Sale lacking in body for UK shoppers

LONDON - The sale of the Body Shop to the French cosmetics giant L'Oreal last month has dented the reputation of the high street retailer once vaunted as the champion of ethical beauty products.

An index that tracks public perception of more than 1000 consumer brands has found that "satisfaction" with the Body Shop has slumped by almost half since the deal by its founder, Anita Roddick, to sell the company to L'Oreal for £652 million ($1.86 billion).

Roddick, who vowed to give away the £130 million ($372 million) she made from the sale, was accused of abandoning her principles by accepting the deal with L'Oreal, which is the world's largest cosmetics producer and has not abandoned animal testing.

Campaigners against animal testing and the Swiss multinational Nestle, which has a 26 per cent share in L'Oreal, called for a boycott of the Body Shop.

The daily BrandIndex found that since the announcement of the deal three weeks ago, the Body Shop's "satisfaction" rating had dropped by 11 points to 14.

The chain's "buzz" rating, a measurement of a brand's trendiness, fell by 10 points to minus 4 and its general impression fell by three to 19.

Campaigners against Nestle, which was recently voted the world's least responsible company in an internet poll, said the Body Shop was paying the price of allying itself with the Swiss giant.

Mike Brady, co-ordinator of Baby Milk Action, which campaigns against Nestle, said: "This brand has been damaged, perhaps terminally, by linking itself to the world's "least responsible company".

"As people abandon Body Shop for companies with higher 'ethical scores', rather than put money in Nestle's coffers, it is ethical business, their suppliers and employees who are the winners."

Roddick last month justified the sale by saying that L'Oreal wanted to learn from the Body Shop's commitment to the environment and human rights in business.

The French company has insisted its record on vivisection is above criticism since it has not carried out or commissioned tests on animals or products or ingredients since 1989.

But it admits that a "very small amount" of ingredients used in the manufacture of some of its products have been tested on animals to meet safety standards.

While the Body Shop and its "cruelty free" brands have signed up to a benchmark introduced by mainstream vivisectionists to allow consumers to ensure their products have not been tested, L'Oreal has refused to follow suit.

- INDEPENDENT