L'Oreal, the world's largest maker of cosmetics, has announced it may make an offer for Body Shop International Plc, the U.K. retailer of natural cosmetics started by Anita Roddick. Body Shop's share price gained around 13 percent on the news.
Bloomberg reports that L'Oreal are on the verge of making an offer for Body Shop:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=a2oqPfXIeh50
quote:
"Body Shop isn't 'the wacky, ethical business it once was and has been going upmarket in recent years, selling more expensive skincare, so an approach from cosmetics giant L'Oreal isn't that big a surprise,' said Nick Bubb, an analyst at Evolution Securities in London.
Note that L'Oreal still test on animals, despite the purported "ethical" stance in their marketing:
http://www.naturewatch.org/shoppingguide/loreal_facts.asp
Two possibilities arise from this. Either:
a) Body Shop will become L'Oreal's "ethical" brand, to tap into the lucrative liberal middle-class guilt market
b) Body Shop will quietly drop their "Against Animal Testing" commitments, and adopt instead the same weaselly "but we never test on animals any more than we need to" line that L'Oreal currently pitch.
The arguments for and against medical testing on animals are complex and need not be run through again here. But torturing animals so that you can wear your favorite brandname cosmetic is indefensible.
It's no surprise that "ethical" capitalist outfits like Body Shop, Ben & Jerry's etc. sell out as soon as the payout from a suitor megacorp is big enough. But it's doubly sickening to see body Shop entertaining offers from animal torturers like L'Oreal.
Anita, enjoy your payout: you stand to gain around 180 million dollars from the sale. It's good to see you don't plan to sell yourself too cheap.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=a2oqPfXIeh50 quote:
"Body Shop isn't 'the wacky, ethical business it once was and has been going upmarket in recent years, selling more expensive skincare, so an approach from cosmetics giant L'Oreal isn't that big a surprise,' said Nick Bubb, an analyst at Evolution Securities in London.
Note that L'Oreal still test on animals, despite the purported "ethical" stance in their marketing:
http://www.naturewatch.org/shoppingguide/loreal_facts.asp Two possibilities arise from this. Either:
a) Body Shop will become L'Oreal's "ethical" brand, to tap into the lucrative liberal middle-class guilt market
b) Body Shop will quietly drop their "Against Animal Testing" commitments, and adopt instead the same weaselly "but we never test on animals any more than we need to" line that L'Oreal currently pitch.
The arguments for and against medical testing on animals are complex and need not be run through again here. But torturing animals so that you can wear your favorite brandname cosmetic is indefensible.
It's no surprise that "ethical" capitalist outfits like Body Shop, Ben & Jerry's etc. sell out as soon as the payout from a suitor megacorp is big enough. But it's doubly sickening to see body Shop entertaining offers from animal torturers like L'Oreal.
Anita, enjoy your payout: you stand to gain around 180 million dollars from the sale. It's good to see you don't plan to sell yourself too cheap.
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