We want to hear from you. To help speed up our reply, it may be quicker to contact someone in your local region. At present we have stores and offices in over 60 countries around the world.
Global head office
United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Asia Pacific
Americas
shopping on-line enquiries
global head office
The Body Shop International plc
New City Court
20 St Thomas Street
London
England
SE1 9RG
tel: 00 44 (0)20 7208 7600
fax: 00 44 (0)20 7208 7606
Journalists with corporate queries only can contact the media press line: 0044 (0) 1903 844 040.
regional offices
Here you will find a full address listing of our regional and country head offices.
United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland
The Body Shop International PLC
Watersmead
Littlehampton
West Sussex
BN17 6LS
UK
Tel: 44 (0)1903 731500
Fax: 44 (0)1903 726250
Republic of Ireland
Aylwyn Investments
82 Grafton Street Dublin 2
Eire
Tel: 3531 671 3725
Fax: 3531 679 2499
United Kingdom
The Body Shop UK & ROI Region Building
4 Hawthorn Road
Wick, Littlehampton
West Sussex BN17 7LR
Tel: 44 (0)1903 731500
Fax: 44 (0)1903 726250
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Europe, Middle East and Africa
The Body Shop International PLC
Building 7
Watersmead
Littlehampton
West Sussex BN17 6LS
UK
Tel : 44 (0)1903 731500
Fax: 44 (0)1903 844330
Austria
The Body Shop Germany GmbH
Georg-Glock-Strasse 18
40474 Dusseldorf
Germany
Tel: 0049 211 91311 9900
Fax: 0049 211 91311 9901
Bahrain
Alshaya Trading Company
PO Box 26910
Adiliya
Bahrain
Tel: 973 731 811
Fax: 973 345 911
Benelux
Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg
Busplein 34-5
1315 KV Almere
Postbus 60222
1320 AG Almere
Tel: 31 36 5485555
Fax: 31 36 5485566
Denmark
The Body Shop
Ostergade 33
DK-1100 Kbenhavn K
Denmark
Tel: 45 70 25 22 26
Fax: 33 11 45 53
Finland
Mekaanikonkatu 21
00880 Helsinki
Finland
Tel: 358 98563 4850
Fax: 358 98563 4851
France
The Body Shop France
SIEGE
68 rue de Rivoli
75004 Paris
France
Tel: +33 (1) 72 23 93 80
Germany
The Body Shop Germany GmbH
Georg-Glock-Strasse 18
40474 Dusseldorf
Germany
Tel: 0049 211 91311 9900
Fax: 0049 211 91311 9901
Greece
Empedokleous St 57-59
Pagrati 11633
Athens
Greece
Tel: 00 30210 752 1480 / 30210 701 0845
Fax: 00 30210 701 6525
Iceland
The Body Shop Islandi
Dalvegur 16d
PO Box 375
200 Kpavogur
Iceland
Tel: 354 564 6555
Fax: 354 564 6556
Italy
Dorado SRL
Via Galvani 9
00016
Monterotondo Scalo
Rome
Italy
Tel: 39 06 9008 5283
Fax: 39 06 9008 5130
Kuwait
PO Box 181
Safat 13002
Kuwait
Tel: 965 224 2000
Fax: 965 4484 8425 or 965 4483 0141
Latvia
SIA "Bodybalt"
Vienibas gatve 87h
Riga LV - 1004
Latvia
Tel: 371 7616465
Fax: 371 7616481
Lebanon
Dareen International SARL
PO Box 113/657
Beirut
Lebanon
Tel:00 9 61 840 602
Malta
Dorado SRL
Triq Dun Karm
Birkirkara BKR14
Malta
Tel: 356 2149 6291/9
Fax: 356 2149 6304
Norway
A Christenssen Engros A/S
PO Box 80
1332 sters
Norway
Tel: 47 67 59 28 50
Fax: 47 67 59 28 51
Oman
National Marketing & Trading Co LLC
PO Box 1475 Ruwi
Postal Code 112
Sultanate of Oman
Tel: 968 247 85770
Fax: 968 246 01087
Poland
Alshaya Poland SP. Z o o
Zlote Terasy Shopping Centre
Unit 074
Kompleks Wielofunkcyiny Tarasy
UI Zlota 59
Poland 00-819
Tel No: 00 48 22 35 8 27 05
Portugal
Dibel SA
Rua da Reboleira No. 43
4050-492 Porto, Portugal
Tel: 00 351 22 01 13 08
Fax: 00 351 22 08 4594
Qatar
Dareen International Co (Qatar) WLL
PO Box 51
IBN Dahar Street
B'Ring Road
Doha, Qatar
Tel: 974 4323954
Fax: 974 441 920
Romania
Ginkgo Romania Sa
Johann Strauss 4A
4th Floor, 2nd District
Bucharest
Romania 020312
Tel: 4021 231 70 11
Fax: 4021 231 70 12
Russia
"Moneks Trading"
Ul. Pravdy 26,
11th Floor,
Moscow 125040
Tel: + 7 495 648 9580
Fax: + 7 495 648 9589
Saudi Arabia - West
Kamal Osman Jamjoom Est
4th, Floor Elysee Printemps
PO Box 41168
Jeddah 21521
Saudi Arabia
Tel: 00 966 2 674 6611/6622
Fax: 00 966 2 647 6633
Saudi Arabia - East & Central
Al Thomad Co
PO Box 16296
Riyadh 11464
Saudi Arabia
Tel: 00 9661 463 0640
Fax: 00 9661 462 3573
Spain
Cosmenatura SA
Josefa Valcrcel, 48 - 1 Planta
28027 Madrid
Spain
Tel: 3491 177 8385
Fax: 3491 320 4156
South Africa
PO Box 5142
Cape Town 8000
South Africa
Tel: +27 21 460 1911
Fax: +27 21 465 9922
Sweden
The Body Shop Svenska AB
Box 17040
104 62 Stockholm
Sweden
Tel: 468 442 4340
Fax: 468 669 0860
Switzerland
The Body Shop Levy AG
Bahnstrasse 21
CH-8610 Uster
Switzerland
Tel: 0041 44 905 85 85
Fax: 0041 44 905 85 75
Turkey
Shaya Magazacilik A.S.
Sun Plaza Kat 17
34398 Maslak/?stanbul
Turkey
Tel: 90 212 335 68 00
Fax: 90 212 335 69 00
United Arab Emirates
The Body Shop (Cosmetics Trading LLC)
PO Box 12386
Dubai
Tel: 009716 - 5302227
Fax: 009716 5302228
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Asia Pacific
The Body Shop International PLC
The Body Shop International (PTE) Ltd.
3 Killiney Rd
Winsland House I
06-02/06
Singapore
239519
Tel: 65 6836 2322
Fax: 65 6238 9106 or 65 6238 9108
Customer enquiries: asiapacific.info@thebodyshop.com
Australia
Adidem Pty Ltd
Corner of Wellington & Jacksons Road
Mulgrave, Melbourne
Victoria 3170
Australia
Tel: 613 95650500
Fax: 613 9560 0033
Email: feedback.aust@thebodyshop.com.au
Brunei
Topform Co Sdn Bhd
Block A, Unit 11, 2nd Floor Abdul Razak Complex
B E 3519 Gadong
Negara Brunei Darussalam
Tel: 673 244 7596
Fax: 673 244 7600
Hong Kong
Mighty Ocean Compnay Ltd
13th Floor, One Hysan Avenue
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2542 6300
India
Quest Retail Private Limited
7th Floor, Tower-A , Infinity Tower, DLF Cyber Citi
DLF Phase-ll, Gurgaon-122002
Haryana
India
Tel: 91 124 4171444
Fax: 91 124 2562094
Indonesia
PT Monica Hijau-Lestari
Sentosa Building,
Bintaro Jaya Central Business District
Jl Prof. Dr Satrio, Blok A3 No: 5, Tangerang 15224
Tel: 088 232141 or 088 232142 or 088 232481
Fax: 088 232537
Malaysia East (Sarawak)
Banworth Sdn Bhd
The Motorship Co Building, Lot F-1
MPL Saguking Warehouse, Jalan Patau-Patau
PO Box 80592, 87015 Labuan FT
Sarawak, East Malaysia
Tel: 087 413092 or 087 418009
Fax: 087 413097
Malaysia West
TBS Franchise Sdn Bhd
No 5 Jalan USJ 10/1C
47620 UEP Subang Jaya
Selangor
West Malaysia
Tel: 603 5632 4313
Fax: 603 5632 4317
New Zealand
9-13 Kaiwharawhara Road
Wellington
New Zealand
Tel: 644 499 7210
Fax: 644 499 7270
Philippines
JVS Worldwide Inc
Suite 305 Ortigas Building, Ortigas Avenue
Pasig City 1600, Metro Manila
Philippines
Tel: 632 633 2895
Fax: 632 633 2894
Singapore
The Body Shop (Singapore) Pte Ltd
3 Killiney Rd
Winsland House I
06-02/06
Singapore
239519
Tel: 65 6836 2322
Fax: 65 6238 9106 or 65 6238 9108
Taiwan
The Body Shop (Singapore) Pte Ltd
3 Killiney Rd
Winsland House I
06-02/06
Singapore
239519
Tel: 65 6836 2322
Fax: 65 6238 9106 or 65 6238 9108
Thailand
Earth Care Co Ltd
19/F, Thanapoom Tower
1550 New Petchburi Road
Makasan, Rajathevi, Bangkok 10400
Thailand
Tel: 662 652 6804
Fax: 662 652 6803
Americas
USA
5036 One World Way
Wake Forest, North Carolina
27587 USA
Tel: 1 919 554 4900
Fax: 1 919 554 4361
Mexico
5036 One World Way
Wake Forest, North Carolina
27587 USA
Tel: 1 919 554 4900
Fax: 1 919 554 4361
shopping on-line enquiries
AUSTRALIA
CANADA
JAPAN
UK
USA
How the product/company got its name.
Twenty-six years ago the Brighton Evening Argus ran a story on a dispute between two funeral parlour owners who were upset about a new cosmetics boutique which had opened up next door.
It wasn’t the nature of the business they were getting hot under the collar about, but its name. They thought the green shop front emblazoned with the words Body Shop in gold leaf might put off prospective customers.
“They wanted me to change my shop front which I had just spent £870 of my £4,000 loan on,” recalls Roddick. “My smart move was to call the Argus and tell them I was being threatened by Mafia undertakers who wanted to close me down.”
The press loved it. The story of the beleaguered single mum with the house in hock trying to support her two kids with a bootstrapping start-up worked a treat. The small splash made Body Shop a cause célèbre, won plenty of local support and an important battle to get the business off the ground.
The anecdote is a small aside, recounted with a chuckle and a hint of outrage in a long interview. But although the battles got much bigger as Roddick’s business grew into the multinational retailer it is today, anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Body Shop story will instantly recognise the defining characteristics of its fiery feisty founder in those early days: Ethical Anita versus the big bad world.
There has never been any compromise in Roddick’s views on how business should be done: this is why her husband Gordon was tasked with handling the City suits (“they didn’t like me talking about sexual tension at work”) and why she stepped away from the business in 1998 when the shareholders said a campaigning chief executive was not what they wanted for Body Shop.
You might think after 30 years of business and the comfort of a healthy shareholding and a wedge of cash in the bank Roddick’s hunger for campaigning might have diminished. But little has changed since 1976. Her latest venture, a publishing start-up, produces books on ethical matters. It promotes her on the speaking circuit and all the profits go into campaigning. The only difference being that now she occupies the position of an icon for women and female entrepreneurs: “Something I don’t take lightly.”
And there is still plenty to shout about when it comes to what she sees as an ethical vacuum in business today. She rails against the suffocation of UK businesses as they outsource to cheaper countries; the failure to preserve the needs of shareholders in public companies; the lack of respect for the responsibility of business to the community at large; the ongoing need for women to conform to a male template in order to succeed; the lack of recognition of value that employees bring to a business.
Roddick is emphatic about what this means in practice: not sandals, beards and group hugs in the boardroom but the adoption of simple moral values. “People use the excuse of business and leave their morals at the front door and I don’t know how they get away with it. ”But can ethical business really fit in with the cut-throat world of today?
Her business, she says, is living proof. She describes Body Shop, once worth £100m, as a “great business experiment” which is still proving a point: you can run an entrepreneurial business, provide a return to shareholders while campaigning on ethical issues and placing a high value on human capital.
“Being ethical in business is not about giving stuff away. It’s about your relationship with your employees, it’s about the aesthetics of the workplace and it’s about communication,” says Roddick. “There is no reason why the workplace can’t be a genuine creative place, why there can’t be flexitime, why there can’t be transparency and even good manners.”
If Roddick doesn’t sound like a business woman it’s because she has never claimed to be one. She puts her success down to a need for a livelihood and sees herself as the accidental entrepreneur. For Roddick business has been a means to an end and the bigger picture, which was more important than making money. Who knows, she may have a point.
The ups & downs of the body shop
The foundation of every new business stems from a plan and, as highlighted on BBC’s Dragons Den, these can range from brilliant to atrocious. But what constitutes a business plan, and how do bodyshops put them into practice?
Gardening skates, cats with mops on their feet and paper emails: just three inventions which probably didn’t originate from a business plan. However, true entrepreneurs that forge business plans take into account a whole host of aspects, which focus initially on market information and then subsequently market penetration.
bodyshop asked four bodyshop representatives to define what constitutes a business plan, and how it can be put into practice.
Autocraft ARC, based in Aberystwyth and owned by Barrie Thomas, recently invested in a new site which should be up and running at the beginning of 2012.
‘The demand from the clients drives the entire business plan. When we decided to move, we factored in all of the costs down to how much the bodyshop will cost to run on average per day. PAS 125 and all the different audits that we undertake also had to be factored in too, as well as all the consumables, rates, electricity costs etc.
The purpose of moving from our premises was that we’ve started a campervan and motorhome conversion centre which takes up half of the 20,000 sq ft bodyshop. Running a shop this size means that more aspects and factors have to be scaled in because of the many different parts of business and the amount of control that is required. Crucially, your volume needs to expand as soon as you start up a new business venture to factor in all of the costs.
I think the key to the business plan is understanding the maximum efficiency utilisation figure of your current site and getting that calculation as accurate as possible. Obviously there is no point in moving unless you are literally running at 100% maximum throughout the year at your current location. An example of this is our old shop, where we sold 3,000 hours a month at a 7,000 sq ft site, which is incredibly high for a small shop.
We deal with work providers who want to see cycle times reduced to around a maximum of 15 days. We are in a good position because we have got approvals for nearly every insurer due to our location. If you want to compete in this industry you have to able to compete with low key-to-key and cycle times. One work provider has been quoted as saying that it costs £28 per day to keep a claim open due to administration, so if that claim is open for 40 days the cost is already well over £1,000, and some bodyshops are still producing these cycle times. Insurance companies will take bodyshops off their network if they don’t perform because, after all, that’s business.
James Alpe has been established since 1978 and has grown to a 65,000 sq ft bodyshop, offering a one-stop shop. Here, Alison Goossens, James Alpe’s business development manager, outlines its fundamentals of business planning.
Each year senior managers are responsible for putting together their departmental business plan which constitutes our annual company plan. This business plan is a standing agenda item at our weekly senior management team meetings where targets and achievements are closely monitored. By working with this document on an ongoing basis, all management and staff have an overview of the whole group and not just their own department. This encourages understanding and improved communications between departments which all assist us in achieving our pre-defined goals.
Our company business plan is very in-depth. We are a pretty diverse organisation and it’s important that there is synergy between our different workshops ie MET/paint/panel/vehicle conversions/vehicle livery. Using our business plan as a working document allows us to measure where we are up to on a weekly basis.
Missing the obvious is a common mistake that can occasionally happen. We are conscious that all too often we are getting on with our jobs, being busy and efficient but at the same time missing fundamental business upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Knowledge sharing, improved communications and investment in staff training are helping us to avoid making mistakes.
For the James Alpe group, we put great emphasis on staff communication and training to assist in motivating employees. We also put a lot of time into our customer satisfaction programme and analysis of service levels.
We are working closely with a bodyshop marketing consultant who is working with customer facing employees within the organisation. The aim of this is to encourage staff to think differently, whether they are recovery drivers, vehicle damage assessors or reception staff.
TF Smiths has three accident repair centres spanning a total of just under 50,000 sq ft, covering the Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax areas. The business was one of the founding members of Fix Auto in 2005 and the bodyshops are now known as Fix Auto Settle, Fix Auto Keighley and Fix Auto Bradford South.
Sam Smith said, ‘You need to ensure that your business is able to meet demand. This works both ways – when you are busy and also when you are not so. It is important to ensure you scale the shop as best you can to cope with both scenarios. Being as efficient as possible whilst ensuring that you get the best out of the job on offer is not easy, but is something we are consistently improving at.’
In 2010 TF Smith’s was awarded Acoat Selected status by AkzoNobel. ‘Since joining AkzoNobel’s Acoat programme in 2010 we have moved our business forward through meaningful MI and operational disciplines, which were designed and implemented by Acoat,’ said Sam. ‘Our Acoat Consultant, John Galbraith, brings a wealth of relevant management skills and experience that we can, and do, call upon at any moment.
‘Being busy and having a high turnover does not always equate to business success. A cornerstone of our improvement as a business is being heavily trained by Fix Auto on repair over replace. When we send an estimate through to the shop we attempt to repair everything. This decreases our cycle times and our costs, lowers the cost of the job and increases the skill of our workforce, increasing our profit margin.’
Just Car Clinics has grown to 25 sites today and has spent considerable time and investment over the last 18 months pursuing additional opportunities to support insurer collision repair work.
Before amending the financial or operational business plan, research is undertaken with customer surveys, mystery shops and competitor analysis to give information on what could and should be achievable. Time is also invested in informing the team on the opportunities and potential benefits as well as extensive training at all levels before launching a new plan of action.
Critical to the success of JCC’s new retail business strategy is insurer-generated work, which remains the absolute main goal. Taking an eye of this particular ball would be disastrous and the operational group ensures the teams still work to maintain insurer CSI scores at every site.
Another potential pitfall that the team is keen to avoid is running before walking. The retail opportunity is huge but the journey to get to that point is long and JCC has adapted the business throughout 2011 to embrace change in a way that brings the team along with the management. A subtle brand change to focus away from collision repair was introduced initially, a number of new maintenance services were then slowly introduced and rolled out across the sites and marketing materials promoting retail products and services have been created targeting retail customers.
Company Perspectives:
The Body Shops strives to dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change; to creatively balance the financial and human needs of our stakeholders, employees, customers, franchisees, suppliers, and shareholders; to courageously ensure that our business is ecologically sustainable; to meaningfully contribute to local, national, and international communities in which we trade by adopting a code of conduct which ensures care, honesty, fairness, and respect; to passionately campaign for the protection of the environment, human and civil rights, and against animal testing within the cosmetics and toiletries industry; and to tirelessly work to narrow the gap between principle and practice, whilst making fun, passion, and care part of our daily lives.
Key Dates:
1976: Anita Roddick opens a small shop that sells natural-ingredient cosmetics.
1977: Anita Roddick's husband Gordon Roddick joins the company, and the couple decide to franchise the operation.
1984: The Body Shop goes public with 138 stores in operation.
1987: The Trade Not Aid program begins.
1988: Body Shop stores are opened in the United States.
1993: The company files suit against a television program that claims it uses products that have been tested on animals.
1994: The Body Shop begins using traditional methods of advertising for the first time.
1998: Patrick Gournay is named CEO; the company forms a United States-based joint venture with the Bellamy Retail Group LLC.
1999: The company stops manufacturing as part of a restructuring program.
2002: Anita and Gordon Roddick step down as co-chairs of the company.
Company History:
The Body Shop International plc is one of England's best known retailers of cosmetics and personal care products, with over 1,900 stores in 50 countries. The company is best known for pioneering the natural-ingredient cosmetics market and establishing social responsibility as an integral part of company operations. In fact, The Body Shop has historically received more attention for its ethical stances, such as its refusal to use ingredients that are tested on animals, its monetary donations to the communities in which it operates, and its business partnerships with developing countries, than for its products. This focus, however, proved to be costly as The Body Shop lost market share in the late 1990s to product-savvy competitors that offered similar cosmetics at lower prices. The company manufactures over 600 products and claims that a Body Shop product is sold every .4 seconds. Anita Roddick, founder of the company, built The Body Shop by flouting industry conventions. In 1991, Business Week quoted this cosmetic industry leader as saying: "We loathe the cosmetic industry with a passion. It's run by men who create needs that don't exist." After several years of faltering profits and sales, Anita and her husband, Gordon Roddick, stepped down as co-chairs in 2002.
Beginnings
Roddick entered the industry in 1976 when she used £4,000 to open a small stand-alone shop of natural-ingredient cosmetics and personal care products. Her goal was to support herself and her two daughters while her husband spent two years riding horseback from Buenos Aires to New York. Her store design, product packaging, and marketing approach all originated from her need to economize.
Roddick painted the walls dark green to hide cracks, rather than to suggest respect for the environment, and the award-winning clear plastic bottles were actually urine sample containers purchased from a local hospital. When Roddick's original supply of bottles ran out, and she did not have enough money to buy more, the Body Shop's famous refill policy was born.
Other hallmarks of the company were born during this frugal period. Handwritten labels filled with product information established the Body Shop's candid approach to customer relations. For example, one of the first products, a henna hair treatment, sported a label explaining that the product smelled like manure but was great for the hair. Also during this time, Roddick developed an aversion to advertising; not wanting to spend the time or money on advertising, she instead relied on press coverage to spread the word about the fledgling company.
Success came quickly: Roddick's cosmetics store thrived, and she opened another before the company's first year was over. Returning home in 1977, Gordon Roddick joined his wife in the enterprise. They decided to franchise the operation during the company's second year, and by 1984 The Body Shop boasted 138 stores, 87 of which were located outside of the United Kingdom. Franchising outpaced the opening of company-owned stores over the years, until franchises accounted for 89 percent of Body Shop stores in 1994. The company's fast-paced development continued when it went public in April 1984. The Roddick's kept 27.6 percent of the company's stock.
Gordon Roddick became company chairperson and handled the finances as well, and Anita Roddick continued as managing director, essentially determining the course the company would take.
Focus on Social and Environmental Awareness in the 1980s
During this time, Roddick decided to encourage and contribute to social and environmental change through her company. Although she first allied The Body Shop with established groups, such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and Friends of the Earth, she soon began her own campaigns, particularly ones that focused on recycling and on putting an end to animal testing in the cosmetics industry. Body Shops displayed posters and made petition sheets available to customers. By the mid-1990s, franchises were asked to support two to three campaigns a year for such causes as AIDS education, voter registration, and opposition to animal testing in the cosmetics industry.
In 1987, Roddick began The Body Shop's Trade Not Aid program. Combining the company's need for exotic natural ingredients with its mission of social responsibility, the program established business partnerships with struggling communities. By purchasing such ingredients as blue corn from the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and Brazil nut oil from the Kayapo Indians of the Amazon River Basin, the Trade Not Aid program avoided exploiting native peoples and helped developing countries earn money selling renewable resources rather than destroying their habitat. The Body Shop's ethical practices also included aiding communities close to home. For example, the soapmaking factory the company founded in Glasgow returned 25 percent of after-tax profits to the economically depressed city. The retail store in New York's Harlem established a policy of giving 50 percent of store profits to local community groups. Other charitable activities included donating £230,000 in 1991 to start a weekly newspaper to be sold by the homeless in London.
The Body Shop fared just as well publicly as it had privately. In its first eight years on the London Stock Exchange, its stock price rose 10,944 percent. Between November 1986 and November 1991, investors realized a 97.2 percent annual return. In 1991, sales were up 46 percent from the year before to $238.4 million; net profits were $26.2 million, up 71 percent from the previous year. The company's notoriety also increased dramatically. Profiles of Roddick appeared in numerous magazines, from People to Forbes. The company was cited in Business Week as a pioneer in marketing. The magazine explained The Body Shop's appeal as follows: "Typical Body Shoppers are at the back of the baby boom, a skeptical group. They distrust advertising and sales hype, demand more product information than their elders, and are loyal to companies they consider responsible corporate citizens."
The Body Shop Enters the U.S. Market: 1988
The Body Shop opened its first stores in the United States in 1988; all were owned directly by the company. Deciding that the company needed to first adjust to the new market, particularly to selling in shopping malls, Roddick postponed franchising any stores until 1990. The first franchise opportunity prompted 2,000 applicants, whom Roddick screened through a written questionnaire, asking such unconventional questions as what books and movies the applicants liked and how they would want to die. "I want people who are politically aware and want a livelihood which is values-led," Roddick explained in Working Woman.
In the autumn of 1993, The Body Shop opened new headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, to help manufacture and distribute its U.S. product lines. The new facility was needed to reach and support the company's goal of 500 stores in the United States by the year 2000. Sales figures in 1994 supported that vision of aggressive growth. Sales in the United States had grown by 47 percent in the first half of fiscal 1994 to $44.6 million, with profits up 63 percent to $1.9 million. However, Allan Mottus, a U.S. cosmetics industry consultant, warned in Working Woman that The Body Shop would have difficulty in the coming years: "Opening new doors is one thing. Sustaining business is another. Americans are not as brand-loyal as Europeans. They will look at products and price."
Such competition was already challenging The Body Shop by the mid-1990s, both in the United States and elsewhere. H2O Plus, Goodebodies, Bath & Body Works, Origins, and Garden Botanika were also offering natural products in simple packaging but usually for a lower price. The company's two first major competitors appeared in 1990. That year, Estee Lauder Inc. introduced Origins, a product line with natural ingredients packaged in recycled containers. Leslie Wexner, owner of the Limited, opened Bath & Body Works in the United States in the fall of 1990; 18 months later he had 100 stores grossing $45 million. Although Roddick brushed off many of the U.S. lookalikes as too small to be a threat, she sued Wexner for copying her stores too closely. "It was becoming confusing between the two businesses," Gordon Roddick explained in Working Woman, noting that Body Shop customers "were bringing in Wexner's containers to be refilled." Roddick reports having settled with Wexner out of court. However, Bath & Body Works continued to pose a threat to The Body Shop in both the United States and England, where it opened its first shop in the fall of 1994.
In 1994, L'Oreal entered the natural-style product market with its Planet Ushuaia line of deodorants, shampoos, and other personal care products. Like Bath & Body Works, L'Oreal copied the bright coloring of The Body Shop packaging and emphasized exotic ingredients. The same year, Procter & Gamble, with its vast resources, also entered the fray with their purchase of Ellen Betrix, a German company that had introduced Essentials natural cosmetics early in 1994.
The Body Shop's phenomenal growth slowed somewhat in 1992. Fiscal 1993 profits (the company's year ends February 28) were down 15 percent from the previous year, from £25.2 million to £21.5 million. Roddick criticized dissatisfied investors in Working Woman as "speculators who make their money off buying and selling. That is where the greed factor comes in. They expected us to make £23 million. Tough--we made £21 million." However, the company seemed to recover some of its momentum the following year: pretax profits for the first half of fiscal 1994 were £10 million, a 20 percent increase over the same period in 1993.
Falling Victim to Bad Press: 1993-94
The Body Shop faced other problems in the first half of the 1990s, as its reputation as a socially responsible company was repeatedly challenged. The first attack came from a British television program entitled "Body Search," which accused The Body Shop of misleading customers with its "Against Animal Testing" product label. The Body Shop's policy, designed as an incentive for companies to eliminate their animal testing, rejected ingredients that had been tested on animals in the previous five years. The television program, however, charged the company with using ingredients that had been tested on animals. The Body Shop brought suit in the summer of 1993 and won £276,000 in damages.
Although the company won their suit, the battle had focused attention on The Body Shop's ethical record and inspired additional criticism. Cosmetics competitor Goodebodies tried to distinguish themselves by pointing out that, unlike The Body Shop, they did not use any animal by-products, such as tallow from pigs to make soap. The Body Shop responded, however, that it only used by-products from the meat industry and that it provided customers with information in the store if they wished to choose products with no animal ingredients.
Questions about the company's integrity continued in the summer of 1994, when it was reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was investigating The Body Shop for exaggerated claims of helping developing nations and for alleged pollution from a New Jersey warehouse. The investigation, combined with the company's slowing growth, led Franklin Research & Development, an investment fund that dealt only with socially responsible companies, to sell 50,000 shares. That in turn led to a stock price drop of 11 percent in the next two weeks. Although the stock price stabilized soon thereafter, the company remained in a defensive position.
In the mid-1990s, the company showed signs of changing some of its long-standing policies, such as its refusal to advertise. From 1976 until 1994, The Body Shop used window displays, catalogs, and point of purchase product descriptions to attract and inform customers. In 1994, however, Anita Roddick appeared in an American Express commercial, talking about the company's Trade Not Aid program. Later that year, the company placed its first "advertorial" in the magazine Marie Claire. This eight-page spread offered a discussion of the Body Shop Book on personal care techniques and products. In addition, the company was considering further "advertorials" or television "documercials" for the Trade Not Aid products that would focus on the stories and people behind the products. Angela Bawtree, The Body Shop's head of investor relations, explained the company's apparent change of attitude toward advertising in an October 1994 article in Advertising Age: "It would be wrong for people to think we have some kind of moral problem with using advertising. But using glamorous images or miracle cure claims--those kinds of things you won't see us doing." As of late 1994, the company had no plans to hire an advertising agency.
In the mid-1990s, the company increased its focus on international expansion. Same-store sales in the United Kingdom, The Body Shop's most mature market, declined 6 percent in fiscal 1993 and were stagnant in fiscal 1994. New international stores seemed the key to continued growth, and Gordon Roddick specifically targeted Germany, France, and Japan for expansion. In early 1994, Germany had 39 stores and Japan had 17, and Roddick believed that each of these countries could support 200 stores. In addition, The Body Shop opened its first stores in Mexico in 1993.
"We think the limit for the number of stores we can have globally is more than 3,000," Gordon Roddick said to Working Woman in 1994. He also commented that "in three years we will see the company's worth hit $1 billion." This statement was supported by a 1994 report from NatWest Securities, which expressed "confidence that the international growth potential (over 2,000 stores in year 2000) cannot only be realized, but also translated into healthy profits."
The Body Shop Falters: Late 1990s and Beyond
Gordon Roddick's speculation, however, was not fulfilled. While The Body Shop had indeed experienced stellar growth throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, it appeared unable to concoct a strategy strong enough to overcome increased competition in the industry. As a result of weakening sales--especially in the United States--and faltering profits, The Body Shop spent much of the late 1990s and beyond restructuring and revamping business operations. In 1997, the firm announced that it would discontinue certain lower-priced merchandise in an attempt to attract a more upscale clientele. Then in 1998, Patrick Gournay was named CEO while Anita Roddick became co-chairman with her husband. The company commented on the management changes in a 1998 WWD magazine article, claiming that "the task of realizing our strategic plan and developing the brand without losing the nonnegotiables surrounding its philosophy and business ethics will be challenging. We have taken the view that this will not be achievable without substantially strengthening our top management team."
During that year the company also entered into a joint venture with the Bellamy Retail Group LLC to oversee its United States-based operations. At the time, The Body Shop had reported a loss of $2.8 million from its U.S. stores while sales fell by 2.1 percent over the previous year. Sales in the United Kingdom were also weak and its Asian operations were also suffering due to economic difficulties in the region.
The restructuring moved ahead in 1999 as the company continued to report losses. In an effort to win back profits, The Body Shop exited the manufacturing sector to focus on its retail operations. It also sought to improve its product time-to-market, slash operating costs, and decrease the number of franchise-owned stores. Management was also reorganized into four main geographical segments including the United Kingdom, Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Despite the restructuring efforts, problems continued for The Body Shop as it entered the new millennium and the firm began feeling out possible sale and merger options. A May 2001 Marketing article suggested that during the 1990s the company had "rested on its laurels while top management allowed itself to be diverted by wider global issues. It is paying the price, both in the United States and the United Kingdom, where Boots, Superdrug, and new entrant Lush have made significant in-roads." As management worked to gain back this lost market share, the firm continued to report losses. In 2000, pre-tax profit fell by 21 percent over the previous year due in part to low profit margins on new products and mismanaged inventory levels that led to high warehouse costs.
Changes continued in 2002 when the Roddick's stepped down as co-chairs but remained non-executive directors. At the same time, Gournay resigned after his restructuring efforts failed to restore The Body Shop's financial record. In fact, according to a 2002 WWD article, Anita Roddick publicly claimed that under his leadership, The Body Shop had "lost its soul." Adrian Bellamy was named executive chairman and Peter Saunders took over as CEO--both men had led firm's North American operations. Under direction of this new management team, The Body Shop announced that it was no longer for sale. Whether or not Bellamy and Saunders would be able to boost the company's fortunes and restore it to its former glory of the 1980s and early 1990s, however, remained to be seen.
Principal Competitors: Bath & Body Works Inc.; The Boots Company plc; The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.
Gardening skates, cats with mops on their feet and paper emails: just three inventions which probably didn’t originate from a business plan. However, true entrepreneurs that forge business plans take into account a whole host of aspects, which focus initially on market information and then subsequently market penetration.
bodyshop asked four bodyshop representatives to define what constitutes a business plan, and how it can be put into practice.
Autocraft ARC, based in Aberystwyth and owned by Barrie Thomas, recently invested in a new site which should be up and running at the beginning of 2012.
‘The demand from the clients drives the entire business plan. When we decided to move, we factored in all of the costs down to how much the bodyshop will cost to run on average per day. PAS 125 and all the different audits that we undertake also had to be factored in too, as well as all the consumables, rates, electricity costs etc.
The purpose of moving from our premises was that we’ve started a campervan and motorhome conversion centre which takes up half of the 20,000 sq ft bodyshop. Running a shop this size means that more aspects and factors have to be scaled in because of the many different parts of business and the amount of control that is required. Crucially, your volume needs to expand as soon as you start up a new business venture to factor in all of the costs.
I think the key to the business plan is understanding the maximum efficiency utilisation figure of your current site and getting that calculation as accurate as possible. Obviously there is no point in moving unless you are literally running at 100% maximum throughout the year at your current location. An example of this is our old shop, where we sold 3,000 hours a month at a 7,000 sq ft site, which is incredibly high for a small shop.
We deal with work providers who want to see cycle times reduced to around a maximum of 15 days. We are in a good position because we have got approvals for nearly every insurer due to our location. If you want to compete in this industry you have to able to compete with low key-to-key and cycle times. One work provider has been quoted as saying that it costs £28 per day to keep a claim open due to administration, so if that claim is open for 40 days the cost is already well over £1,000, and some bodyshops are still producing these cycle times. Insurance companies will take bodyshops off their network if they don’t perform because, after all, that’s business.
James Alpe has been established since 1978 and has grown to a 65,000 sq ft bodyshop, offering a one-stop shop. Here, Alison Goossens, James Alpe’s business development manager, outlines its fundamentals of business planning.
Each year senior managers are responsible for putting together their departmental business plan which constitutes our annual company plan. This business plan is a standing agenda item at our weekly senior management team meetings where targets and achievements are closely monitored. By working with this document on an ongoing basis, all management and staff have an overview of the whole group and not just their own department. This encourages understanding and improved communications between departments which all assist us in achieving our pre-defined goals.
Our company business plan is very in-depth. We are a pretty diverse organisation and it’s important that there is synergy between our different workshops ie MET/paint/panel/vehicle conversions/vehicle livery. Using our business plan as a working document allows us to measure where we are up to on a weekly basis.
Missing the obvious is a common mistake that can occasionally happen. We are conscious that all too often we are getting on with our jobs, being busy and efficient but at the same time missing fundamental business upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Knowledge sharing, improved communications and investment in staff training are helping us to avoid making mistakes.
For the James Alpe group, we put great emphasis on staff communication and training to assist in motivating employees. We also put a lot of time into our customer satisfaction programme and analysis of service levels.
We are working closely with a bodyshop marketing consultant who is working with customer facing employees within the organisation. The aim of this is to encourage staff to think differently, whether they are recovery drivers, vehicle damage assessors or reception staff.
TF Smiths has three accident repair centres spanning a total of just under 50,000 sq ft, covering the Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax areas. The business was one of the founding members of Fix Auto in 2005 and the bodyshops are now known as Fix Auto Settle, Fix Auto Keighley and Fix Auto Bradford South.
Sam Smith said, ‘You need to ensure that your business is able to meet demand. This works both ways – when you are busy and also when you are not so. It is important to ensure you scale the shop as best you can to cope with both scenarios. Being as efficient as possible whilst ensuring that you get the best out of the job on offer is not easy, but is something we are consistently improving at.’
In 2010 TF Smith’s was awarded Acoat Selected status by AkzoNobel. ‘Since joining AkzoNobel’s Acoat programme in 2010 we have moved our business forward through meaningful MI and operational disciplines, which were designed and implemented by Acoat,’ said Sam. ‘Our Acoat Consultant, John Galbraith, brings a wealth of relevant management skills and experience that we can, and do, call upon at any moment.
‘Being busy and having a high turnover does not always equate to business success. A cornerstone of our improvement as a business is being heavily trained by Fix Auto on repair over replace. When we send an estimate through to the shop we attempt to repair everything. This decreases our cycle times and our costs, lowers the cost of the job and increases the skill of our workforce, increasing our profit margin.’
Just Car Clinics has grown to 25 sites today and has spent considerable time and investment over the last 18 months pursuing additional opportunities to support insurer collision repair work.
Before amending the financial or operational business plan, research is undertaken with customer surveys, mystery shops and competitor analysis to give information on what could and should be achievable. Time is also invested in informing the team on the opportunities and potential benefits as well as extensive training at all levels before launching a new plan of action.
Critical to the success of JCC’s new retail business strategy is insurer-generated work, which remains the absolute main goal. Taking an eye of this particular ball would be disastrous and the operational group ensures the teams still work to maintain insurer CSI scores at every site.
Another potential pitfall that the team is keen to avoid is running before walking. The retail opportunity is huge but the journey to get to that point is long and JCC has adapted the business throughout 2011 to embrace change in a way that brings the team along with the management. A subtle brand change to focus away from collision repair was introduced initially, a number of new maintenance services were then slowly introduced and rolled out across the sites and marketing materials promoting retail products and services have been created targeting retail customers.
Company Perspectives:
The Body Shops strives to dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change; to creatively balance the financial and human needs of our stakeholders, employees, customers, franchisees, suppliers, and shareholders; to courageously ensure that our business is ecologically sustainable; to meaningfully contribute to local, national, and international communities in which we trade by adopting a code of conduct which ensures care, honesty, fairness, and respect; to passionately campaign for the protection of the environment, human and civil rights, and against animal testing within the cosmetics and toiletries industry; and to tirelessly work to narrow the gap between principle and practice, whilst making fun, passion, and care part of our daily lives.
Key Dates:
1976: Anita Roddick opens a small shop that sells natural-ingredient cosmetics.
1977: Anita Roddick's husband Gordon Roddick joins the company, and the couple decide to franchise the operation.
1984: The Body Shop goes public with 138 stores in operation.
1987: The Trade Not Aid program begins.
1988: Body Shop stores are opened in the United States.
1993: The company files suit against a television program that claims it uses products that have been tested on animals.
1994: The Body Shop begins using traditional methods of advertising for the first time.
1998: Patrick Gournay is named CEO; the company forms a United States-based joint venture with the Bellamy Retail Group LLC.
1999: The company stops manufacturing as part of a restructuring program.
2002: Anita and Gordon Roddick step down as co-chairs of the company.
Company History:
The Body Shop International plc is one of England's best known retailers of cosmetics and personal care products, with over 1,900 stores in 50 countries. The company is best known for pioneering the natural-ingredient cosmetics market and establishing social responsibility as an integral part of company operations. In fact, The Body Shop has historically received more attention for its ethical stances, such as its refusal to use ingredients that are tested on animals, its monetary donations to the communities in which it operates, and its business partnerships with developing countries, than for its products. This focus, however, proved to be costly as The Body Shop lost market share in the late 1990s to product-savvy competitors that offered similar cosmetics at lower prices. The company manufactures over 600 products and claims that a Body Shop product is sold every .4 seconds. Anita Roddick, founder of the company, built The Body Shop by flouting industry conventions. In 1991, Business Week quoted this cosmetic industry leader as saying: "We loathe the cosmetic industry with a passion. It's run by men who create needs that don't exist." After several years of faltering profits and sales, Anita and her husband, Gordon Roddick, stepped down as co-chairs in 2002.
Beginnings
Roddick entered the industry in 1976 when she used £4,000 to open a small stand-alone shop of natural-ingredient cosmetics and personal care products. Her goal was to support herself and her two daughters while her husband spent two years riding horseback from Buenos Aires to New York. Her store design, product packaging, and marketing approach all originated from her need to economize.
Roddick painted the walls dark green to hide cracks, rather than to suggest respect for the environment, and the award-winning clear plastic bottles were actually urine sample containers purchased from a local hospital. When Roddick's original supply of bottles ran out, and she did not have enough money to buy more, the Body Shop's famous refill policy was born.
Other hallmarks of the company were born during this frugal period. Handwritten labels filled with product information established the Body Shop's candid approach to customer relations. For example, one of the first products, a henna hair treatment, sported a label explaining that the product smelled like manure but was great for the hair. Also during this time, Roddick developed an aversion to advertising; not wanting to spend the time or money on advertising, she instead relied on press coverage to spread the word about the fledgling company.
Success came quickly: Roddick's cosmetics store thrived, and she opened another before the company's first year was over. Returning home in 1977, Gordon Roddick joined his wife in the enterprise. They decided to franchise the operation during the company's second year, and by 1984 The Body Shop boasted 138 stores, 87 of which were located outside of the United Kingdom. Franchising outpaced the opening of company-owned stores over the years, until franchises accounted for 89 percent of Body Shop stores in 1994. The company's fast-paced development continued when it went public in April 1984. The Roddick's kept 27.6 percent of the company's stock.
Gordon Roddick became company chairperson and handled the finances as well, and Anita Roddick continued as managing director, essentially determining the course the company would take.
Focus on Social and Environmental Awareness in the 1980s
During this time, Roddick decided to encourage and contribute to social and environmental change through her company. Although she first allied The Body Shop with established groups, such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and Friends of the Earth, she soon began her own campaigns, particularly ones that focused on recycling and on putting an end to animal testing in the cosmetics industry. Body Shops displayed posters and made petition sheets available to customers. By the mid-1990s, franchises were asked to support two to three campaigns a year for such causes as AIDS education, voter registration, and opposition to animal testing in the cosmetics industry.
In 1987, Roddick began The Body Shop's Trade Not Aid program. Combining the company's need for exotic natural ingredients with its mission of social responsibility, the program established business partnerships with struggling communities. By purchasing such ingredients as blue corn from the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and Brazil nut oil from the Kayapo Indians of the Amazon River Basin, the Trade Not Aid program avoided exploiting native peoples and helped developing countries earn money selling renewable resources rather than destroying their habitat. The Body Shop's ethical practices also included aiding communities close to home. For example, the soapmaking factory the company founded in Glasgow returned 25 percent of after-tax profits to the economically depressed city. The retail store in New York's Harlem established a policy of giving 50 percent of store profits to local community groups. Other charitable activities included donating £230,000 in 1991 to start a weekly newspaper to be sold by the homeless in London.
The Body Shop fared just as well publicly as it had privately. In its first eight years on the London Stock Exchange, its stock price rose 10,944 percent. Between November 1986 and November 1991, investors realized a 97.2 percent annual return. In 1991, sales were up 46 percent from the year before to $238.4 million; net profits were $26.2 million, up 71 percent from the previous year. The company's notoriety also increased dramatically. Profiles of Roddick appeared in numerous magazines, from People to Forbes. The company was cited in Business Week as a pioneer in marketing. The magazine explained The Body Shop's appeal as follows: "Typical Body Shoppers are at the back of the baby boom, a skeptical group. They distrust advertising and sales hype, demand more product information than their elders, and are loyal to companies they consider responsible corporate citizens."
The Body Shop Enters the U.S. Market: 1988
The Body Shop opened its first stores in the United States in 1988; all were owned directly by the company. Deciding that the company needed to first adjust to the new market, particularly to selling in shopping malls, Roddick postponed franchising any stores until 1990. The first franchise opportunity prompted 2,000 applicants, whom Roddick screened through a written questionnaire, asking such unconventional questions as what books and movies the applicants liked and how they would want to die. "I want people who are politically aware and want a livelihood which is values-led," Roddick explained in Working Woman.
In the autumn of 1993, The Body Shop opened new headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, to help manufacture and distribute its U.S. product lines. The new facility was needed to reach and support the company's goal of 500 stores in the United States by the year 2000. Sales figures in 1994 supported that vision of aggressive growth. Sales in the United States had grown by 47 percent in the first half of fiscal 1994 to $44.6 million, with profits up 63 percent to $1.9 million. However, Allan Mottus, a U.S. cosmetics industry consultant, warned in Working Woman that The Body Shop would have difficulty in the coming years: "Opening new doors is one thing. Sustaining business is another. Americans are not as brand-loyal as Europeans. They will look at products and price."
Such competition was already challenging The Body Shop by the mid-1990s, both in the United States and elsewhere. H2O Plus, Goodebodies, Bath & Body Works, Origins, and Garden Botanika were also offering natural products in simple packaging but usually for a lower price. The company's two first major competitors appeared in 1990. That year, Estee Lauder Inc. introduced Origins, a product line with natural ingredients packaged in recycled containers. Leslie Wexner, owner of the Limited, opened Bath & Body Works in the United States in the fall of 1990; 18 months later he had 100 stores grossing $45 million. Although Roddick brushed off many of the U.S. lookalikes as too small to be a threat, she sued Wexner for copying her stores too closely. "It was becoming confusing between the two businesses," Gordon Roddick explained in Working Woman, noting that Body Shop customers "were bringing in Wexner's containers to be refilled." Roddick reports having settled with Wexner out of court. However, Bath & Body Works continued to pose a threat to The Body Shop in both the United States and England, where it opened its first shop in the fall of 1994.
In 1994, L'Oreal entered the natural-style product market with its Planet Ushuaia line of deodorants, shampoos, and other personal care products. Like Bath & Body Works, L'Oreal copied the bright coloring of The Body Shop packaging and emphasized exotic ingredients. The same year, Procter & Gamble, with its vast resources, also entered the fray with their purchase of Ellen Betrix, a German company that had introduced Essentials natural cosmetics early in 1994.
The Body Shop's phenomenal growth slowed somewhat in 1992. Fiscal 1993 profits (the company's year ends February 28) were down 15 percent from the previous year, from £25.2 million to £21.5 million. Roddick criticized dissatisfied investors in Working Woman as "speculators who make their money off buying and selling. That is where the greed factor comes in. They expected us to make £23 million. Tough--we made £21 million." However, the company seemed to recover some of its momentum the following year: pretax profits for the first half of fiscal 1994 were £10 million, a 20 percent increase over the same period in 1993.
Falling Victim to Bad Press: 1993-94
The Body Shop faced other problems in the first half of the 1990s, as its reputation as a socially responsible company was repeatedly challenged. The first attack came from a British television program entitled "Body Search," which accused The Body Shop of misleading customers with its "Against Animal Testing" product label. The Body Shop's policy, designed as an incentive for companies to eliminate their animal testing, rejected ingredients that had been tested on animals in the previous five years. The television program, however, charged the company with using ingredients that had been tested on animals. The Body Shop brought suit in the summer of 1993 and won £276,000 in damages.
Although the company won their suit, the battle had focused attention on The Body Shop's ethical record and inspired additional criticism. Cosmetics competitor Goodebodies tried to distinguish themselves by pointing out that, unlike The Body Shop, they did not use any animal by-products, such as tallow from pigs to make soap. The Body Shop responded, however, that it only used by-products from the meat industry and that it provided customers with information in the store if they wished to choose products with no animal ingredients.
Questions about the company's integrity continued in the summer of 1994, when it was reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was investigating The Body Shop for exaggerated claims of helping developing nations and for alleged pollution from a New Jersey warehouse. The investigation, combined with the company's slowing growth, led Franklin Research & Development, an investment fund that dealt only with socially responsible companies, to sell 50,000 shares. That in turn led to a stock price drop of 11 percent in the next two weeks. Although the stock price stabilized soon thereafter, the company remained in a defensive position.
In the mid-1990s, the company showed signs of changing some of its long-standing policies, such as its refusal to advertise. From 1976 until 1994, The Body Shop used window displays, catalogs, and point of purchase product descriptions to attract and inform customers. In 1994, however, Anita Roddick appeared in an American Express commercial, talking about the company's Trade Not Aid program. Later that year, the company placed its first "advertorial" in the magazine Marie Claire. This eight-page spread offered a discussion of the Body Shop Book on personal care techniques and products. In addition, the company was considering further "advertorials" or television "documercials" for the Trade Not Aid products that would focus on the stories and people behind the products. Angela Bawtree, The Body Shop's head of investor relations, explained the company's apparent change of attitude toward advertising in an October 1994 article in Advertising Age: "It would be wrong for people to think we have some kind of moral problem with using advertising. But using glamorous images or miracle cure claims--those kinds of things you won't see us doing." As of late 1994, the company had no plans to hire an advertising agency.
In the mid-1990s, the company increased its focus on international expansion. Same-store sales in the United Kingdom, The Body Shop's most mature market, declined 6 percent in fiscal 1993 and were stagnant in fiscal 1994. New international stores seemed the key to continued growth, and Gordon Roddick specifically targeted Germany, France, and Japan for expansion. In early 1994, Germany had 39 stores and Japan had 17, and Roddick believed that each of these countries could support 200 stores. In addition, The Body Shop opened its first stores in Mexico in 1993.
"We think the limit for the number of stores we can have globally is more than 3,000," Gordon Roddick said to Working Woman in 1994. He also commented that "in three years we will see the company's worth hit $1 billion." This statement was supported by a 1994 report from NatWest Securities, which expressed "confidence that the international growth potential (over 2,000 stores in year 2000) cannot only be realized, but also translated into healthy profits."
The Body Shop Falters: Late 1990s and Beyond
Gordon Roddick's speculation, however, was not fulfilled. While The Body Shop had indeed experienced stellar growth throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, it appeared unable to concoct a strategy strong enough to overcome increased competition in the industry. As a result of weakening sales--especially in the United States--and faltering profits, The Body Shop spent much of the late 1990s and beyond restructuring and revamping business operations. In 1997, the firm announced that it would discontinue certain lower-priced merchandise in an attempt to attract a more upscale clientele. Then in 1998, Patrick Gournay was named CEO while Anita Roddick became co-chairman with her husband. The company commented on the management changes in a 1998 WWD magazine article, claiming that "the task of realizing our strategic plan and developing the brand without losing the nonnegotiables surrounding its philosophy and business ethics will be challenging. We have taken the view that this will not be achievable without substantially strengthening our top management team."
During that year the company also entered into a joint venture with the Bellamy Retail Group LLC to oversee its United States-based operations. At the time, The Body Shop had reported a loss of $2.8 million from its U.S. stores while sales fell by 2.1 percent over the previous year. Sales in the United Kingdom were also weak and its Asian operations were also suffering due to economic difficulties in the region.
The restructuring moved ahead in 1999 as the company continued to report losses. In an effort to win back profits, The Body Shop exited the manufacturing sector to focus on its retail operations. It also sought to improve its product time-to-market, slash operating costs, and decrease the number of franchise-owned stores. Management was also reorganized into four main geographical segments including the United Kingdom, Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Despite the restructuring efforts, problems continued for The Body Shop as it entered the new millennium and the firm began feeling out possible sale and merger options. A May 2001 Marketing article suggested that during the 1990s the company had "rested on its laurels while top management allowed itself to be diverted by wider global issues. It is paying the price, both in the United States and the United Kingdom, where Boots, Superdrug, and new entrant Lush have made significant in-roads." As management worked to gain back this lost market share, the firm continued to report losses. In 2000, pre-tax profit fell by 21 percent over the previous year due in part to low profit margins on new products and mismanaged inventory levels that led to high warehouse costs.
Changes continued in 2002 when the Roddick's stepped down as co-chairs but remained non-executive directors. At the same time, Gournay resigned after his restructuring efforts failed to restore The Body Shop's financial record. In fact, according to a 2002 WWD article, Anita Roddick publicly claimed that under his leadership, The Body Shop had "lost its soul." Adrian Bellamy was named executive chairman and Peter Saunders took over as CEO--both men had led firm's North American operations. Under direction of this new management team, The Body Shop announced that it was no longer for sale. Whether or not Bellamy and Saunders would be able to boost the company's fortunes and restore it to its former glory of the 1980s and early 1990s, however, remained to be seen.
Principal Competitors: Bath & Body Works Inc.; The Boots Company plc; The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.
Business Philosophy & Business Strategies
Business Philosophy
Our vision cements all of the work carried out by The Body Shop Foundation - to give a global helping hand to small charities and projects all over the world, using the expertise and local knowledge of staff, franchisees and consultants of The Body Shop International.
This local wisdom helps us to reach those who need it most, on issues relevant to that particular area.
We see more giving through our fundraising channels - at regional & local levels - working with the company and its suppliers by turning more end of line, discontinued or unwanted stock into cash to fund more projects and saving the company on environmental impact and landfill costs.
We see our volunteering reaching new heights - by encouraging staff to help the Foundation with monitoring & evaluating the grants given by their own particular region.
We believe that the vision that you keep in your mind, the ideal that you store in your heart, is the beat you will lead your life by and what you ultimately become.
Not a bad goal to have, really…..
Business Strategies
The Body Shop Foundation is The Body Shop International Plc’s charitable trust which supports innovative projects across the world working for social & environmental change.
We are funded by an annual donation from the company and through various fundraising initiatives.
Approximately 65% of the grants that we fund come from nominations from the staff, consultants or franchisees attached to the company – from all over the world.
The remaining projects we fund are researched by our own trustees and grants department.
To date, we’ve funded over 2,500 global projects to the tune of £18.3 million.
We’ve supported a wide variety of projects since we began in 1989, but have always stayed true to our main three areas, namely:
Animal Protection
Human Rights
Environmental Protection
Although we’d simply love to be able to help absolutely everybody, we follow a simple set of procedures to enable us to stay focused to our strategic vision and keep to our funding remit.
Our aim is to:
support organisations at the forefront of social & environmental change
support groups with little hope of conventional funding
support projects working to increase public awareness
As the majority of our applications come from projects nominated by staff, we do not ask for public applications or nominations. Nor do we:
sponsor individuals
fund sporting activities or the arts
sponsor or support fundraising events, receptions or conferences
Our vision cements all of the work carried out by The Body Shop Foundation - to give a global helping hand to small charities and projects all over the world, using the expertise and local knowledge of staff, franchisees and consultants of The Body Shop International.
This local wisdom helps us to reach those who need it most, on issues relevant to that particular area.
We see more giving through our fundraising channels - at regional & local levels - working with the company and its suppliers by turning more end of line, discontinued or unwanted stock into cash to fund more projects and saving the company on environmental impact and landfill costs.
We see our volunteering reaching new heights - by encouraging staff to help the Foundation with monitoring & evaluating the grants given by their own particular region.
We believe that the vision that you keep in your mind, the ideal that you store in your heart, is the beat you will lead your life by and what you ultimately become.
Not a bad goal to have, really…..
Business Strategies
The Body Shop Foundation is The Body Shop International Plc’s charitable trust which supports innovative projects across the world working for social & environmental change.
We are funded by an annual donation from the company and through various fundraising initiatives.
Approximately 65% of the grants that we fund come from nominations from the staff, consultants or franchisees attached to the company – from all over the world.
The remaining projects we fund are researched by our own trustees and grants department.
To date, we’ve funded over 2,500 global projects to the tune of £18.3 million.
We’ve supported a wide variety of projects since we began in 1989, but have always stayed true to our main three areas, namely:
Animal Protection
Human Rights
Environmental Protection
Although we’d simply love to be able to help absolutely everybody, we follow a simple set of procedures to enable us to stay focused to our strategic vision and keep to our funding remit.
Our aim is to:
support organisations at the forefront of social & environmental change
support groups with little hope of conventional funding
support projects working to increase public awareness
As the majority of our applications come from projects nominated by staff, we do not ask for public applications or nominations. Nor do we:
sponsor individuals
fund sporting activities or the arts
sponsor or support fundraising events, receptions or conferences
Unique features body shop
Profits Can Go Hand in Hand with the Public Good
“Over the past decades…while many businesses have pursued what I call ‘business as usual’, I have been part of a different, smaller business movement, one that tried to put idealism back on the agenda,” says Roddick. “If I can’t do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?”
In the early days of her company, Roddick’s social and ecological conscience was motivated more by economic cost-saving factors over anything else; recycling was encouraged because she could only afford a certain number of bottles while store walls were painted green not for environmental awareness, but rather to hide the damp stains. However, as The Body Shop franchise grew into a cosmetics powerhouse, Roddick began to realize that she could use her power to have a positive impact on the world around her.
“I hate the beauty business,” says Roddick. “It is a monster industry selling unattainable dreams. It lies. It cheats. It exploits women.” In order to find self-fulfillment in her work, Roddick was thus forced to expand her vision. “I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community,” she says. “I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in.”
It is to this end that The Body Shop began supporting campaigns that convey positive social messages and promote change. From sponsoring Greenpeace’s lobbying efforts against dumping waste in the North Sea to supporting Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth, Roddick has worked hard to ensure that her company is about more than simply profits. “It’s about service, serving the weak and the frail, bringing the concepts of social justice into business,” says Roddick. “But actually putting them into practice is the key. They can’t be just rhetoric any more.”
Not only has she focused on recycling and refused to test her products on animals, but Roddick has also encouraged all of her franchisors and employees to promote a cause of their choice – on company time and money. Many see her moves as both anti-business and revolutionary, but Roddick says such practices have been around for years in many societies.
“All through history, there have always been movements where business was not just about the accumulation of proceeds but also for the public good,” says Roddick. “I am still looking for the modern equivalent of those Quakers who ran successful businesses, made money because they offered honest products and treated their people decently. This business creed, sadly, seems long forgotten.”
To those who question her business sense, Roddick retorts that taking care of the community in which your company draws its profit is not just about feeling good about yourself. Indeed, it makes good business sense too. “I think that more companies are now realizing its corporate reputation is at stake and what they fear mostly is consumer revolt,” she says. “If prices are not that good at the moment that’s because the bloody business is not very well run. It has nothing to do with the social agenda. We save a huge amount of money by not advertising and by not going around in Lear jets, or having obscene compensation packages like many others do.”
Indeed, with revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Roddick’s dedication “to the pursuit of social and environmental change” seems to have served her company well.
“Over the past decades…while many businesses have pursued what I call ‘business as usual’, I have been part of a different, smaller business movement, one that tried to put idealism back on the agenda,” says Roddick. “If I can’t do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?”
In the early days of her company, Roddick’s social and ecological conscience was motivated more by economic cost-saving factors over anything else; recycling was encouraged because she could only afford a certain number of bottles while store walls were painted green not for environmental awareness, but rather to hide the damp stains. However, as The Body Shop franchise grew into a cosmetics powerhouse, Roddick began to realize that she could use her power to have a positive impact on the world around her.
“I hate the beauty business,” says Roddick. “It is a monster industry selling unattainable dreams. It lies. It cheats. It exploits women.” In order to find self-fulfillment in her work, Roddick was thus forced to expand her vision. “I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community,” she says. “I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in.”
It is to this end that The Body Shop began supporting campaigns that convey positive social messages and promote change. From sponsoring Greenpeace’s lobbying efforts against dumping waste in the North Sea to supporting Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth, Roddick has worked hard to ensure that her company is about more than simply profits. “It’s about service, serving the weak and the frail, bringing the concepts of social justice into business,” says Roddick. “But actually putting them into practice is the key. They can’t be just rhetoric any more.”
Not only has she focused on recycling and refused to test her products on animals, but Roddick has also encouraged all of her franchisors and employees to promote a cause of their choice – on company time and money. Many see her moves as both anti-business and revolutionary, but Roddick says such practices have been around for years in many societies.
“All through history, there have always been movements where business was not just about the accumulation of proceeds but also for the public good,” says Roddick. “I am still looking for the modern equivalent of those Quakers who ran successful businesses, made money because they offered honest products and treated their people decently. This business creed, sadly, seems long forgotten.”
To those who question her business sense, Roddick retorts that taking care of the community in which your company draws its profit is not just about feeling good about yourself. Indeed, it makes good business sense too. “I think that more companies are now realizing its corporate reputation is at stake and what they fear mostly is consumer revolt,” she says. “If prices are not that good at the moment that’s because the bloody business is not very well run. It has nothing to do with the social agenda. We save a huge amount of money by not advertising and by not going around in Lear jets, or having obscene compensation packages like many others do.”
Indeed, with revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Roddick’s dedication “to the pursuit of social and environmental change” seems to have served her company well.
Key Factors Contributing to the success of the business.
Changing ‘Business as Usual’: The Body Shop Becomes a Success
For the first three years of their marriage, Roddick and her husband were content running their restaurant and eight-room hotel. She dealt with the customers while he took care of the behind-the-scenes management. However, after three years, the pair found themselves overworked and separated from their children. They decided to sell their restaurant and embark on their own pursuits.
Roddick’s husband, an equally avid traveler, decided that he wanted to ride a horse from Buenos Aires, Argentina to New York City. Ever the supportive wife, Roddick agreed and stayed home to care for their two children. It was during her husband’s time away that 33-year-old Roddick decided to open up a cosmetics store. But, it wouldn’t be just any cosmetics store. Roddick wanted her operation to be natural and environmentally conscious.
In 1976, Roddick opened up her first Body Shop adjacent to a funeral home in Brighton, only ten minutes from her home, in order to be close to her children. She had used the hotel as collateral to obtain a $6,500 bank loan. Initially, Roddick limited her product line to 15 natural cosmetic products that she had manufactured in her own garage, all of which were packaged and sold in small, recyclable bottles in order to reduce costs.
The Body Shop proved so successful that soon Roddick wanted to open a second store. When she was rejected for a $8,000 loan from the bank, Roddick turned to a gas station owner named Ian McGlinn, who agreed to purchase half a share in the company. By the time her husband returned, Roddick’s chain had become so popular that more and more people had begun inquiring about franchise rights.
With little experience in franchising, Roddick decided not to charge startup or royalty fees. However, before someone could acquire the rights to open a Body Shop franchise, Roddick would personally interview all of the candidates, asking them such questions as “What is your favourite flower?” and “How would you like to die?” At the time, most of the franchises were, and continue to be operated by women.
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For the first three years of their marriage, Roddick and her husband were content running their restaurant and eight-room hotel. She dealt with the customers while he took care of the behind-the-scenes management. However, after three years, the pair found themselves overworked and separated from their children. They decided to sell their restaurant and embark on their own pursuits.
Roddick’s husband, an equally avid traveler, decided that he wanted to ride a horse from Buenos Aires, Argentina to New York City. Ever the supportive wife, Roddick agreed and stayed home to care for their two children. It was during her husband’s time away that 33-year-old Roddick decided to open up a cosmetics store. But, it wouldn’t be just any cosmetics store. Roddick wanted her operation to be natural and environmentally conscious.
In 1976, Roddick opened up her first Body Shop adjacent to a funeral home in Brighton, only ten minutes from her home, in order to be close to her children. She had used the hotel as collateral to obtain a $6,500 bank loan. Initially, Roddick limited her product line to 15 natural cosmetic products that she had manufactured in her own garage, all of which were packaged and sold in small, recyclable bottles in order to reduce costs.
The Body Shop proved so successful that soon Roddick wanted to open a second store. When she was rejected for a $8,000 loan from the bank, Roddick turned to a gas station owner named Ian McGlinn, who agreed to purchase half a share in the company. By the time her husband returned, Roddick’s chain had become so popular that more and more people had begun inquiring about franchise rights.
With little experience in franchising, Roddick decided not to charge startup or royalty fees. However, before someone could acquire the rights to open a Body Shop franchise, Roddick would personally interview all of the candidates, asking them such questions as “What is your favourite flower?” and “How would you like to die?” At the time, most of the franchises were, and continue to be operated by women.
The Body Shop franchise was based on a unique business philosophy; its goal would not be limited to profits, but would also try to encompass socially responsible principles. Roddick wanted her company to offer “a two-for-one sale no other cosmetic company could ever hope to match: buy a bottle of ‘natural’ lotion and get social justice for free.” The company also employed unique advertising techniques, such as lining the sidewalk leading into her store with Body Shop perfume and hanging potpourri.
From campaigning to save Brazilian rainforests to fighting for fairer trade rules, Roddick has dedicated her company to social activism both at home and abroad. By 2004, there were over 1,980 Body Shop stores in over 40 countries around the world. It was voted the second most trust brand in the United Kingdom and Roddick was knighted by the Queen. More recently, the Body Shop was bought out by L’Oreal. Roddick has since spent most of her time giving away the majority of her accumulated $104 million fortune.
Changing the World One Shampoo at a Time: How The Body Shop Became a Success
“If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just,” says Roddick – a phrase that could very well be her company motto. She has taken her $6,500 loan and turned it into a successful multi-million dollar corporation that continues to not only make popular cosmetic products but also push the boundaries of corporate social responsibility. She may no longer be the driving force behind the company, but her influence on the business world is undisputed. How did she do it?
Social Change: “If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito,” Roddick used to say. Perhaps she had too little knowledge about the business world to know that it couldn’t be done, but Roddick set out not only to meet the needs of her stakeholders, but also “to courageously ensure that our business is ecologically sustainable, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future.” In doing so, Roddick not only turned a profit but garnered a large and dedicated following of consumers who were onside with her vision.
Vision: Roddick used her creativity and imagination to come up with both a unique product line and corporate philosophy by which to operate. She also understood the importance of cultivating this spirit throughout her company, inspiring the free thought of others around her. It was in looking at the world through a positive and creative lens that Roddick was able to see the solutions ahead.
Experience: “If you can shape your business life or your working life, you can just look at it as another extension – you just fulfill all your values as a human being in the work place,” says Roddick. “If you are an activist, you bring the activism of your life into your business, or if you love creative art, you can bring that in.” Roddick used what she knew best to inspire and inform her business – her own experiences. Whether it was working in her mother’s café as a child, or bathing along side indigenous tribes in Brazil, Roddick brought in her own past to chart her future.
Survival: “For myself, I needed to earn money, to look after the kids while my husband was traveling for two years across South America,” says Roddick. Born out of a need to stay alive, The Body Shop has been infused with a survivor mentality since day one. It continues his trend today, making the most of every opportunity it can and remaining unsatisfied with the status quo.
Passion: “It’s not really work for me because I have no idea what work is anymore,” says Roddick. “It is so much a part of my life.” Since she was a little girl, the entrepreneurial instinct was cultivated within Roddick. The passion and determination with which she approached her business not only made up for her lack of business knowledge, but actually helped her in achieving her dreams. “I hadn’t a clue,” she recalls of her early days in business and that is what propelled her to the top.
It was while Roddick was running her first store that she learned the true nature of business: “It’s about creating a product or service so good that people will pay for it. Now 30 years on The Body Shop is a multi local business with over 2.045 stores serving over 77 million customers in 51 different markets in 25 different languages and across 12 time zones. And I haven’t a clue how we got here!”
Achievements
Selected Awards Received
1984 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year
1988 OBE - Order of the British Empire
1988 British Association of Industrial Editors, Communicator of Year
1991 Center for World Development Education's World Vision Award, USA
1991 The Financial Evening Standard Outstanding Entrepreneur Analysis Award
1992 National Association of Women Business Owners (US) Business Leader of Year
1993 Banksia Foundation's Australia Environmental Award
1993 Mexican Environmental Achiever Award
1993 National Audubon Society Medal, USA
1994 Botwinick Prize in Business Ethics, USA
1994 University of Michigan's Annual Business Leadership Award, USA
1994 Daily Express/Moet & Chandon Business Award
1995 Women's Business Development Center's First Annual Woman Power Award, USA
1996 Women's Center's Leadership Award, USA
1996 The Gleitsman Foundation's Award of Achievement, USA
1996 Institute of Charitable Fundraising Managers (UK), Philanthropist of the Year
1997 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Honouree, Eyes on the
1984 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year
1988 OBE - Order of the British Empire
1988 British Association of Industrial Editors, Communicator of Year
1991 Center for World Development Education's World Vision Award, USA
1991 The Financial Evening Standard Outstanding Entrepreneur Analysis Award
1992 National Association of Women Business Owners (US) Business Leader of Year
1993 Banksia Foundation's Australia Environmental Award
1993 Mexican Environmental Achiever Award
1993 National Audubon Society Medal, USA
1994 Botwinick Prize in Business Ethics, USA
1994 University of Michigan's Annual Business Leadership Award, USA
1994 Daily Express/Moet & Chandon Business Award
1995 Women's Business Development Center's First Annual Woman Power Award, USA
1996 Women's Center's Leadership Award, USA
1996 The Gleitsman Foundation's Award of Achievement, USA
1996 Institute of Charitable Fundraising Managers (UK), Philanthropist of the Year
1997 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Honouree, Eyes on the
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