Shortly after The Body Shop shut down its operations in the United Kingdom, issues have started to appear in our nation’s branch of the cosmetics chain. Specifically, the store located on the Meir in Antwerp remains closed, and the online store is currently inaccessible.
With the commencement of The Body Shop’s bankruptcy proceedings in the UK earlier this week, thousands of jobs are now at risk. The business has also sought protection from its creditors in Germany, with a curator already appointed, according to a report by the newspaper Bild. The trade magazine Retail Detail has also reported that The Body Shop’s management team in France has not been receiving any updates from the British headquarters, as per the trade magazine LSA.
Despite the company’s recent statement that the UK proceedings would only affect its UK operations and not the rest of its global network, issues have arisen in other countries. For instance, customers were greeted by a closed door at the Antwerp Meir store on Saturday, with a note stating that The Body Shop was “closed for the day”.
Web shops inaccessible
As per LSA, the French, Belgian and Dutch online stores have been inaccessible since Friday morning, citing a “planned interruption”. The company has approximately sixty outlets in France, around twenty in Belgium, and about thirty in the Netherlands.
At the end of last year, Brazilian company Natura Cosmeticos sold The Body Shop to the German investment fund Aurelius for 243 million euros. Interestingly, the Brazilians had originally bought the chain from French cosmetics giant L’Oréal in 2017 for a whopping 1 billion euros.
Not tested on animals
The Body Shop was established in England in 1976 by Anita Roddick, an animal rights activist. Starting with a single store in Brighton, the brand gained popularity for its commitment to selling cosmetics and other products that were not tested on animals. Today, it operates in 89 countries worldwide.
