The Body Shop won’t be the last high street chain to collapse

The collapse of the retail chain The Body Shop marks a new low in the sorry tale of Britain’s shops and their struggle for survival. The brand was put into administration by private equity firm Aurelius only a few weeks after it had been acquired from its former owners Natura & Co for £207 million.

The demise of The Body Shop could see the loss of its 199 shops across the UK and an uncertain future for nearly 2,000 employees – but sadly it is only the latest in a long line of big retail closures. Only last month, Lloyds Pharmacy entered liquidation owing nearly £300 million to its creditors. In 2020, Lloyds was the second largest pharmacy retailer in the UK with over 1,000 community pharmacies across the country.

In August last year, we had the fall of the Wilko hardware chain which filed for administration and looked set to close all 400 of its stores at the cost of 12,500 jobs.