund a charitable foundation, The Body Shop Foundation, as well as a number of other ventures such as Children On The Edge, which works with disenfranchised children in Eastern Europe and Asia.
[edit] Trade Not Aid
By 1991, The Body Shop's "Trade Not Aid" initiative with the objective of "creating trade to help people in the Third World utilise their resources to meet their own needs" had started a paper factory in Nepal employing 37 people producing bags, notebooks and scented drawer liners. Another initiative was a 33,000 square foot (3,000 m²) soap factory in the depressed Glasgow suburb of Easterhouse, whose payroll included 100 residents, some previously chronically unemployed.
Sometimes considered anti-capitalist or against globalization, The Body Shop philosophy is in fact in favor of international marketplaces. The chain uses its influence and profits for programmes such as Trade Not Aid, aimed at enacting fair labour practices, safe working environments and pay equality.
The Body Shop is banned in China, because cosmetics sold there have to be tested on animals, according to Roddick. [1]
The Body Shop has undertaken periodic independent social audits of its activities (see its website).
[edit] Takeover by L'Oréal
On 17 March 2006, The Body Shop International agreed to a £652 million takeover offer by L'Oréal, the French cosmetics group. The decision excited some controversy, as The Body Shop has always promoted a policy of not using any animal-tested ingredients in its cosmetics, while L'Oréal's animal testing policy has earned it the worst ethical rating from Ethical Consumer. L’Oreal is also the subject of a long-running boycott campaign by animal welfare group Naturewatch. Naturewatch has extended the boycott to The Body Shop as well, because profits from Body Shop sales are now at L'Oreal's disposal. Furthermore, the second largest shareholder in L'Oréal is Nestlé, which is another controversial company over allegations of corporate corruption, and its aggressive advertising of powdered milk in Third World countries.
Some animal protection organizations, such as PETA, issued notices to their members to encourage them to continue to support The Body Shop in the hope that The Body Shop's policies will spread to the entire company.
[edit] External links
- Official Body Shop International Web site
- Articles by journalist Jon Entine investigating and criticizing the Body Shop
- Reports on Body Shop
- Ethical Consumer's comment on Body Shop's drop in ethical product status
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ statement encouraging members to continue to support The Body Shop after L’Oreal takeover
- The Body Shop Depicts Obese Barbie
- Naturewatch Compassionate Shopping web pages
