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Body Shop branch in Berlin

Photo: Schoening / IMAGO

Shortly after the cosmetics chain The Body Shop filed for bankruptcy in Great Britain, the brand's German sales and licensing company also filed for bankruptcy. The company The Body Shop Germany GmbH submitted a corresponding application to the Düsseldorf District Court on Wednesday, according to court announcements.

The Düsseldorf District Court appointed Biner Bähr from the law firm White & Case as the provisional insolvency administrator. Bähr told the magazine that he now wanted to get an overview of the situation.

According to the information, The Body Shop Germany GmbH sold natural cosmetic products in 66 of its own stores as well as online and, to a smaller extent, through franchise branches and shop-in-shop locations in the 2021 financial year. In that year, the company recorded sales of around 23 million euros in Germany and employed more than 350 people.

The Body Shop group was taken over by the Munich financial investor Aurelius a few months ago. On Tuesday, the British subsidiary applied for creditor protection proceedings. It was expressly stated that businesses in other countries would not be affected.

The chain has around 200 branches in Great Britain. The company is currently present in 89 markets and generated sales of 791 million euros in 2022 with 7,000 employees. The company's headquarters are in London.

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Founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick and her husband Gordon, The Body Shop was one of the first companies to focus on ethically produced cosmetics and skin care products and to avoid animal testing in the production of their products.

Aurelius, based in Grünwald near Munich, paid 207 million pounds (around 243 million euros) to the Brazilian company Natura in November for The Body Shop. At that time, around 10,000 people worked for the group worldwide. The brand previously belonged to the French group L'Oréal.

Recently, Aurelius agreed to sell the company's operations in most of mainland Europe and parts of Asia to an asset management company. For 2022, The Body Shop reported a pre-tax loss of £71 million on sales of £408 million.

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