The Body Shop?

The Body Shop

• In the early 60's there was a company on shattuck avenue in Berkeley, California called The Body Shop. It was owned by a couple who produced and sold natural beauty products for women. For several years, I was a customer of this shop which was housed in a small building that held a number of Berkeley entrepreneurs.I ended up opening my own boutique in Los Angeles several years later and for a period of time carried The Body Shop's products. It was a pleasant surprise when I ran into the products again some 25-30 years later. The really big surprise was that these products were the supposed brainchild of a British woman, who says The Body Shop is her idea which she had imported from England to America. Now I know for a fact that products under The Body Shop I frequented in the 1960's and 70's were created and sold by a middle-aged couple in a small building owned by a collaborative of 60's hippy entrepreneurs in Berkeley. To do business in California the couple had to have had a business license from the state of California and a sellers permit from the city of Berkeley. I was involved with the company between the years of 1968 thru 1973. I had assumed this person had simply bought the original business or was perhaps is the relative of one of the original founder/owners. Is this simply case of coincidence? The new Body Shop's menu of products mimics the menu of natural products from the 1960's company, I am enormously curious how this has all happened. I would love to see a biography of the current owner and the company I would appreciate if any information on the California company which was called THE BODY SHOP in the late 1960's and 1970s. I would also like a current business address or even an email address for the current owner so that I might relate this story to her. I understand that she is a strong environmentalist and the company is committed to products that are environmentally safe. This is simply a personal curiosity. Thanks

• Answer:

  Hi saabster, There were two separate businesses named "The Body Shop," one in California, and one in England. The Body Shop you knew in California was founded in 1970 by sisters-in-law Jane Saunders and Peggy Short. The English Body Shop was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick. An article by Jon Entine from the Toronto Globe and Mail's Report on Business Magazine says that the English Body Shop's name, products, and concepts were modeled on the California company's. The Body Shop International corporation denies these claims. As one who has seen both, you can judge this for yourself. http://www.jonentine.com/articles/bodyflop.htm In 1979, the founders divided the California company. Ms. Saunders and her daughters Ann and Kathy took the wholesale division, while Ms. Short took the retail stores. In 1987 or 1988, the California businesses sold the Body Shop name to the English Body Shop, which wanted to expand in the United States. Ms. Saunders and daughters are still in business as A.K.A. Saunders, Inc., producing the TerraNova line of natural bath and body care products. http://www.terranovabody.com/about/ The California retail business is also still going under the name of Body Time, with six stores, owned and managed by Ms. Short's daughter Manda Heron. http://www.bodytime.com/history.html And, of course, The Body Shop International plc is still operating, with stores in 50 countries and annual retail sales of £699,500,000, according to the 2004 annual report. http://www.thebodyshopinternational.com/web/tbsgl http://www.thebodyshopinternational.com/epages/wizard/images/CLIENT81090596402356_lg.pdf Shares of The Body Shop International are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange; there is no single owner. The web site has a contact page; you may or may not be interested in writing to a corporation. http://www.thebodyshopinternational.com/web/tbsgl/contact.jsp My colleague Pinkfreud has given you a link to founder Dame Anita Roddick's autobiographical note on her website. The website's contact page has an email address for Dame Anita. If you register on the site, you can also comment on entries in her weblog. http://www.anitaroddick.com/contact.php http://www.anitaroddick.com/index.php Additional Links A historical article about the Berkeley-based Body Shop from the Berkeley Daily Planet http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?archiveDate=02-03-04&storyID=18201 A Timeline of Fashion notes the founding of the California Body Shop in 1970 http://www.timelines.ws/subjects/Fashion.HTML Search Strategy Search terms used included: "body shop" natural products berkeley "body shop" history products "body shop" natural beauty berkeley contact "anita roddick" "body shop" short saunders roddick "body shop" berkeley short saunders roddick I hope this answer satisfies your curiosity. If you need any further information, please ask for a clarification, and I will see what I can find. Regards, --efn