Nearly half of The Body Shop stores to shut

tHe Body shop will close nearly half of its UK stores and axe hundreds of jobs as it battles for survival.

the company had 198 shops in Britain and 2,200 staff when it tumbled into administration last week in a major blow to the High street.

In a bleak update yesterday, the administrators said the store estate ‘is no longer viable’ following ‘years of unprofitability’.

the statement from FrP Advisory added: ‘As an immediate step, seven stores will close today, with additional closures to follow. It is expected that at the conclusion of the restructuring, more than half of the Body shop’s 198 stores will remain open.’

that set the scene for up to 98 store closures across the country.

the seven shut immediately included sites in Bristol, nuneaton in Warwickshire and Ashford in Kent as well as four in London at canary Wharf, cheapside, Oxford street and surrey Quays.

the administrators also announced plans to cut 40pc of staff at the skincare retailer’s head office at London Bridge. this represents around 300 redundancies out of a 700-plus workforce.

there will now be a renewed focus on online sales as it seeks to ‘return to financial stability’.

the collapse of the Body shop comes nearly half a century after it was set up in Brighton in 1976 by Anita roddick before becoming a firm favourite of the middle classes. Announcing the shake-up, FrP said: ‘ this swift action will help re- energise the Body shop’s iconic brand and provide it with the best platform to achieve its ambition to be a modern, dynamic beauty brand that is able to return to profitability and compete for the long term.’

the stores that shut yesterday had the highest rents and other bills.

the Body shop has suffered from declining sales amid warnings that it had lost its way in recent years.

roddick and her husband Gordon faced criticism when they sold the company to L’Oreal for £652m in 2006. A year later, roddick died aged 64 after a brain haemorrhage.

Under L’Oreal’s ownership, the firm saw its business model shift slightly, with production moving to the Philippines and discounts used to drive sales.

After increased international expansion, in 2017 the business was bought by natura & co, the Brazilian owners of Avon who specialised in direct-toconsumer sales, for £880m. six years later, in november 2023, the company shifted ownership again, being sold for a cut-price £207m to German-based private equity firm Aurelius.