Who owns The Body Shop?

A group of investors led by Auréa does. Auréa is a private equity firm founded by Mike Jatania and Paul Raphaël, and it bought The Body Shop out of administration on 7 September 2024. Mike Jatania now runs the business as well.

The company you buy from today is not the one Anita Roddick started. That company, founded in 1976, went into administration in February 2024 and is being wound up under another name. The shops that stayed open, the brand and the staff moved to a new company, which then took the old name.

How did it get here?

Anita Roddick opened the first shop in Brighton in 1976. L'Oréal bought the company in 2006, in a cash takeover reported at £652 million, and sold it to the Brazilian group Natura in September 2017 in a deal that valued it at €1 billion.

Natura sold it on to the investment firm Aurelius. That deal was announced in November 2023 at a value of £207 million, £90 million of which depended on future performance, and it completed on 29 December 2023.

Six and a half weeks later, on 13 February 2024, the UK company went into administration. It had 197 shops in the UK. The administrators, from FRP Advisory, closed 84 of them and made 850 people redundant while they kept the rest trading and looked for a buyer. They approached 87 parties. The sale to the Auréa-led group completed on 7 September 2024. The administrators put the price at £44.3 million, with a further sum possible depending on sales, and say the deal kept more than 1,300 jobs in the UK.

What does the register show?

The shops and the website are run by The Body Shop International Limited, company number 15859787. Despite the name it is a new company. It was incorporated on 26 July 2024 as The Body Shop Group Limited and took its present name that September. Its registered office is at Watersmead in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

Its owner is The Body Shop Holdings Limited, company 15856010, which also owns The Body Shop Brand Limited, the company that holds the trade marks.

The shareholder list filed with the holding company's confirmation statement of 23 July 2026 shows four holders. Two Jersey limited partnerships, both acting through a general partner called Aurea Fund 1 GP Limited, hold about 62% of the shares between them. Saffron Capital Pte. Ltd holds about 29%. A private individual holds the rest, a little under 10%.

The register of persons with significant control reads differently. Its one current entry is an individual, resident in Singapore, recorded as holding between a quarter and a half of the shares, directly or indirectly. No Auréa company appears on it. The holding company's own accounts say that control passed to "the Aurea Investment Group" on 7 September 2024, and that the directors consider there to be no ultimate controlling party. We could not square those three statements from the public filings, so we report all three.

The 1976 company is still on the register as TBSI Realisations Limited, company 01284170. It was in administration from 13 February 2024 to 12 February 2026 and has been in creditors' voluntary liquidation since. In their final report the administrators estimated that unsecured creditors would receive between 25p and 38p in the pound, and said about 200 employment tribunal claims from former staff were still outstanding.

Who is Auréa?

Auréa describes itself as a specialist private equity firm investing in beauty, wellness and longevity, based in London and New York. Its founders are Mike Jatania, who ran the family-owned Lornamead business until it was sold in 2013, and Paul Raphaël, a former executive vice chairman at UBS. Their UK company, Auréa Group Holding Limited, is controlled by the two of them, each recorded as holding between a quarter and a half.

The Body Shop shares themselves sit in the two Jersey partnerships, and we could not see who the investors in those partnerships are. Press reports in December 2024 said that Sir Tom Hunter's West Coast Capital had invested alongside Auréa. Its name is not on the shareholder list, and we have not confirmed how any stake is held.

Part of the rescue was financed by borrowing. A lender in the Hilco group took security over the business on the day of the sale. That security was released in August 2025, when a facility from IGF Business Credit replaced it.

Who runs it now?

Mike Jatania. He became executive chairman when the sale completed, and chief executive as well in July 2025, when Charles Denton left after ten months. Denton, a former chief executive of Molton Brown, had been appointed chief executive at the rescue. His small shareholding was bought back and cancelled that September.

The directors of the operating company today are Jatania, Raphaël and Juri Zuravljov of Auréa, who joined the board in March 2026.

How is it doing?

There are no trading accounts to go on yet. The new company's first trading period runs to 31 December 2025, and those accounts are not due at Companies House until the end of December 2026.

Trade press reported in June 2026, following a newspaper interview with Jatania, that the accounts were expected to show earnings of more than £24 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, against a loss the year before. That is a management figure reported at second hand, and nothing has been filed.

The company says it has more than 100 shops in the UK. Its own store list had 110 entries when we counted them on 1 October 2026. That compares with 113 reported at the rescue and 197 when the old company went into administration. It opened a new shop on Oxford Street in October 2025. In June 2026 Jatania was reported as saying it was unlikely to open many more, and that it was looking at selling through other retailers as well.

Is The Body Shop British?

It was founded in Britain and is run from Britain, and the companies that own the shops and the brand are registered in England.

The ownership is less tidy. The largest holdings are in Jersey partnerships under the Auréa name, whose two founders are British. About 29% belongs to Saffron Capital. The one person on the control register lives in Singapore. So it is British-run, with owners in several places, and we would not call it simply British-owned or foreign-owned.

Is The Body Shop a franchise?

Not in the UK, on the evidence we found. The administrators described the UK shops as leased and run by the company itself, and the company's privacy policy treats in-store sales as its own and franchisees as separate businesses.

Abroad it is mostly a franchise business. When the old company failed, it traded through 20 markets it ran itself and 68 run by franchise partners. Several of its own country businesses then failed too, including those in the United States, Germany, France and the Netherlands, and some have since reopened under local licence holders.

Is The Body Shop still a B Corp?

It did not appear in B Lab's public directory of certified B Corps when we searched it on 1 October 2026. Its owner at the time said in November 2023 that it had been certified since 2019, and trade press reported in May 2024 that B Lab had opened a review after the change of owner and the administration. We found no statement from B Lab or the company about how that ended.

Is The Body Shop independent?

Not by our verified independent badge, which marks a locally and privately owned business rather than a chain, a franchise or a private equity estate. The Body Shop is a national chain of more than 100 shops, owned by an investor group led by a private equity firm, so each shop is a branch.

The useful label is national chain, private equity owned. For the same shelf under a different kind of owner, see who owns Lush, whose founders once made products for The Body Shop.

Questions people ask

Does L'Oréal still own The Body Shop?

No. L'Oréal owned it from 2006 and sold it to Natura in September 2017. It has changed hands twice more since.

Does Natura still own The Body Shop?

No. Natura sold it to Aurelius at the end of 2023, six and a half weeks before the UK company went into administration.

Did The Body Shop go bust?

The original UK company did. It went into administration on 13 February 2024 and has been in liquidation since February 2026. The shops that stayed open, the brand and the staff were sold in September 2024 to a new company, which is the one trading today.

Who founded The Body Shop?

Anita Roddick, who opened the first shop in Brighton in 1976.

Last checked 1 October 2026. This article uses the Companies House records, registers of persons with significant control and filing histories for The Body Shop International Limited (company 15859787), The Body Shop Holdings Limited (15856010), The Body Shop Brand Limited (15882647), TBSI Realisations Limited (01284170) and Auréa Group Holding Limited (15625871); the shareholder list in the holding company's confirmation statement of 23 July 2026; its accounts for the period to 31 August 2024, including the notes on control; the administrators' proposals, progress reports and final report filed for the old company, and the notices in The Gazette; the charges registered against the new companies; Auréa's own website and its announcement of 7 September 2024; L'Oréal's announcements of the 2017 sale and Aurelius's of the 2023 purchase; The Body Shop's own terms, privacy policy and store list; B Lab's directory; and trade press reporting of the 2006 price, the management changes, the June 2026 interview and the overseas businesses. What is not claimed: who the investors in the Jersey partnerships are, or who owns their general partner; why no Auréa company is on the control register; who is behind Saffron Capital; the size of any West Coast Capital stake; any profit or sales figure for the new company, since none has been filed; an exact shop count; whether every UK shop is run by the company; and how B Lab's review ended. The two private individuals who appear on the control register and the shareholder list are not named here. If you spot something that needs correcting, email Highstreett and we will review it.