Customer loyalty keeps Body Shop sales buoyant
Body Shop posted strong sales figures today as consumers remained loyal to the brand after its decision to sell the business to cosmetics giant L’Oreal.
The ethical products firm came under fire following the deal in March because of the French firm’s use of animal testing – something Body Shop founder and green campaigner Anita Roddick opposed throughout her 30 years in charge.
But Body Shop today said the criticism had not hurt business, with like-for-like sales in the eight weeks to April 22 up 5% – ahead of the 4% growth rate across the whole of last year.
It came as Body Shop posted a 5% increase in pre-tax profits for the year to February 25 of £37.6m (€54.8m).
The results were in line with figures forecast by the company in January when it downgraded previous hopes following a poor Christmas.
Roddick rejected criticism that the beauty chain was getting into bed with the enemy following the proposed sale to L'Oreal for £652.3m (€951m).
Critics pointed to L’Oreal’s record on animal testing and the fact that it is 26.4% owned by Nestle, one of the most boycotted companies in the world.
But Roddick said the deal was a chance to help the world’s poor as L’Oreal wanted Body Shop to teach it about fair trade.
And a Body Shop spokesman today said: “As we can see from current trading, our customers continue to shop with us and buy our ethical profits.
“Body Shop has the highest ethical standards, particularly when it comes to animal testing, and that is not going to change at all. The results were in line with our expectations and the current trading looks pretty good.”
Body Shop added that it was aware of the feelings of protest groups and said there had been “a limited number of small protests”.
But it pointed to a recent award from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) as a sign that it had not lost its heritage.
Body Shop was hit by tough trading conditions in the UK and US over Christmas but today reported a 7% increase in total sales to £772m (€1.1bn) for the year. It has 2,000 stores in 54 countries.
