The Body Shop

The Body Shop is a chain of cosmetics stores founded by Anita Roddick, noted for selling it's own line of products not tested on animals, and produced in an ecologically sustainable manner.

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In 1970, Anita Perella and Gordon Roddick (who would later marry) visited the San Francisco Bay Area, and encountered a store on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley selling shampoos, lotions, and body creams. The store, founded by two local entrepreneurs, publicized environmental concerns, and offered customers discounts for bringing in their own bottles instead of using new ones from the store. The original "Body Shop" business continues in the Bay Area under the name "Body Time", a name they adopted after they sold Roddick the US rights to the "Body Shop" name in the early 1980s.

Related Topics:
Anita Perella - San Francisco Bay Area - Telegraph Avenue - Berkeley - Shampoo - Lotion - Body cream

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The Roddicks' first Body Shop opened on 27 March, 1976 in Brighton, United Kingdom. Like the San Francisco store, it offered homemade skin care and moisturizing lotions advertised to be made with natural ingredients. Products featured exotic ingredients such as jojoba oil and rhassoul mud from local herbalists and had simple, descriptive names such as Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash and Mango Dry Mist. In contrast to high street retailers, the packaging included details about ingredients and their properties. Customers could return to the store to refill product containers for a 15 percent discount.

Related Topics:
27 March - 1976 - Brighton - United Kingdom - Lotion - Jojoba oil - Rhassoul mud - Herbalists - Tea Tree Oil - High street retailers

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Products were priced more expensively than mass-merchandised cosmetics, but more economically than exclusive brand names, and were never sale priced. Eschewing traditional cosmetics marketing, the company promoted itself with offbeat brochures (which sometimes were quite similar to those distributed by the Bay Area Body Shop), exotic ingredients, and a founder who made herself extremely accessible and popular with the press, and who made social and environmental activism the centerpiece of her company' marketing.

Related Topics:
Cosmetics - Brand - Marketing - Activism

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These were revolutionary ideas in the industry, and inspired a loyal clientele. By the end of the 1970s a chain of outlets had sprung up throughout the UK, and Anita Roddick hired a public relations firm to manage the ever-growing press attention.

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The Body Shop experienced rapid growth, expanding at a rate of 50 percent annually. Its stock was floated on London's Unlisted Securities Market in April 1984, opening at 95 pence. In January 1986, when it obtained a full listing on the London Stock Exchange, the stock was selling at 820 pence. By 1991 the company's market value stood at £350 million ($591 million).

Related Topics:
Stock - Unlisted Securities Market - April - 1984 - London Stock Exchange

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After a volatile period of ups and downs, its 2004 market value would end up about the same as in 1991 (£334 million as of September 2004).

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