After the business sank earlier this year, around 116 branches remain open (Picture: AFP)
The Body Shop, the cosmetic store that embraces cruelty-free and all-natural products, has been saved from administration.
Between years of austerity, a worldwide pandemic and a cost of living crisis, it hasn’t been the best time recently to be a high-street retailer.
After all, as one Metro.co.uk columnist asked in 2013: ‘Is the death of the high street inevitable??’
Apparently not.
British tycoon Mike Jatania’s investment firm Auréa announced the completion of the acquisition on Saturday, all but securing a future for 1,300 workers.
He and Charles Denton, the former chief executive of beauty brand Molton Brown, will head up the Body’s Shop’s leadership team.
There are no immediate plans for any of the 116 remaining Body Shop stores to close anytime soon.
What Body Shop stores are still open?
When the beauty brand went into administration earlier this year, administrators axed dozens of shops, leaving only 116 left, Cosmetic Business reported.
Here’s the full list of all the stores that won’t be closing anytime soon:
Aberdeen
Ashford Outlet
Basingstoke
Bath
Belfast Victoria Square
Birmingham New St.
Birmingham Bullring
Bluewater
Bracknell Lexicon
Bradford Broadway
Braintree Outlet
Brent Cross
Bridgend Outlet
Brighton
Bristol Cabot Circus
Broadgate
Bromley
Bury St Edmonds
Cannock Outlet
Cardiff St Davids
Castleford Outlet
Canterbury Whitefriars
Chelmsford
Cheltenham
Chesire Oaks Outlet
Chester Foregate Street
Chesterfield
Chichester
Clarks Village Outlet
Colchester
Coventry
Crawley County Mall
Cribbs Causeway
Dalton Park Outlet
Derby Intu
Doncaster Lakeside Outlet
Dudley
Dundee
Dunfermline
Ealing
East Midlands Outlet
Eastbourne
Edinburgh St James
Enfield
Fleetwood Outlet
Foyleside
Glasgow St. Enoch
Gloucester
Gretna Outlet
Guildford High Street
Gunwharf Outlet
Harrogate
Harrow
Hatfield
Hereford Commercial St
Hounslow Treaty Centre
Icon at O2 Outlet
Inverness
Kingston-Upon-Thames
Lancaster
Leamington Spa
Leeds Briggate
Leicester New Shires
Lincoln Waterside
Liverpool One
Livingston Outlet
Llandudno
London Bridge
Lowry Outlet
Maidstone
Manchester Arndale Centre
Manchester Royal Ex
Meadowhall High St
Metro Centre Platinum Mall
Milton Keynes
Newcastle Eldon Sq
Nottingham Bridlesmith Gate
Oxford Street Soho
Oxford Westgate
Poole
Preston
Reading
Romford
Rushden Lakes
Shrewsbury
Skipton
Solihull
Southampton West Quay
Southend
Spalding
St. Albans
Staines
Stockport
Stratford City Westfield
Sunderland
Sutton
Swindon Outlet
Talke Hanley Outlet
Taunton
Thurrock
Trafford Park
Truro
Tunbridge Wells Royal Victoria Place
Uxbridge Market Square
Warrington
Watford
Wembley Outlet
White City Westfield
Whiteley Village
Wimbledon
Winchester
Windsor
Worcester
Worthing
York Coppergate Walk
York Depot
Auréa, which is leading a consortium of buyers in the deal, said it would ‘steer the Body Shop’s revival and reclaim its global leadership in the ethical beauty sector it pioneered’ in its largest transaction to date.
The Body Shop was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, a business exec who was less about button-up life and more about campaigns for rain forests, women’s rights and against animal testing.
Less than 10 years later, The Body Shop was listed on the stock exchange at £80,000,000, becoming a go-to for colourful body butter tubs and vegan perfumes.
‘I’d rather promote bloody human rights than a bubble bath,’ Roddick said in a 1996 interview. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be running this company.’
French cosmetics giant L’Oreal bought The Body Shop in 2009 for £652million – Roddick died only a year later. Her franchise was then sold to Natura of Brazil for £880,000,000 more than 10 years later, which then sold it to Aurelius.
But Aurelius admitted it was unable to keep The Body Shop afloat in Britain amid fierce competition from other natural beauty brands like Lush and spiralling costs.
Dozens of shops were closed by the business advisory firm FRP earlier this year (Picture: Getty Images)
Administrators said hundreds of jobs could be lost and dozens of shops closed. At the time, The Body Shop employed about 1,500 store workers.
Source:: Metro
