Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The Body Shop Becomes Multinational Profit Shop

campervanHan | 23.03.2006 11:46 | South Coast

UK "ethical|" ethical cosmetics company sold to L'Oreal

The Body Shop Becomes Multinational Profit Shop.

By CampervanHan. – apologies for the late posting, I’ve been ill!

Last week UK cosmetics company, The Body Shop, was sold to L’Oreal for a reported £652.3 million. The Body Shop, founded by Anita Roddick, the daughter of Italian immigrants, started in a small Brighton premises. The company very quickly established itself as one of the leading natural cosmetics manufacturers, and now have over 2,000 stores worldwide, 304 of these are in the UK.

Anita and Gordon Roddick are said to have netted £130 million from the sale of their 19% stake in the company, and as far as many ethical consumers are concerned, Anita Roddick has abandoned her values and sold her principles to L’Oreal, the worlds biggest cosmetics company who own brands including Lancôme, Cacharel, Garnier, Maybelline and Ambre Solaire. Roddick is said to have announced that this “is the best 30th birthday present that The Body Shop could have received.”

In 1999 The Body Shop was voted the second most trusted brand in the UK by the Consumer Association. According to the company profile The Body Shop products are made entirely ecologically, according to very strict standards respecting man and environment and the company have always been aggressively opposed to animal testing. L’Oreal banned animal testing of its products in 1989 but still allows ingredients that have been tested on animals to be used in its products. L’Oreal have long been the target of anti-vivisection groups, environmental organisations and ethical consumer groups as the company also allows harmful chemicals in its products and are part owned by Nestle.

The Body Shop head offices are in Watersmead, Littlehampton, and the administrative and manufacturing operations employ over 1,000 people in an area desperately in need of employment opportunities. The sale comes as no surprise to those who had suspected The Body Shop of manufacturing products for other companies. For the last 2 years insiders at the manufacturing plant have reported that The Body Shop have been making products for L’Oreal, Debenhams, and Molton Brown.

In the late 1990’s The Body Shop profits dropped rapidly causing an overhaul of management structures, the purchasing of franchised shops, and outsourcing operations. I fear that this time profits will drop rapidly because faithful customers of The Body Shop will now be voting with their wallets and will not be putting money into the pockets of multinational companies like L’Oreal and Nestle trading behind the ethical principles that The Body Shop once had. I think I’ll be purchasing shares in Faith In Nature and Urtekram, both highly transparent companies, who lets hope, 30 years down the line don’t sell out to some Nestle shite company.

www.ethicalconsumer.org
www.thebodyshopinternational.com
www.thebodyshop.com
www.buav.org/cosmetics/bluffersguide.html
www.animalaid.org
www.uncaged.co.uk


END







campervanHan

Comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech