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Casc Study: The Body Shop International PLC26IntroductionTowards the end of 1975, Anita Roddick set off to go shopping with her twosmall children in her local town, Littlehampton, in Sussex. As a young mother,this was something she did frequently. Littlchampton is on the south coast, afew miles west of Brighton and like most other small English towns, it has arange of shops and stores. That morning Anita Roddick needed to buy fruit andvegetables at the greengrocer and wanted to buy some cosmetics at Boots, thechemist. The children wanted her to stop at the sweet shop on the way.As a direct result of an idea that came to her during that shopping expedition,Anita Roddick was, twelve years later, the Managing Director of The BodyShop International, a company worth over 70 million. Her husband, Gordon,was Executive Chairman.

I know everyone wants to think that it is like an act of God. That you sit downand have a brilliant idea. Well, when you start your own business t docs notwork like that. I remember walking through Littlehampton with the kids, onein a pushchair and one walking beside me. Wc went into the sweet shop, theninto the greengrocer and then to Boots. In both the $weet $hop and thegreengrocer I had choice. I could buy as much, or as little, a$ wanted. I couldbuy half a pound of gob-stoppers or a kilo of apples, the quanti tics were up tome. In Boots I sud,del1ly hought, 'What a $hame that I can't buy a$ ittle a$like here too. Why am I stuck with only big size$ to choose from? If I'm tryingsomething out and don't like it, I am too intimidated to return it, so I'm stuckwith it.' That one thought, that single reaction was me voicing a need, adi$appointmcnt with thing$ a$ they were. But if that'$ a nccd I have, lot$ ofother women mU$thave the same nccd, I thought. Why can't wc buy $mallcrsize$ -like in the greengrocer$'?By the end of 1987,The Body Shop had 93 shops in the UK, from Abcrdccnto Exeter, and over 180 in twenty-two countries around the world. Thc companywas truly international, with shops as far a field as Canada, Australia, Dubai,l-folland, Singapore and Sweden. By the end of the 1988 11nallcialyear thccompany hopC$ o have 220 ovcr$cas outlets and n~arly 110 n the UK.Thc Body Shop$ sold $oaps, facial cleansers, toners and trcatmcnt$, pcrfumcoils, hair shampoos and trcatments, hair colourings, skin crcams, bath oils,lotions, sun preparations and other spcciality products. Thcy wcrc all naturally-based with exotic-sounding names such .15 Goat's Milk with l-Ioncy Soap,Pineappl~ Facial Wash, White Grapc Skin Tonic, Eldcrllowcr Eyc Gcl, Sca-

weed and Birch Shampoo, Peppermint Foot Lotion and I"{aspbcrry l"{ipplcBathing Bubbles.


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Paul Burns 57The backgroundAnita Lucia Roddick, nee Perella, was born in Littlehampton in 1942, thedaughter of Italian immigrants. Her parents came from Monte Cassino andsettled in Littlehampton to run the Clifton Cafe. Her father died when she wasten and the four children helped their mother to run the cafe. After leaving thelocal secondary school, she went to Bath College of Education where she took athree-year teacher training course. She started teaching, which she enjoyed, butwanted to try living abroad. She applied for a job with the United Nations inGeneva and was given a post at the Bureau of Travail Industriel.As a young child, she had never had a holiday, so with the tax-free money sheearned in Geneva, she decided to spend a year travelling round the world. Shevisited Polynesia, New Caledonia, Australia and Africa. In Tahiti she wasinterested by the local women who plastered themselves with what looked likelumps of lard. It was, in fact, cocoa butter; half the cocoa bean is used forchocolate and the other half is used as a local cosmetic. In Morocco she sawwomen washing their hair in mud. Thus her interest in the use of naturalingredients for cosmetic purposes was aroused.

She returned to England, tired of travelling, and met Gordon Roddick. Hehad graduated from the Royal Agricultural College of Cirencester in 1962 andhad farmed overseas and in the UK before settling in Littlehampton. They weremarried in 1970. Although they originally had ideas about travelling overland toAustralia and buying a pineapple plantation, the arrival of their two childrenmade them put this idea aside. Instead, they bought and ran a restaurant inLittlehampton and later bought a small hotel.Then, in 1975, the thought that came to Anita Roddick in the chemist's shop,combined with her interest in natural cosmetics, gave her the idea that was to bethe basis of The Body Shop concept. In March 1976, Anit~ and Gordon"-Roddick opened their fir~t tiny ~hop in Brightoll. It had ,~leaking roof ,1nd ugly,unpainted walls. Anita Roddick decided that garden lattice, made of larch,would cover up the unsightly parts of the interior. Thcy were painted green toreinforce the natural ingredients of the products. The shop had lots of pineshelving and a range of about a dozen inexpensive cosmetics, all herbal creamsand shampoos, sold in simple packaging. In order to fill the spaces on theshelves, pot plants were placed between the products.The money to open the ~hop had not come from any enterprise scheme orbu~inc~~ development 10,ln. Nor did the I{oddick~ h,lVCany succcs~ n convinc-ing the b,mk~ they vi~itcd th,lt AI1it,I'~ idea wa~ a good one. To rai~c any moneyfrom a bank, they had to put up their small hotel and restaurant in Littlehamp-ton as collateral. Evcn then, ,Ill they could borrow W,IS 4,000.

Thc early yearsAnita chose the name 'The Body Shop' because she rcmcmbered thinking whata good name it was, when she had first seen it in the USA several years earlier.She had bcen struck by the fact that the thousands of garages across America


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58 Strategies or Success and Routes to Failurecall their car repair workshops 'the body shop': 'I was just taken by the nameand, years later, it was absolutely right for what we were going to do.'Howcvcr right it was, it caused some problems whcnthc sllop first opened. Itwas in a tiny, cobbled backstreet in Brighton and was sandwiched bctwccn twoundertakcrs' cstablishmcnts. Both protcstcd at thc name of their ncw ncigh-bour's shop and a planning appcal f~llowcd. Howevcr, Anita I~oddick wonBrighton Council's backing for the usc of the name. But this cpisodc was lessembarrassing than the mcn, in rather dirty raincoats, who mistook it for a scxshop in its early months.Not that these wcre the only trials and tribulations. Anita I~oddick had founda cosmetic herbalist by looking through Ye/low Pase.)'. Unfortunately, theclderllowcr cream still had some flower husks in it and thcre were small pieces ofcucumber in thc cleansing cream. Evcn thc ink which had bccn used to handwrite the labcls on thc bottlcs started to run. Dcspite thcsc problcms, though,the shop took 130 on its firs.t day.

About a month after the first shop opcned, Gordon Roddick left for SouthAmerica. He had long-established plans to ride a horse across the Americas,from Bucnos Aires to New York; he expected to be away for two years. Beforehe left he gave Anita Roddick a yardstick by which to measurc SUCCC$S:You'vcgot to takc ovcr 300 per week to covcr all yo.ur ovcrhcads and to bc able toinvest in more stook. If you don't takc 300 a week, give it up and come overwith the kids and join me in Lima!' there was never any nccd to takc up thcoffer; from the reaction of the local press and the shop's early customers, it wasclear that Anita Roddick's concept was going to work. Within a m.lttcr ofmonths, she had taken the decision to open another shop, this timc furthcr westalong the coast, in Chichcster. Meanwhile, in South Amcrica events had notbeen going according to plan and Gordon Roddick rcturncd prcm.lturcly to thcUK. He too could tcll that they had a successon their h.mds. In Novcmbcr 1976,The Body Shop was legally incorporated and the second shop opcncd.At this stage, thc I~oddicks were faced by the problem of funding cxpan~ion.One of thc biggest dangers was that the idea itself was transfcrablc and succcsswould only come from developing the brand name and reputation bcforc othcrsentered the market. Clearly, they did not have the cash hcmselvcs o invest in arapidly expanding number of outlets, nor did they havc thc managementinfra!;tructurc to cope with a large number of stores. It was Gordon l{oddickwho suggested he idea of franchising.Franchising, as a method of setting up branded storcs and shops in cities andtowns across hc country, had been growing fast in the USA during thc 1960s. Inthe UK therc were still relatively fcw SUc11chemes n operation, although oneof the most obvious was thc chain of Wimpy fast food outlets. During thc 1970s,howcvcr, fr.lllc11ising grew and new n.lmcs such as Kall Kwik .llld Prol1taprintstarted to appcar in high streets up and down the country. If Thc Body Shopcould expand as a franchise, thc growth could be f.lst cnough to secure themarket that the Roddicks were dcveloping.In October 1977, he first Body Shop franc11iscwas opcncJ in Uognor I~cgi~by Lee and Aic!rie Bowles, a mothcr and daughter team. This W.IS rapidlyfollowcd by a franchise in Hove and another in Blcnhcim Crcsccnt, off Por-tobello Road in London. In the early part of thc folll)wing y


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Paul Bums 59franchised outlet was opened in Brussels and in October 1978 he first substan-tial overseas franchise was opened in Stockholm. .

The concept .Although Anita Roddick's decision to open her first shop had been sparked offby the need to buy cosmetics in variable quantities, the final concept broughttogether different strands of thought.First, the decision was taken to focus closely on the ingredients themselves.Although the 1970s had seen a rise in health consciousness and a wideningawareness of the value of natural ingredients in food, this decision was not partof the health food fad. Rather, it was the result of Anita Roddick's interest innatural ingredients as a result of her visit to different places around the world.She also felt a distaste for the synthetic, chemical compounds sold by themultinational cosmetic companies.This same distaste extended to what she regarded as the. falsely glamorouspackages used by other cosmetic companies. Anita Roddick wanted plain andsimple packaging for The Body Shop's products. She had always disliked thefact that, in her view, the men who ran the big cosmetic companies regardedwomen as easy prey for such flimsy substance as glossy packaging. Instead. theBody Shop products came in clinical plastic bottles with plain labels. In order tomini mise costs still further, The Body Shop did virtually no adve!tising.Because the company wanted to avoid the cost of advertising, the decor anddesign of the shops themselves assumed great importance. This was particularlythe case because strong branding was' important to the franchising operation.Thc distinctive logo and deep green decor became essential ingredients, as didpine :;hclving and 'thc ambience of a sweet shop'. Thc attractive retailingenvironment was .In integral part of providing the products with .1 shop tothemselves, rather than being sold at point of sale in a he.uth shop which was thefate of other natural ingredient products.Most products were sold in five basic sizes; trial, small, medium, large andeconomy. With testers for use in the shops, shoppers could check whether theythought they liked the product before purchase. Thcy could then try the smallsize and graduate to the larger sizes when they wanted to economise on price.The idea of offering refills originated in the early days of the first shop, whenAnita Roddick ran out of containers. It subsequently proved a unique sellingpoint.The company claimcd that it was unique in its method of selling the products:'We use high quality ingredients in very modest containers. We keep prices at avery reasonable level by avoiding costly advertising, fancy packaging, and mostimportant of all, by offering the refill service.'

Environmental consciousnessAnita Roddick had clear views on a number of issues. Whilc she was a teacher.she had worked for Shelter. a charitable organisation which hclped thc homc-


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60 Strategies for Succej'j' a/ld Routej' to Failureless. As a rcsult shc always borc thc lcss well-off scctors of soci..:ty n mind wh..:npricing her products. She also felt strongly about environmental issues.The company's literature stressed that every part of the product was formu-lated by their herbalists and chemists with a purpose in mind. Thc thcrapcuticvalue of the ingredients was carefully considered in the selection process.Wherever possible, the company sought to get as close as possible to the naturalsource of each ingredient, with particular consideration being given to offeringalternatives to other products 'which cause needless suffering to animals'. Allthe company's products were biodegradable 'to ensure that there is no danger tothe environment in either their production or disposal'.In terms of customer service, the company underlined that it was he only onein Europe which offered a refill service to shop customers on selected bottleproducts in order to 'minimise pollution of the environment and maximise costeffectiveness'. Finally, to reinforce the environmcntal consciousness of thecompany, the product catalogue made the point that the products were 'testedwithout cruelty to animals'.

Method of operationAs the company developed, a distinctive method of operation evolved whichwas to provide the basis for its future success.Product developmentFrom the start, product development was the special responsibility of AnitaRoddick. Initially, she was heavily involved in developing the company's firstproducts with the herbalist she had found in Yellow Pages. Subsequently, sheworked closely with the herbalists and chemists employed by the company andwith the growing number of suppliers as well as with a variety.of independentconsultants. As the company grew, she travelled extensively, visiting overseasoutlets. She took the opportunity provided by this travel to add to her know-ledge of indigenous natural ingredients. Wherever she wel1t, she investigatedlocal usage of available products, whether it was mustard oil in India or aloes inMexico.M anufaclurillgFrom the start, subcontractors were used for most of the preparations. In 1982,when the company moved from Littlchampton, its new premises provided somemanufacturing facility. When production started at thc ncw l~ustil1gton prc-mises, it was mainly restricted to shampoos, bath oils and otltcr higlt volumcitems from thc rangc. Howcvcr, by 1984, wltcn tltc company again planncd tomove to ncw prcmiscs, it was decidcd'tltat more production could be donc bythe company itself. At that timc, two subcontractors accounted for about 38 pcrcent of the products, one of them being Creighton Laboratorics, a companywhich had worked with Thc Body Shop since 1976. It was company policy to


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Paul Burns 61have two or morc subcontractors for each product, and the company held theformula for all its products. It was a point of some pride that 95 per cent of thecompany's products were made in UK. In 1984, a licence was granted to aCanadian manufacturer to improve supply to the North American market.Nevertheless, essential ingredients were still shipped from the UK.DistributionThe main activity undertaken by the company was distribution. The companyneither manufactured the majority of its products, nor did it own other than asmall proportion of its outlets. Warehousing and distribution was the coreactivity and a sophisticated computerised stock control system was used toensure that these operatiolls were conducted with the maximum efficiency. Thecompany used its own transport in the south-east region of the UK, butelsewhere subcontractors were used.Marketing

Advertising and marketing costs formed only a small part of the company'sexpenditure. Heavy use was made of public relations to avoid the need foradvertising, although local advertising was used when a new branch opened.The company made little or no use of market research because there was a highdegree of customer contact as well as regular exchanges of information andideas between the franchisees and central management. The company's ownshops provided it with direct access o its customers and enabled it to maintainclose contact with its purchasing public. Anita and Gordon Roddick regardedthese shops as 'model' shops and used them to test new design ideas. Anotherreason for not needing market research was the low cost of launching a newproduct. Before a new product was launched, samples were sent to franchiseesand managers of the company's own shops for personal testing. This proved tobe a very successfulway of testing the likely success of a product. After this,supplies of a new product could be made available at selected shops where theopportunity for customers to sample the product, prior to purchase, gaveimmediate feedback on consumer reaction.Retail ol{tlet~.The average size of the shops grew as the range of products expanded. The earlyshops were often only 300-400 sq ft and in secondary sites. After the companywent public in 1984, it became increasingly possible to find prime sites with800-1000 sq ft in major retail centres.The environment for each shop was carefully chosen. The shops had to attractpeople from the street. identify The Body Shop and offer an atmosphere thatwas relaxing and inviting. Products and information had to be displayed clearlyand allow cfficient customer now. It was felt that if the shop failed on any ofthese counts, customers would feel dissatisfied and shopping would be lessenjoyable. The shop facia was regarded as critically important in identifying The


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62 Strategies or Success and Routes to FailureBody Shop against he competition. Thc typeface, colour and symbol along withcarefully considered proportions served to project the company's idcntity in theHigh Street.The materials used in the shop interior were intended to rcflcct honesty ofmanufacture and presentation, with simple structures, open displays and n


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Paul Bums 63As the company grew, so did the typical franchise outlet. Initially, they weresmall and tended to be tucked away on secondary sites. As they moved to primeHigh Street positions, franchisees had to develop a more sophisticated aware-ness of design, a more professional approach to management and a willingnessto reinvest. The relationship between the company and its franchisees was seenas one of interdependence, with neither beIng able to succeed without the other.

TrainingSales assistants were often seen by customers as advisers. They would be askedabout skin or hair care, product ingredients or which product they wouldrecommend. The Body Shop Training School was established in 1985 andregular training was held at the Company's head office as well as the GreatMarlborough Street shop in London. Courses included' Appreciation of TheBody Shop Philosophy', 'Product Information', 'Customer Presentation Tech-niques' and' Ageing'. Experts were invited to come and speak on subjects asdiverse as the myths of the cosmetics business and the value of newly-discoveredingredients. It was ntended that staff should become aware of and responsive tothe changing needs of society and, in particular, understand and support the'unique role of The Body Shop as g powerful voice on environmental issues andthe cosmetics industry'. Managers were seen as having additional needs andthey attended specialist management courses on motivation and leadership.Over.\"ea'jrtmchiseFor overseas franchises, the company's policy was to appoint a head franchiseefor an individual country or group of countries. 'The head franchisee was thengranted exclusive rights as the registered user of The Body Shop trade mark andas thc distributor of Body Shop products. Again, thc ~lgrccit1cntwas for ~Ipcriodof five years and could be terminated or renewed in the same way as the UKfranchises. When the he~ld ranchisee had two or more shops of his or her ownand ~Isuccessful two-year record, he or she would be allowed to subfranchise.This was not ~Ilwaysadhcrcd to bccause the quality of head franchisee appointedby thc company was high ~lnd he dclays slowed the growth of the company'sexpansion in both number of outlets and volume of exports.Efficient and well-motivated head franchisees were seen as the most success-ful method of sccuring rapid dcvelopmcnt for the comp.lny. Sclcction ~lndmonitoring of subfranchisees were left to head franchisecs although, ~Igain, hecompany reserved the right to approve all subfranchisccs and insisted onreceiving regular financial inform.\tion from the he~ld ranchisees. Standards ofdesign,and the maintenance of shops were similar to those which applied in theUK.

'l'11crc wcrc, howcvcr, some clcar dirfercnces between domestic UK fr~\n-chises and ovcrseas franchises. No franchise fee or annual opcrating fce waschargcd by thc company to its ovcrsc~ls ranchisees. The re.lson for this was thatprolit$ wcrc $ccn as Ic$s important in thc short term than the exploit.ltion of theconccpt in over$easmarkcts. Profits would /low from product sales once shops


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64 Strategies or Success and Routes to Failurewere established. Other differences wcrc that liquid products wcrc generallyexported in volume containers, to be bottled and labelled locally and thatoverseas franchisees did not need to stock the full range of Body Shop products.

The company's growth and developmentBy 1979, The Body Shop was turning over more than 250000 and making apre-tax. profit of 8 per cent. During 1980 and 1981 howevcr, although turnovergrew to 580000 and 828000 respcctively, profitability fell; pre-tax profits in1980 were 4.6 per cent and in 1981 dropped to 3.7 per cent. Thc rc.\son for thiswas that the Roddicks were investing heavily for the future.The number of company-owned shops and franchises continued to grow andby 1981, the number of overseas outlets was catching up with the number of UKshops.

1976 1977 /978 1979 1980 1981UKOverseas 2 41 9281 155 2218

As the company grew, ~o did the nccd for management infrastructure. In 1981,Eric Helyer joined the company from Gala Cosmetics. He was appointedGeneral Manager with responsibility for purchasing, production, warehousingand distribution. Gordon Roddick looked. after finance and Anita I{oddickconcentrated on product development and the retail operation.In March 1982, the company moved from its original premises in Littlchamp-ton to new offices and warehouse facilities in Rustington, West Sussex.The newsite had 17000 sq ft and included space for a head office, warehousing and asmall manufacturing and packaging plant. At the same time, Keith Tiffanyjoined the company as Financial Controller and Company Secretary. He tookover responsibility for finance, administration and the development of acomputer-based warehousing system.Although the company started to manufacture a 5mall proportion of BodyShop products during 1983, in early 1984 t acquired and converted an additional5000 5q ft of adjoining premises in order to increase its manufacturing capacity.At the time, 85 per cent of products were 5till madc undcr subcontract and thecompany hoped to reduce this to 75 per cent with the addition of its newf.lcilitic~. EVCl1 It thi5 5t.lgC of it$ growth, thl: cumpallY ul11y :111pluy..:u5 fulltime staff.

In April 1984, The Body Shop went on to the Unli5ted Securities Market(USM) in a placing by Capel Cure Myer5. It was the first retailing franchi~eoperation to be floated on the USM. In an interview with the Fil/Clllcial1Imes.Gordon Roddick gav..:hi$ rca$on$ for ~ccking a USM quotc: 'We wcr..: attractcdby the advantage5of a high profilc, cspccially bccau5e of our High Strcct image.It also improved our credibility. We became contcnder$ for prime retailingpositiol15 with people who would have 5hown us the door a year before.' The


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65aul Burnspublicity surrounding the company's entry to the USM boosted sales by between25 per cent and 30 per cent.Just over one million shares were offered to the public at 95p each. Thecompany was therefore capitalised at 4.75 million. Anita and Gordon Roddickboth sold shares, as did their first backer, Ian McGlinn. After the floatation, theRoddicks each owned 18.8 per cent of the business and Ian McGlinn owned37.65 per cent. A further 7 per cent' of the equity was reserved for thefranchisees who ran the stores. The comparatively small number of sharesissued, meant that despite a prospective price earnings ratio of 24, the sharesopened at 160p, a premium of 65p. By the end of the first week's trading on theUSM, the share price had nearly doubled to 195p and by early May was tradingat over 200p. Almost immediately after the issue, rumours abounded that thecompany would be the subject of a take-over bid. Both Gallaher and BritishAmerican Tobacco were rumoured to have expressed an interest. Since theRoddicks and Ian McGlinn between them controlled 75.2 per cent of the equity,it was relatively easy o reject the unwanted attention of bidders. The two primecandidates were seen as odd suitors for a health-conscious, ecologically-mindedconcern.At the time of the floatation, the company had 43 shops in the UK and 56outlets overseas and the product range was continually expanding. In 1983, bathproducts were introduced and sponges, combs, brushes and make-up accesso-ries were merchandised under the Body Shop logo. The Christmas trade wasenhanced by adding gift packs to the range of products. Altogether, thecompany produced and marketed 160 different preparations.In 1985, Anita Roddick was voted the Veuve Cliquot 'Business Woman of theYear'.As the company's international operations expanded, it became clear thatexpertise in this area was needed and Dr Johannes Oosterwij~ was appointed asa non-executive Director to advise on the expansion of European operations.Plans were developed to improve distribution in Eu~opc and in 1985 a newwarehouse was established in the Netherlands to accelerate distribution to thatcounty as well as France and Germany. The growth of the company's operationsreached a point where it was estimated that each week a million customersvisited the company's shops round the world.When the company joined the USM, its financial year end had changed toSeptember and the first results were eagerly awaited in January 1985. The390000 profit forecast made in the prospectus at the time of admission turnedout to be a considerable underestimate. Pre-tax profits for 1983-4 were 1.04mon a turnover of4.9Im. The company's shares were trading at 450p. The BodyShop was hailed throughout the financial press as one of the USM's greatestsuccess stories.In order to continue their expansion, Anita Roddick saw the need to educatethe public about the type of products the company sold. In October 1985, amuch publiciscd book, 'The Body Shop Book', was launched in time for theChristmas trade. The book sold well in the company's own shops. with 12000hardback copies being sold in a relatively short period. However, a spokesmanfor W. H. Smith at the time commented, 'It hasn't matched up to our expecta-


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66 Strategies or Success and RouteJ' to Failuretions. We put money bchind it to promote it for Christmas bccausc wc thought itwould be a big seller. But it wasn't. We rcally don't know why.'In January 1986, Body Shop Intcrnational moved from the USM to full listingon the Stock Exchange. It announccd an 85 pcr ccnt incrcase in prc-tax profitsto 1.93m, on turnovcr up from 4.91m to 9.36m. In order to incrcasc thcnumber of shares available on the market, a onc-for-one scrip issuc was madc.In addition, because 1 minimum of 25 pcr cent of a company's sharcs must bcavailable to the public for a full listing, Anita and Gordon Roddick sold afurther 5 per cent of their shares. Thc share price in the markct stood at 815p,which meant that the valuc of this placing of thcir sharcs was 2m. It also mcantthat in lcss than two years thc company's m.lrkct capitalisation had grown from4.15m to over 40m. The numbcr of outlets for the company's products hadalso been rising in line with profitability.

6 1II01ltlls to31.3.87841672513219

198122184031

1982323062114

1983435699275

19844983132

1043

1985721201921929

1986761552313451

UKOverseasTolalProfit (OOOs) "-

Continuing rapid expansion of The Body Shop chain meant that in July 1986,the company was able to move into new warehousing and manufacturingpremises built on a greenfield site of four acres outside Littlehampton. Itprovided a factory building of 50000 sq ft, complete with technical facilities, alldan office block of 10000 sq ft for occupation in October 19S6.Thi~ W.I~enoughcapacity to service 500 outlets compared to the 190 outlets which W.IS hemaximum that could be serviced from thc original Rustington premises. Duringthe year, the senior management team was strengthened further by the appoint-ment of a new Retail Operations Manager, Clive Henwood from W. H. Smith.In addition, new appointments wcre also made to middle management posi-tions.As the year progressed, two new product ranges were added. In September1986, The Body Shop launched a range of cosmetics, called 'Colourillgs'. Thcywere designed by make-up expert Barbara Daly, who specialised in make-up forthe rich and famous, including the Princess of W.llcs. Barbara Daly and AnitaI~oddick had met in 1983and become firm friends. Despite approaches by othcrlarge cosmetic companies, Daly had always refused to design a range ofco~mctic~ until ~he met Anita I~ouuick.The Colourings range was the first cosmetic range put together by women andwas the first entirely new make-up range launched since Biba cosmetics weremarketed in 1970. The cosmetics were formulated and manufactured withoutanimal testing and natural product~ wcre used wherever possible.In November, a new range of shaving cream, after-shave and talc waslaunched under the 'Mostly Men' brand name. Although it was expected thatthis range would bc purchased by women for their boyfriends and husbands, thccompany was dclighted to find that in the prc-Christmas period, it .Ittracted men


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Paul Burns 67into The Body Shop to purchase the products for themselves. In a furtherdevelopment during 1986, the company opened two new shops of its own. Theywere in prime sites, one in Oxford Street in London and one in Terminal 2 atHeathrow Airport.In January 1987, the company announced that profits for the year to Septem-ber 1986 were up 79 per cent to 3.45m on a turnover of 17.39m. The ratio ofnet debt to shareholders funds was only 5 per cent. The number of outlets hadrisen to 83 in the UK and 153 overseas. During 1986n, .1nother 16 UKfranchises .1nd30 overseas outlets were scheduled. The Indepcndcnr, comment-ing on the figures, stated that 'In the UK, the practical ceiling is probably 300and the company should be there in five or six years. But overseas the potentialseems almost boundless, for Body Shop has a retailing concept that is genuinelyinternational -something few other UK retailers could claim.' In February1987, The Body Shop shares stood .1t 1225p. On 1st July 1987 Mr Stuast RoseW.ISappointed Director to he.ld up Corpor.lte Strategy and Planning for thecompany's continued growth.

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