Body Shop, the

Employing about 10,000 people in some 2,500 stores in over 60 countries, and selling well over 1,200 different beauty products around the globe, The Body Shop International is the second largest cosmetics franchise in the world. Founded by Anita Roddick in 1976, the company's corporate vision was greatly influenced by its founder, who wrote in her book Body and Soul, “There is no power on earth apart from business capable of making the changes we desperately need for the continued survival of the planet.” Since its inception, the company has pushed hard to become known as a “green company,” avoiding animal testing, seeking fair trade practices, cutting carbon emissions, using only recycled packaging materials, among many initiatives geared toward a sustainable business model. After spectacular growth during its first decade and a half, The Body Shop went through several ups and downs in its attempts to expand its business model to countries like the United States and Germany, and experienced growth rates that were significantly below expectations.

Serious losses forced the company, in the late 1990s, to give up on production of cosmetics, and instead concentrated merely on sales. Shortly before the death of the founder, but following a renewed period of growth, the company was sold in 2006 to the L'Oréal Group. In order to retain its value-based identity, it continues to be headquartered in the United Kingdom and operates independently within the L'Oréal Group.

The company seeks to be a leader not only in promoting greater corporate transparency, but also in representing a force for positive social and environmental change. [Page 40]As such, the company pursues campaigns around the world that are ground in five core values:

• Opposing animal testing
• Supporting community fair trade
• Defending human rights
• Activating self-esteem
• Protecting the planet

The Body Shop's key distinctive proposition is that it is against animal testing—every product is vegetarian and animal-cruelty free. It was the first cosmetics brand to be recognized under the Human Cosmetics Standard against Animal Testing Policy. The company also believes in fair trade policies—in the 1990s, it set up a fair trade program called “Community Trade” that works with 30 suppliers in more than 20 countries, providing over 25,000 people around the globe with essential incomes to sustain themselves. A charitable wing, The Body Shop Foundation, was started in 1990 to aid pioneering front line organizations that otherwise could not find funding. In 1997, the company's founder launched a global campaign to raise self-esteem in women and against the media stereotyping of women, with a particular focus on the socially pathological emphasis on skinny models, leading to massive increases in bulimia and anorexia victims. It has also focused on human and civil rights issues and environmental and animal protection.

The Body Shop is a proponent of greater corporate transparency and positive social and environmental change. Here, a Body Shop store in Oslo, Norway

Source: Nenad Bumbic/Wikipedia