Pure Beauty

The Body Shop opens overhauled Stratford concept store

By Alessandro Carrara | Published: 30-Sep-2022

The new East London retail space is the brand's 37th workshop store in the UK, which have designed with dedicated areas to discuss activism in local communities

The Body Shop has opened a newly refurbished concept store at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, London. 

Inspired by the design of artisan workshops, the store features an 'activism hub' designed to enable conversations around equality.

The retail space is the Natura & Co-owned brand's 37th ‘Workshop Store’, which is a new store design from the brand which focuses on sustainability and promoting activism.

The Stratford store opening forms part of an expanding network, with 20 more locations set to open in 2023.

A new refill station design has also been included in the store, which delivers refilled products to customers via a conveyor belt.

The Body Shop has 170 stores around the UK with refill stations, with another 105 stations to open before the end of 2022.

“At our new Stratford store, we want people to get talking, get inspired and get active,” said Maddie Smith, Managing Director UK and Ireland at The Body Shop.

“We want our customers to have fun playing with our products but also have conversations about issues that affect them, helping us campaign to progress equality.”

The 'activism hubs' and workshop stores are designed to reflect the local communities they serve, as well highlight issues such as gender equality and cosmetic animal testing.

The brand’s goal is to also help young people to get involved with TBS and The British Youth Council’s joint campaign for Votes at 16.

“The launch of our workshops is a very practical mission: to change consumer behaviour,” added Smith.

“We want to bring people together to realise they are capable of making small changes that could benefit our communities and the planet.”

The investment into an overhauled retail portfolio comes amid a challenging financial period for the British business, after revenues dropped by 22.9% in its Q1 2022 results.

In the UK, revenues also declined by 26.3% when compared with the same quarter last year.

“The Body Shop faced a particularly difficult quarter due to weak consumer demand in Europe as well as channel mix effect,” said Roberto Marques, Group CEO and Executive Chairman of Natura & Co.

Footfall in stores were also lower when compared with pre-pandemic levels.

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