The Body Shop, ethical beauty pioneer, went into administration 3 months after a sale

The Body Shop was founded by Anita Roddick in Brighton in 1976 and became a pioneer of ethical cosmetics, selling body care, skincare and fragrances such as White Musk against a backdrop of campaigning branding. The family sold it to L'Oréal for £652 million in 2006; L'Oréal passed it to Brazil's Natura, whose 2019 purchase of Avon left the group heavily in debt.

In November 2023 Natura sold The Body Shop to Aurelius, a German private equity firm, for £207 million. Less than three months later, on 13 February 2024, the UK business was in administration. Aurelius said trading over Christmas had been worse than its worst-case assumptions; the administrators, FRP Advisory, spoke of an extended period of financial difficulty under previous owners and a tough retail market.

The Body Shop employed around 2,200 people in the UK and ran 198 stores. Up to half of those stores were earmarked for closure, the head office was cut by roughly 40 percent, and the Body Shop at Home consultant service was shut down. It was described as the first major UK retail failure of the year. The Canadian subsidiary filed for creditor protection on March 1, 2024, closing 33 of its 105 stores, though it continued operating with 64 stores as a restructured Canadian business. The brand was later rescued out of administration, with about 113 stores continuing under new ownership.