The Body Shop Files For Bankruptcy, Shuts All US Operations, Closes Stores in Canada

The Body Shop, a UK-based cosmetics company, has shut down all of its US-based operations and will soon be closing dozens of Canadian store locations as the company files for bankruptcy, according to a CNN report.

Earlier this month, The Body Shop had said its US subsidiary was no longer operational, effective March 1.

The company also said that 33 of its 105 stores in Canada will begin liquidation sales immediately and “online sales via Canada’s e-commerce store will stop”, but that all Canadian locations will remain open for the time being, CNN reported.

The report also said high inflation in recent years has hurt traditional retailers, particularly those like The Body Shop that predominantly operated out of malls and were aimed at the struggling middle class.

The Body Shop was founded in 1976 in the UK by human rights activist and environmental campaigner Anita Roddick. It was one of the first companies to prohibit testing on animals for many of its products.

In 2019, it was certified as a ‘B Corp’, a designation given to companies that meet certain transparency and environmental conscientiousness standards.

By 2023, it had expanded to more than 2,500 retail locations in more than 80 countries and was available to purchase online in more than 60 markets.

Since its inception, The Body Shop has changed hands several times. It was purchased by cosmetics giant L’Oréal in 2006 for more than a billion dollars, before being sold to Brazilian company Natura in 2017 for another billion dollars, according to the CNN report.

The brand has been ailing in recent years. In an early 2023 report, Natura noted that The Body Shop was “(facing) headwinds” with a year-over-year decline of 13.5 per cent in 2022, a year the company said “was far from easy” for the brand. Its direct-to-consumer channels, which had “benefitted during Covid”, returned to “more normalised pre-pandemic levels”, further impacting sales numbers, Natura said.

Moreover, late last year, The Body Shop was sold to asset management group Aurelius for about $266 million, according to the CNN report.