The 50-year-old British chain skin care and beauty brand The Body Shop has gone bankrupt.

Recently, the once beauty giant and the global large-scale chain British skin care and beauty brand The Body Shop (The Body Shop) has once again welcomed a sad scene: declared bankruptcy.

In mid-February, The Body Shop announced that the British company was "financially difficult and forced to enter the bankruptcy process", and it is expected that 200 stores in the UK and more than 2,000 employees will be affected. Subsequently, the German branch also submitted a bankruptcy application, and businesses in Belgium, Ireland, Austria, and Luxembourg are also expected to enter the restructuring process.

Although The Body Shop claims that this bankruptcy proceeding will not affect the global network, the latest news is that French stores have been affected: the supply of 59 sales points and 7 franchised stores has been suspended, and the March salary payment of 260 French employees has been affected. The website has also entered "maintenance mode". However, the business in Singapore, Malaysia, and China has not been affected for the time being.

In addition to closing stores, The Body Shop is currently looking for buyers for all or part of the business. At the end of January, insiders revealed that the parent company agreed to sell most of its loss-making international businesses (including France and Germany) to a family office. Another latest news is that Next, a British high-street fashion retail chain giant, also shows interest in this and has made contact.

Counting it up, this is the fourth time that The Body Shop has been sold. Previously, beauty giants L'Oreal, Natura & Co, the largest beauty product manufacturer in Brazil, and private equity firm Aurelius have taken over successively. Unfortunately, none of them were able to turn the tide. During this period, it also attracted a joint bidding from private equity funds CVC and Investindustrial and Ma Yun's family fund.

What is even more depressing is that now that it has declared bankruptcy, it is only three months since The Body Shop was transferred from Natura's hands. As one of the most well-known high-street brands in the world, The Body Shop was once very prosperous.