Staff in Croydon store wait to hear their fate, while Foot Locker announces it is moving to bigger premises
The future of another shop in the Whitgift Centre is under threat, following the collapse into administration this week of The Body Shop.
Retail decline: The Body Shop in the Whitgift Centre will remain open while the company is in administration
The Croydon store, on the main mall in the increasingly decrepit and vacant shopping centre, is among 200 outlets which could close after the company’s financial collapse, with a possible loss of 2,000 jobs.
Early suggestions are that at least half of all Body Shops face closure.
The Body Shop was an innovative cosmetics, skincare and perfume company when it was founded in Brighton in 1976 by environmentalist and human rights campaigner Anita Roddick.
The retailing malaise of the past two decades had caught up with the company in recent years, and it is less than three months since it was taken over by a private equity company.
Aurelius, the German company that bought The Body Shop for £207million in November, said it had been unable to revive the fortunes of the business after dismal trading over Christmas and new year.
The company, Aurelius said, had “faced an extended period of financial challenges under past owners, coinciding with a difficult trading environment for the wider retail sector”. They would “consider all options to find a way forward for the business and will update creditors and employees in due course”.
On the hoof: Foot Locker is moving elsewhere on North End
Last month Aurelius closed down the direct sales business, The Body Shop at Home, and sold off its stores in Europe and parts of Asia.
Next has been reported as possibly interested in taking on The Body Shop brand. But some reports have suggested that The Body Shop’s distinctive ethos would make it more difficult to work as a subsidiary brand, when it demands that the details of its ethical sourcing were properly communicated.
“If you stick a few products on a shelf in Boots you would lose the magic,” an industry the source was quoted in The Guardian.
The business will continue to trade in administration, “ensuring customers will be able to continue to shop in-store and online for their favourite products”, the company said in a statement.
Meanwhile, another long-established Croydon store is on the move, with sportswear store Foot Locker set to move to bigger premises on North End this month.
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our near 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, which is featured on Google News Showcase and followed by 16,000 on Twitter/X, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
