Former The Body Shop Chief Executive David Boynton hits out at unfair UK business headline narrative

David Boynton, former Chief Executive at The Body Shop, has taken to social media to counter what he views as an unfair narrative around the troubled high street retailer’s UK business.

The UK arm of The Body Shop was put into administration recently, a couple of months after it was bought up by Aurelius, a German private equity firm.

It is set to shut up to half of its 198 stores in the UK and cut the size of its head office, leading to hundreds of job losses. The cuts would "help re-energise" the brand, administrators have said.

In a LinkedIn post, Boynton, who was at The Body Shop from 2017 to 2023, said: “I can’t believe The Body Shop is gone from our high streets! Well … notwithstanding my sad picture taken in Cheapside as two blokes loaded products into green tote boxes … IT ISN’T!! “

“Sorry for using shouty capital letters … but there’s a headline narrative out there that The Body Shop has sadly gone out of business (for a bunch of different reasons, depending on what you believe), and it isn’t true.”

The reality, he insisted, is that The Body Shop UK is not in administration because it is failing; and it will live on into the future.

Boynton commented: “The UK business has always been highly profitable and the vast majority of stores make money. The figures that often get referred to in the media from Company House accounts about big losses, reflect the global business … not the UK.”

“The profit ratios in 2023 even showed an improvement on the previous year, thanks to cost reduction measures started in Q1 ‘23.”

He added: “The administration of The Body Shop is NOT a story of a failing brand or the failing UK high street.”

“It is a story of a group of people finding entirely legal, opportunistic ways to get tax payers, landlords and other small suppliers to fund a restructuring plan (that will presumably allow the owners to exit with a huge upside in the future). And sadly, as I am hearing from former colleagues, there is a real human cost to this.”

“That’s not to say the high street isn’t under pressure - from the squeeze on consumers and the lack of a level playing field in taxation… That is an important story … but it’s not the story here.”

The current owners and administrators did not respond to our request for comment.