You recognize this store by its aroma.
Mall concourses have been synonymous with The Body Shop’s sometimes-overpowering scent of satsuma soaps and coconut body butters for decades. The scent is almost as iconic as the food court.
With 110 freestanding stores in Canada, the beauty and cosmetics chain with its headquarters in the United Kingdom boasts over 3,000 retail outlets throughout 70 countries. Teenagers and young adults who raved about the store’s tea tree oil line and sought out naturally based components gave it cult-like popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s.
However, The Body Shop International is apparently appointing administrators, a move that might result in job losses and store closures, just a few weeks after the company was purchased by private equity firm Aurelius Investment.
If a business can’t pay its bills, it can shield itself from creditors and legal action by placing it into administration.
According to Kai Li, a finance professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business and the Canada Research Chair in Corporate Governance, the action is very normal when a private equity firm assumes ownership and wants to earn profit and eliminate losses in a very short amount of time. Li spoke with CBC News about this.
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Furthermore, she added, the retail sector in the United Kingdom is beginning to feel the financial effects of Brexit.
