WITH tales of doom and gloom hanging heavy over the High Street, it has takenan iconic name from the Seventies to bring a ray of sunshine into the lives ofretailers.
Body Shop unveiled a seven per cent rise in first-half sales last week.
Sales at its 300 UK stores rose by four per cent – bucking the trend for most other High Street giants. Profits were down £1.1 million to £7.1 million due to the cost of overseas acquisitions.
The chain started with a shop squeezed between two funeral parlours in Brighton in 1976 and has grown to an international group with 2,085 stores.
Like many of its customers, the business has mixed feelings as its 30th birthday approaches.
‘Body Shop has grown up,’ said chief executive Peter Saunders. ‘Through the years, just like many women, we’ve experimented with quite a few stages. Now we are where we want to be with a good, high quality style. Our customer base has grown up with us.’
Body Shop became a household name under founder Anita Roddick, famous for its distinctive green bottles filled with delights such as sticky strawberry shampoo. But dramatic over-expansion brought it to its knees in the Nineties.
Roddick stepped down in 1998 after profits collapsed by 90 per cent. She handed over the business to Frenchman Patrick Gournay, a former director of food giant Danone, who subsequently resisted several takeover approaches.
It wasn’t until American-born Saunders, who had headed Body Shop’s American operation, took the helm in 2002 that the chain turned the corner.
Since he joined and launched a £100 million investment programme, Body Shop’s share price has surged from 87p to 218p last week, valuing the group at more than £464 million.
As well as investing in new systems and cutting staff numbers and stores, Saunders’ strategy has been to reinvent the chain to appeal to more affluent customers.
A new lighter, more airy format has been introduced at 75 stores in the UK and 130 more worldwide. Others will be modernised next year.
Another of Saunders’ more successful initiatives has been the launch of Body Shop At Home.
Consultants organise cosmetics parties in customers’ homes and the concept now accounts for seven per cent of Body Shop’s sales. It is expected to hit 35 per cent of operating profit within three years.
Saunders said: ‘You simply cannot underestimate the significance of being able to spend two hours with customers in their own homes.
‘It doesn’t cannibalise store sales, in fact it brings in a lot of people who were not formerly customers. It’s all about brand awareness.’
Body Shop is not abandoning its ethical roots championed by Roddick, who remains as a non-executive director. Saunders said: ‘Fair trade is where we want to be. Our customers all over the world are very firm about that.’
The difference is that, instead of cheap coconut conditioners, today’s Body Shop sells premium Kinetin 24-hour facials and vitamin C time-release capsules.
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