Coop embraces Body Shop

The Body Shop stores in Switzerland have been taken over by Coop, the country’s second-largest retailer.

Coop, which announced the takeover on Tuesday, did not disclose how much it had paid to take over the 37 cosmetic and beauty supply shops.

Ivan Levy, a founder and owner of The Body Shop Switzerland, will remain at the helm of the company and all 192 employees will keep their jobs.

As for organisation, The Body Shop will operate as a separate enterprise with a three-member board. Joos Sutter, head of Coop’s trading division, will take over the chairmanship and work to integrate the beauty supplier into the greater Coop umbrella.

The Body Shop was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick in Britain and is known for natural products and social activism. Today it has about 2,800 stores scattered around more than 65 countries.

The Body Shop Switzerland started in 1983 and has turnover of more than SFr30 million ($25.6 million).

Coop has 1,800 shops and 53,000 workers in Switzerland. It had SFr19.7 billion in turnover in 2009, giving the group 17.2 per cent of the country’s market share. In addition to food stores, Coop also has petrol stations, building supply centres and home-electronics shops.

swissinfo.ch and agencies