PRESS: Next mulls rescue bid for ailing beauty chain, the Body Shop

Mon, 26th Feb 2024 09:36

(Alliance News) - Next PLC has approached administrators to the Body Shop about a potential deal to purchase parts of the stricken cosmetics chain, according to a report on Saturday.

Sky News said executives from the Leicester, England-based retailer have contacted FRP Advisory to express an interest in acquiring assets as part of any sale process it decides to launch.

Next is understood to have been monitoring the Body Shop for some time, but people close to the FTSE-100 company confirmed that it had expressed an interest in assembling a deal, Sky said.

https://news.sky.com/story/next-weighs-move-for-stricken-cosmetics-chain-the-body-shop-13079757

Sky said there were doubts that FRP, which was appointed to handle the insolvency of the Body Shop in the UK earlier this month, would elect to run a conventional auction, with one source suggesting that contact between FRP and Next had already stalled.

The Body Shop, is a Littlehampton, England-based cosmetics retailer founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick and her husband Gordon.

It was one of the first companies to promote so-called ethical consumerism, focusing on ethically produced cosmetics and skincare products.

In November 2023, it was acquired by European private equity firm Aurelius in a deal valued at GBP207 million.

Next has picked up a number of distressed retail businesses in Britain in recent years.

Among the brands it has acquired are Fat Face, Joules and the online furniture retailer, Made.com.

It has also snapped up Cath Kidston and JoJo Maman Bebe, the maternity wear retailer, while it has struck partnerships with Victoria's Secret and Gap.

Shares in Next eased 0.2% to 8,426.84 pence each in London on Monday morning.

By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

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