The Body Shop enjoys nine-month growth

The company owning the franchise for the British brand The Body Shop on the Romanian market, Gingko & Sarantis Romania, has this year closed one of its shops, located on the Magheru boulevard, Bucharest, because of the high rent.

“The shop was closed at the moment the 5-year rental contract expired, since the owner requested a rent increase of almost 100%, and the shop would have this way logged losses,” stated Dana Tudorache, general manager of the company. Gingko & Sarantis Romania until that moment had paid a monthly rent of 8,000 euros. Tudorache chose not to disclose the name of the owner of this property. “We chose to stay in this contract for five years due to the visibility of the area, and not because the sales we derived there were strong ones,” Tudorache also specified. In line with data released by the real estate company Eurisko, the price of rent in Magheru area ranges between 30 and 120 euros per square metre. There are five The Body Shop stores in Romania, 3 of which are in the capital city, one in Timisoara and one in Constanta.

Investments per shop amount to 150,000 euros, and the company plans to open at least one additional shop in 2006. For these locations, the company”s representative says it pays rents of less than 8,000 euros.

The Body Shop imports natural cosmetics and personal care products. Of these, 30% are made up of body care products and 11% of perfumes.

The company registered turnover of 1.2 million euros in the first nine months of the current year, 13% higher than the result budgeted for at the beginning of this fiscal year.

“In 2005, we”re targeting sales worth 1.5 million euros, a sum which we estimate will be exceeded, and for 2006 we have budgeted sales standing at 1.8 million euros,” stated Tudorache. andreea.groenendijk@zf.ro