Owner looking to put The Body Shop up for sale

Cosmetics chain The Body Shop may come up for sale, as Brazilian owner Natura & Co is exploring strategic options for the chain whose sales have been disappointing for some time.

No guarantee of sale

The possibility of a sale was already suggested last summer, as Natura & Co’s new CEO wants to get his company back on track and the activist cosmetics chain is a weaker part within the group. The retailer is seeing its sales fall sharply, partly due to an exit from Russia.

Now the owner confirms those rumours: the board of directors has authorised management to explore “strategic alternatives” for The Body Shop, which could include a possible sale to an interested party. However, there is no guarantee that this process will lead to a transaction, the company does say in a brief press release.

The Body Shop was founded in 1976 by environmental and animal rights activist Anita Roddick, and passed into the hands of L’Oréal thirty years later. After its acquisition by Natura in 2017, the company with 3,000 shops worldwide reacquainted itself with its activist past.