The Body Shop Owner Mulls a Sale
● Natura & Co has owned the skin care brand since 2017.
While finalizing the sale of Aesop to L'Oréal in a deal that valued the personal care brand at $2.5 billion, Natura & Co has revealed that it is also mulling a sale of The Body Shop.
In a corporate filing, the company disclosed that its board of directors recently authorized management to explore strategic alternatives for The Body Shop, which may include a potential sale of this business.
“There can be no assurance that this process will result in any transaction,” the filing said. “Natura does not intend to comment on or provide updates regarding this matter unless and until it determines that further disclosure is appropriate or required based on the then-current facts and circumstances.”
The move comes just a few months after a significant chief executive officer switch at The Body Shop, when David Boynton abruptly stepped down.
Boynton had been CEO since 2017, the same year that the Brazilian beauty company acquired The Body Shop, which was founded by Anita Roddick in England in 1976, from L'Oréal.
He was succeeded by Ian Bickley as interim CEO, who was tasked with refining the current business plan and transformation agenda, as well as with accelerating the road to profitability.
In its most recent results released earlier this month, Natura & Co's second-quarter performance continued to show some signs of improvement, but The Body Shop's top line remained challenged.
Net revenue fell 12.5 percent to 800.3 million Brazilian reals. Within that, The Body Shop at Home continued to decline sharply.
The Aesop sale is expected to help Natura, which also owns Avon, to somewhat deleverage its balance sheet after a heavy acquisition period, and is part of its plan to return to profitability. Offloading another asset like The Body Shop would only accelerate this trend.