Body Shop to shut 75 stores – including seven in Scotland – with 489 jobs axed

The Body Shop is set to close another 75 stores, including seven in Scotland with the loss of 489 jobs.

The high street skincare and cosmetics giant tumbled into administration earlier this month and now more jobs will go within the next six weeks.

The stores at East Kilbride, Edinburgh Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Princes Mall, Glasgow Fort, Glasgow Silverburn, Glasgow Station and Perth are among those closing.

Administrators from FRP Advisory said the latest closures will take place over the next four to six weeks as part of a heavy restructuring aimed at preserving the brand.

Last week, the retailer shut seven shops in its first phase of restructuring after confirming plans to close nearly half of its then-198 UK outlets.

The latest announcement will leave the retail firm with 116 stores across the UK.

Administrators said the closures will bring its store estate in line with industry rivals and will support “a return to financial stability”.

Tony Wright, joint administrator, said: “In taking swift action to right-size The Body Shop UK store portfolio, we have stabilised the business and are providing the best opportunity for this iconic brand to have a long-term, sustainable future.

“The UK business continues to trade in administration, and we remain fully focused on exploring all options to take the business forward.”

The insolvency specialists stressed they will support all affected staff with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.

The business had employed around 1,500 store workers before the administration.

It was announced last week around 270 head office jobs would be cut, leaving around 400 workers at The Body Shop’s London headquarters.

It hired administrators, who will assess offers for the brand and its assets, after years of financial struggles and amid a challenging backdrop for shoppers.

The Body Shop was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick and her husband Gordon as one of the first companies to promote so-called ethical consumerism, focusing on ethically produced cosmetics and skincare products.

The dramatic overhaul comes only weeks after European private equity firm Aurelius took control of the business.

The new owners, who specialise in buying and turning around troubled firms, secured a £207 million deal in November to buy The Body Shop from Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura & Co.

It only took control of operations officially on January 1.

Aurelius agreed a deal late last month to sell the company’s operations in most of mainland Europe and in parts of Asia to an international family office in a “decisive step towards delivering a strong turnaround strategy” at The Body Shop.

The full list of 75 Body Shop stores set to close

The administrators of Body Shop have announced the closure of a further 75 shops and said that 489 people will lose their jobs.

The closures listed below come on top of seven others announced last week.

Four of the seven shops that shut last week were in London: Surrey Quays, Oxford Street Bond Street, Canary Wharf and Cheapside.

The other three were in Nuneaton in Warwickshire, Ashford Town Centre in Kent, Bristol Queens Road in Bristol.

The list of the next 75 shops that will close:

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Banbury, Oxfordshire

Barnstaple, Devon

Basildon, Essex

Battersea, Greater London

Bedford, Bedfordshire

Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire

Bexleyheath, Greater London

Blackburn, Lancashire

Blackpool, Lancashire

Bournemouth Commercial Rd, Dorset

Bolton, Greater Manchester

Brixton, Greater London

Broughton Park, Cheshire

Bury, Greater Manchester

Camberley, Surrey

Carlisle, Cumbria

Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire

Chippenham, Wiltshire

Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Croydon, Greater London

Didcot, Oxfordshire

Durham, County Durham

East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire

Edinburgh Gyle Centre, Midlothian

Edinburgh Princes Mall, Midlothian

Epsom, Surrey

Fareham, Hampshire

Farnborough, Hampshire

Glasgow Braehead, Lanarkshire

Glasgow Fort, Lanarkshire

Glasgow Silverburn, Lanarkshire

Glasgow Station, Lanarkshire

Grimsby, Lincolnshire

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Harlow, Essex

Hastings, East Sussex

Hempstead Valley, Kent

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire

Ilford, Greater London

Ipswich, Suffolk

Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight

Islington, Greater London

Kendal, Cumbria

Kings Lynn, Norfolk

Leeds White Rose, West Yorkshire

Lewisham Centre, Greater London

Lichfield, Staffordshire

Loughborough, Leicestershire

Luton, Bedfordshire

Macclesfield, Cheshire

Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire

Morpeth, Northumberland

Newton Abbot, Devon

Northampton, Northamptonshire

Oldham, Greater Manchester

Perth, Perthshire

Peterborough Queensgate, Cambridgeshire

Portsmouth, Hampshire

Regent Street, Greater London

Salisbury, Wiltshire

Stafford, Staffordshire

Stansted Airside, Essex

Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

Swansea, Glamorganshire

Telford, Shropshire

Thanet, Kent

Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Wakefield Trinity Walk, West Yorkshire

Walthamstow, Greater London

Wigan, Greater Manchester

Woking, Surrey

Wolverhampton, West Midlands

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