Hundreds of jobs to be lost as The Body Shop confirms mass store closures
The Body Shop will close 75 shops in the UK over the coming weeks – including nine in the North West – and cut 489 jobs, according to the firm overseeing its restructuring.
It means that, combined with cutbacks at the retailers headquarters, between 750 and 800 people will be made redundant. The Body Shop will keep 116 UK stores open.
The British arm of the global beauty chain fell into administration earlier this month.
Shops will be closed over the next four to six weeks. North West branches to close are: Blackburn; Blackpool; Bolton; Broughton Park; Bury; Carlisle; Kendal; Oldham; and Wigan.
FRP Advisory, which is managing the restructuring, said it would “support all impacted staff with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service”.
“In taking swift action to right-size The Body Shop UK store portfolio, we have stabilised the business,” said FRP Advisory’s Tony Wright.
“We remain fully focused on exploring all options to take the business forward.”
The Body Shop was first established in Brighton in 1976 by the late Dame Anita Roddick who opened a single shop in the town. She and her husband controversially sold the business to French beauty giant L’Oreal in 2006.
Since then, the brand has changed hands twice, most recently to private equity firm Aurelius in late 2023.
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