Body Shop hopes new chief executive will rejuvenate growth

THE Body Shop has poached David Boynton to serve as its chief executive, less than eight months after he formally took over the top job at menswear retailer Charles Tyrwhitt, in a move it hopes will “rejuvenate” growth.

The hire also comes just weeks after Brazilian firm Natura completed its purchase of The Body Shop from L’oreal, in a deal that gave the beauty products retailer a €1bn (£880m) enterprise value.

Ahead of Friday’s announcement, Natura had said it was important the appointment was a “British guy with experience in retail”, given that the brand’s British identity was “very posi- tive and has to be respected”.

Mr Boynton, who will take on the role in early December, joined Charles Tyrwhitt last year as chief marketing officer and chief executive designate.

In February of this year, he was formally named as the group’s chief executive. Prior to joining Charles Tyrwhitt, Mr Boynton had been at Body Shop rival L’occitane for 10 years, his last role at the group being chief executive of the US region.

The Body Shop currently operates in more than 60 countries through 3,000 stores, concessions and online shops, and in 2016 it generated retail sales of around €1.5bn and net sales of €921m. Around 1,100 of The Body Shop’s 3,000 stores are owned by the company and the remaining 1,900 are operated by franchisees.

However, in the UK sales growth at The Body Shop has remained largely flat in recent years, below that of the rest of the L’oreal Group. Speaking after the purchase, Robert Chatwin, vice-president of Natura, said the brand needed “rejuvenation work”, in terms of the executive committee and the franchisees.

Jeremy Schwartz, who will step down in September, has served as the chief executive of The Body Shop since 2013 and was the driving force behind plans to make around 70pc of the company’s packaging biodegradable. However, he has faced criticism that his ethical commitments were holding back growth at the group.

The Body Shop was set up in the Seventies and has been a pioneer in the ethical and nature-inspired beauty product market, but recently struggled with rising competition.

More rivals have shifted towards offering products based on natural ingredients and no animal testing, but have also moved into markets that, for ethical reasons, The Body Shop has chosen not to, such as mainland China, where products can be randomly tested on animals.