Dame Anita Roddick, the entrepreneur who founded The Body Shop and built it into an alternative to the mainstream cosmetics industry, died on Monday of a brain haemorrhage, aged 64. Dame Anita, who viewed the sale of the retail chain to L’Oréal, the world’s leading cosmetics maker, as an opportunity to change big business from the inside, had been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver after contracting hepatitis C during a blood transfusion while giving birth to her youngest daughter in 1971. Born in Littlehampton in 1942, Dame Anita, a self-described “natural outsider”, founded The Body Shop in 1976. She had an antagonistic relationship with the mainstream cosmetics industry, but she and other key shareholders decided to sell The Body Shop to L’Oréal for £652m in 2006 – a highly controversial move with some shareholders.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 5:37 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with Dame Anita Roddick, l'oreal, The Body Shop. Edit this entry.