Case Summary
The Body Shop International case is an interesting case study into the miscommunication of owners and stockholder interests with regard to financial conditions. Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop had no financial experience and thought that all she needed to do was expand her business and the financing would take shape as she developed her business. While Anita’s product concept of a natural skin-care line was good; her lack of experience in financial matters took its toll on her business.
The growth expansion of the firm was too rapid and sales, margin and stock prices began to decline as a result. The growth rate quickly declined as competitors such as Bath & Body Works flooded the market. This decrease in market share led to poor decision making by the owner. The Body Shop quickly saturated the market and began to dilute their brand name. It quickly became a mass-market line franchised to every suburban shopping mall and street corner.
In 1998, many attempts to strategize the company were employed by both Anita Roddick and Patrick Gourney. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Revenues continued to growth; however, pre-tax profits still declined in the years that followed. In 2001, Gourney attempted to reinvent the company and employed several strategies that continued to fail by suggesting increased investment is stores, and attempted to achieve operation efficiencies by reducing product and inventory costs.
Case Analysis
While analyzing the data for The Body Shop International case, I noticed some trends and have compiled my assumptions for the next three years. I have compiled pro-forma statements for the fiscal years 2002, 2003 & 2004. These figures are based on the per ...