The Body Shop entrepreneur Anita Roddick has announced that she is selling a £100 million stake in the international cosmetics and toiletries company she founded, and will give the profits to charity.
The 59-year-old environmental and anti-cruelty against animals crusader announced her decision during a trip to Kosovo for the opening of a school funded by her charity Children On The Edge. “People say ‘Give it all away?’ as if you are mad, as if accumulating wealth and just hanging on to it is normal,” she said. “You can’t take it with you… I know that is seen as eccentric, yet to give is the basis of every religion from Muslim to Christian. I see it as my responsibility to give it away and I am completely serious.”
Her husband Gordon, who is co-chairperson of the company, is 100 per cent behind his wife’s decision. “Whatever we do, we want to do something extraordinary with the money. There are so many great charity projects out there,” he says.
Anita, who started the multi-million pound outfit in a small shop in Brighton in 1976 and has always been both a high profile embodiment of the company’s values, will not be stepping down. “Anyone buying the company would still want me involved, my history is a huge motivation for that. I am a powerful worker, generous and totally idiosyncratic. To take away that history would not be on,” says Anita.
Industry insiders believe that her role will decrease after the sale, however, paving the way for an overhaul of marketing and advertising policy. Under Anita’s helmsmanship advertising was kept to a minimum, but changes in market factors have made it increasingly difficult for The Body Shop to compete. The firm’s valuation soared to £700 million in 1992 but is now estimated at half that.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
