In Brief: The Body Shop PLC
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
The Body Shop PLC: Projects pretax profits for fiscal 1996 in the U.S. to be "a little below the level achieved last year," the firm said March 4. The Body Shop explained that it was "working hard at building retail sales" in the U.S., where "performance remains disappointing." The company predicted, however, that the "resources that we now have in place in product development, marketing and retailing will start to come through in the year to February 1997." The firm also said that The Body Shop founders Gordon and Anita Roddick will not put forward a proposal to take the company private. The Roddicks explained that "raising the money was not the issue" rather "the considerable level of borrowings required would have impaired our flexibility in funding the company's future global growth and retail innovation." The company's board conducted "preliminary discussions" with the Roddicks in October ("The Rose Sheet" Nov. 6, p. 10)...