The Body Shop is put up for sale by its Brazilian owner as the skincare salesman loses its edge
The Body Shop is put up for sale by its Brazilian owner as the skincare salesman loses its edge
The Body Shop has been put up for sale by its Brazilian owner.
Lack of sales at the skincare retailer convinced Natura, which also owns Avon and luxury soap brand Aesop, to abandon the brand.
However, the Sao Paulo-based personal care cosmetics group said a sale is not guaranteed.
However, the news sparked fears that The Body Shop could be drawn into private equity.
In the second quarter of 2023, sales fell 12 per cent to £130m as the High Street struggled.
Campaign: Lily Cole for The Body Shop, which was put up for sale by its Brazilian owner
Natura bought The Body Shop in September 2017 for £880million from cosmetics giant L’Oreal, which owned it for just over a decade.
It was founded by Anita Roddick, who founded the company in Brighton in 1976, and went on to become a middle-class favourite.
Roddick, who died in 2007 at the age of 64, offered customers discounts if they brought empty containers to be refilled and campaigned to protect the environment.
In recent years, the group has taken on social issues such as period poverty and refugee rights.
She also advocates for 16-year-olds to have the right to vote. But analysts say The Body Shop has lost its competitive edge.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s Sophie Lund-Yates said the beauty industry is now “totally cruelty-free, which means the body shop has fewer marketing levers to pull in buyers.”
Retail expert Wizz Selvey also said the brand is “currently on the back burner” as the popularity of natural skincare products wanes.
She added that buyers are also looking for “lab-made excellence” using biotechnology.