History
An earlier Body Shop, unaffiliated with Anita Roddick or the Body Shop International Limited, was opened in Berkeley, California, in 1970, by Peggy Short and Jane Saunders.[13]
Roddick opened her own health and beauty store, named the Body Shop, in her hometown of Brighton, UK, in 1976. Her motivation was to "make a living for herself and her two daughters while her husband was away travelling".[14]
The business's original vision was to sell products with ethically sourced, cruelty-free, and natural ingredients. None of Roddick's products were tested on animals, and the ingredients were sourced directly from producers.[15]
The store began trading with just 25 products. Roddick had purchased urine-sample bottles from a nearby hospital to sell her products in but did not have enough of them, creating the business's refillable bottles policy. Labels were handwritten, and Roddick did not advertise explicitly, using the local press instead.[16]
In the late 1970s, Roddick's partner, Gordon, returned to Brighton from America and suggested the business foster growth through franchising. By 1984, the company had 138 stores, 87 of which were outside the UK. By 1994, 89% of the business's locations were franchises.[16]
The company went public in April 1984 and was floated on London's Unlisted Securities Market, opening at a price of 95p, with the Roddicks keeping 27.6% of shares in the company and Anita continuing as managing director so as to retain control of the company's direction. After it obtained a full listing on the London Stock Exchange, share prices in the company increased dramatically, rising 10,944 percent in the first eight years.[16]
In 1987, Roddick paid the owners of the original Body Shop in the US, Peggy Short and Jane Saunders, US$3.5 million for the exclusive rights to the brand name. The US company became Body Time in 1992;[17] it closed in 2018.[18]
In 1991, the Body Shop sued Bath & Body Works for allegedly copying its marketing, reaching a confidential out-of-court settlement.[19]
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the company joined a number of campaigns related to social responsibility and environmental issues. These included a "Trade Not Aid" campaign in 1987, wherein the company sourced some of its ingredients directly from the native communities they originated from. The company also made alliances with Greenpeace and Amnesty International.[16]
1994 Business Ethics exposé
In September 1994, Business Ethics magazine published an investigative article entitled "Shattered Image: Is The Body Shop Too Good to Be True?", written by Jon Entine, on the company's practices.[20][21][22] Entine reported that Anita Roddick had copied the name, store design, marketing concept, and most product line ideas from the earlier American Body Shop.[20]
2000s and 2010s
In March 2006, the Body Shop agreed to a £652.3 million takeover by L'Oréal. The Roddicks made £130 million from the sale.[23]
