L'Oréal bought The Body Shop for £652M — the brand's identity was 'not L'Oréal'

The Body Shop was built on being the anti-L'Oréal: Anita Roddick's chain refused animal testing, championed fair trade, and marketed itself as the ethical alternative to Big Cosmetics. In March 2006, L'Oréal — the world's largest cosmetics company and a frequent target of animal-testing protests — bought it for £652.3 million. Roddick and her husband received £130 million.

Under L'Oréal's ownership, The Body Shop stagnated. The brand's reason to exist — being independent and ethical — was destroyed the moment it became a subsidiary of the company protesters had picketed. L'Oréal held it for eleven years, unable to integrate it or grow it, and sold it to Brazil's Natura for £880 million (€1 billion) in 2017.

The collapse came fast after that. Natura sold The Body Shop to German private equity group Aurelius for £207 million in November 2023. Within three months, the UK division entered administration owing £276 million; 82 stores closed. The US filed Chapter 7 liquidation. Germany's 60 stores shut. Insolvencies followed in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Austria. A brand with 3,200 stores in 66 countries was dismantled in under a year.