One day, Anita Roddick found herself alone, as her husband had decided to a live an adventurous life. He had sold everything and left her for South America.
Although she was no longer very young, Anita had to conquer her fears and learn how to make a living on her own. She opened her first cosmetics store 25 years ago. The Body Shop now has 1,840 stores throughout the world.
Romania is the only East European country where The Body Shop operates, although it has only two stores in Bucharest. But Anita may be stepping down, as The Body Shop is in talks with a Mexican company in view of a takeover.
“I want to revolutionise the way of thinking. Our targets are sexism, the body shape and ageing. Our weapon is self-esteem… The revolution begins here.”
These were Anita Roddick’s thoughts when she started her career in cosmetics. Labelled by some as a feminist, Anita was to dedicate herself not only to cosmetics but also to women’s liberation movement.
Her products had to meet three fundamentals: to not harm the animal world or the environment and to fight for self-esteem.
As time went by, Anita increasingly dedicated herself to charity and this was how she came to Romania in 1990 with aids for orphans in Iasi, Pascani and Halaucesti. She founded Children on the Edge through which volunteers from England came to Romania in order to take care of these children.
“It is almost incredible to see they do not choose to spend their holidays elsewhere and come to Romanian orphanages,” Dana Tudorache, executive manager of Body Shop Romania, says. “Children are looking forward to the summer, as they know this is the time when they are pampered and spoiled.”
The Body Shop together with Green Peace is involved in an environment protection project aiming to collect signatures for using green and non-polluting energy sources.
The signatures will be presented to the world’s leaders during the Earth Summit to be held in Johannesburg, 2002. However, these ideas are difficult to implement in Romania.
For instance, Dana Tudorache recollects, they tried to collect signatures for pandas’ protection. But the campaign overlapped with the campaign for stray dogs’ euthanasia, so the result was not a great one.
Explaining The Body Shop concept, Tudorache says it got a foothold by walking against the mainstream in the cosmetics industry. “All of them promise endless youth. So they moved the battle from the field of beauty to the world of self-esteem.”
Although The Body Shop came to Romania soon after the Revolution, the company entered the business in 1999. “They saw the lack of products, they saw that there was no store where one could buy everything for the body,” Tudorache explains the company’s decision to start operations here.
Registered as a stock company called Ginkgo & Sarantis, with two shareholders, Romsar (38%) and The Body Shop (52%), the company has two stores: the first was opened in Bucuresti Mall, while the second is located on Magheru Avenue. The investment for each of the two stores amounted to 100,000-200,000 dollars, Tudorache says.