: Paul Grover
The Body Shop’s new owners are preparing to appoint administrators to oversee expected store closures across its UK division.
After completing the deal in January, Aurelius is preparing to act quickly in a bid to boost the Body Shop’s fortunes, which will likely include scaling down operations and a greater focus on digital sales.
A source familiar with the deal said the retailer’s trading in the UK was not as good as Aurelius had expected.
The company’s most recent accounts show that The Body Shop posted a loss of £60m in its last financial year, which came while the was still owned by the Brazilian cosmetics group Natura & Co.
The retailer said that it had been hit by a “challenging retail environment”, along with rising inflation and interest rates.
The Body Shop was founded by environmental activist Dame Anita Roddick, who campaigned against animal testing for cosmetics and was an early advocate of fair trade certification for products.
Dame Anita sold the company to L’Oreal for £652m in 2006.
L’Oreal then sold the to Natura &Co in 2017 for £880m, 10 years after Dame Anita’s death.
