The Physique Store has entered administration with jobs in danger throughout the model’s 200-plus UK shops.
The beloved chain presently employs 10,000 folks throughout 3,000 shops it operates in additional than 70 nations world wide – with an additional 12,000 employees working in franchises.
FRP Advisory has been introduced in to deal with the insolvency course of simply weeks after a brand new proprietor took management having vowed to ‘re-energise the enterprise’. The administration presently solely impacts UK employees and shops.
In an announcement, it mentioned ‘directors will now take into account all choices to discover a manner ahead for the enterprise and can replace collectors and staff in the end’.
The enterprise will proceed to commerce each in-store and on-line whereas plans are made for the way forward for the beloved excessive road model.
The Physique Store has begun the method of submitting for administration with job losses a danger
The Physique Store, the close to 50-year-old cosmetics firm famend for its moral hair and pores and skin merchandise, is struggling financially within the UK
The Physique Store was bought to L’Oreal for £675million by founder Dame Anita Roddick in 2006
Additionally it is famed for its signature White Musk eau de toilette (left) – which has survived a number of rebrands and continues to be a high vendor (proper)
The troubled chain – which has confronted stiff competitors from the likes of millennial and Gen Z-friendly bathtub bomb purveyors Lush and luxurious model Rituals – had additionally simply shut down its Avon-style home-based business division, The Physique Store At House.
FRP mentioned: ‘The Physique Store has confronted an prolonged interval of economic challenges beneath previous homeowners, coinciding with a troublesome buying and selling surroundings for the broader retail sector.
‘Having taken swift motion within the final month, together with closing down The Physique Store At House and promoting its enterprise throughout most of Europe and in elements of Asia, specializing in the UK enterprise is the subsequent vital step in The Physique Store’s restructuring.’
The directors added: ‘The Physique Store stays guided by its ambition to be a contemporary, dynamic magnificence model, related to prospects and capable of compete for the long run.
‘Making a extra nimble and financially secure UK enterprise is a crucial step in attaining this.’
In addition to threatening hundreds of jobs, the information may spell bother for the numerous suppliers of Physique Store items throughout the globe, who’ve been sourced fastidiously by the ethically minded agency over a long time.
Whereas administration doesn’t essentially spell the top of the British model, social media is stuffed with response from those that concern the worst for the beleaguered agency.
One former employee recalled on X, previously Twitter: ‘Unhappy information about The Physique Store. Nonetheless considered one of my fave jobs ever after I was a pupil, labored weekends Oxford St & Kings Rd in late 90s.
‘Met some superb folks (cool celebs too) & fell in love with skincare & make-up.’
One Londoner wrote: ‘If the physique store in centre court docket (Centre Courtroom Purchasing Centre in Wimbledon) goes I’ll truly cry.’
Arrange in 1976 by the late Dame Anita Roddick, the corporate turned well-known for it is no-nonsense moral buying and selling ethos and refusal to check merchandise on animals.
Well-liked merchandise which helped set up the model’s identify included bathtub bombs, White Musk perfume and hemp hand cream.
There was an outcry on social media in response to the information of The Physique Store coming into administration
The shop grew into an eco-friendly, socially accountable, politically outspoken chain of 1,700 outlets, working in 49 markets world wide. Dame Anita is pictured above in 1984
Protesting in opposition to animal testing was a key enterprise goal for the model, with Anita main the resistance
Redefining magnificence requirements was one other key goal for The Physique Store, with the target of creating ladies really feel comfy in their very own pores and skin
In 2012, British actress and mannequin Lily Cole (pictured) turned the model’s first world ambassador
Nonetheless in recent times it has seen its recognition within the UK with buyers diminish because of the rise of rivals Lush and Holland and Barrett, and a rising on-line market of cheaper options.
The agency additionally fell out of favour with some consumers after being bought to L’Oreal for £675million by Dame Anita in 2006 – a transfer that shocked many who noticed the sale to a big company as working counter to the corporate’s values.
The Physique Store modified arms once more in 2017 when the French cosmetics big bought it to Brazilian cosmetics maker Natura&Co for €1billion.
It was then purchased by personal fairness agency Aurelius simply weeks in the past for £207million.
After buying the model, Aurelius mentioned that ‘regardless of the difficult retail market there is a chance to re-energise the enterprise to allow it to make the most of constructive developments within the high-growth magnificence market.’
However the transfer to maintain up with the likes of Lush and Rituals has additionally seen the agency seemingly transfer away from its do-gooder origins.
Mark Constantine, co-founder and chief government of Lush, informed the Sunday Times the Physique Store had moved manufacturing to the Philippines beneath L’Oreal’s possession, pushing up earnings.
Mr Constantine, who was a significant provider to the Physique Store in a earlier position, mentioned: ‘You possibly can’t cheapen every part, take away the values and take extra revenue with out the shoppers noticing and going elsewhere.
‘They misplaced that feeling one bought when shopping for a Physique Store product – that you just had been serving to to alter the world.’
It has since emerged that the enterprise has inadequate working capital and suffered from a poor Christmas interval of buying and selling. Aurelius solely took management of the agency on January 1.
That month, The Physique Store claimed that almost all of its enterprise stemmed from mainland Europe and Asia – and has since bought these companies to an unnamed investor.
It informed Retail Week in January that the transfer ‘additional prioritises the Physique Store’s strategically vital markets and world head franchise associate relationships, which it is going to search for alternatives to construct.
‘The Physique Store will even concentrate on extra successfully reaching prospects by strengthening digital platforms, growing new gross sales channels, and by way of differentiated retail experiences.’
MailOnline has approached The Physique Store and Aurelius for remark.
Anita Roddick: Excessive Road pioneer who constructed £51m fortune then gave all of it away earlier than she died
Founder Dame Anita Roddick pictured in 1984
Based in 1976, The Physique Store was one of many first cosmetics firms to ban using substances examined on animals and to advertise truthful commerce with growing nations.
This was largely to its founder, Dame Anita Roddick, who was a human rights activist and environmental campaigner.
She was an avid campaigner for environmental and social points, together with involvement with Greenpeace and The Large Difficulty.
In 1990, she based a charity referred to as Youngsters on the Edge, which helped deprived kids in Japanese Europe, Africa and Asia.
She based The Physique store to earn an earnings for her and her two daughters whereas her husband was away in South America. Upon her husband’s return, he joined the enterprise.
By 2004, The Physique Store has 1980 shops, greater than 77 million prospects and was voted the second most-trusted model within the UK – advert the twenty eighth high model on this planet.
However that very same 12 months, Roddick was identified with liver cirrhosis as a result of hepatitis C. She did not reveal this till 2007.
She was an avid campaigner for environmental and social points, together with involvement with Greenpeace and The Large Difficulty
She introduced it by saying: ‘I’ve hepatitis C. It’s kind of of a bummer, however you groan and transfer on.’
Subsequently she promoted the work of the Hepatitis C Belief and raised consciousness for the illness.
Roddick was mentioned to consider she turned contaminated with Hepatitis following a blood transfusion after the start of her youthful daughter. This was twenty years earlier than the UK screened blood donors for the illness.
She tragically died of an acute mind haemorrhage in September 2007. Earlier, she had sworn to go away her fortune to charities reasonably than her households and mates – a promise she remained true to.
The businesswoman was at all times adamant she had no intention of ‘dying wealthy’ and her Will revealed she had given away her total £15million fortune to charity earlier than she died.
When she died, the gross worth of her property was £665,747 which was swallowed up by inheritance tax, leaving her internet value at nil.
She had beforehand described leaving cash to your loved ones as ‘obscene’ and lower her daughters Sam and Justine out of her will in 2005, which Sam referred to as a ‘aid’.
