Advisory Board
 |
Testimonials
Partners
 |
Key Partners
 |
Industry Poll
Which of the following new emerging markets do you think will show the fastest growth over the next 5 years?
Knowledge Centre
Arc Worldwide, Leo Burnett Group report
Financial Times World Retailing Report
IBM The Performance Manager
WPP - Retailing in the Recession
Global Retail 250 Website Index Report
WGSN Berlin City Guide
A demandtec eBook: nextGEN of Merchandising & Marketing Customer Insights
IBM Smarter Consumer Report
WGSN Think Tank Consumer Forecast: Consumer Attitudes 2011
WGSN What’s In Store Visual Merchandising Analysis: VM Overview March 2010
Hall of Fame Biographies
Body Shop Ethical entrepreneur Anita Roddick was for many years the most famous businesswoman in Britain. At its height, her Body Shop empire had more than 2,100 branches in 55 countries and her genius lay in pioneering funky, naturally based beauty preparations and in developing a new market that capitalised on growing worries about animal testing and the way products were sourced. Her flair for publicity made her the chain’s public face although she always acknowledged that her self-effacing husband, Gordon — who devised the franchise system that spawned the global network of outlets and also oversaw the finances — was as crucial to the company’s success as she was. Born Anita Lucia Perilli in Littlehampton, West Sussex, in 1942, she was the daughter of Jewish-Italian immigrants who ran a café. When she was nine her mother divorced her husband and married his cousin Henry. He died from tuberculosis within a couple of years and only when she turned 18 did her mother tell her that Henry was, in fact, her real father and that she had been the product of a passionate affair. She started working life as a teacher but quit her job to travel the world, working in Paris and Geneva, and spending some time among the islands of Polynesia. On her return, she met Gordon Roddick at a nightclub run by her mother in Littlehampton. The couple married in Reno in 1970 after the birth of their first daughter, Justine. They then hit the hippy trail before returning to Littlehampton, first to run a bed-and-breakfast business, then a restaurant called Paddington’s. After the birth of their second daughter, Samantha, Gordon Roddick announced that he wanted to fulfil a childhood ambition by riding a horse from Buenos Aires to New York, which he thought would take about two years. Anita gave her husband her blessing and before he left he helped her to negotiate a £4,000 bank loan, which she used to open the first Body Shop in Brighton in 1976. By the time Gordon returned, Roddick had the world in her sights. She became Business Woman of the Year, was honoured by universities on both sides of the Atlantic and appointed OBE in 1988. The company’s flotation in 1985 made Roddick the fourth-richest woman in the UK but by the late 1990s trading problems in the US and attacks on The Body Shop’s ethics hit its share price. In March 2006 the business was sold to French cosmetics giant L’Oréal. The Roddicks made almost £130 million from the sale, of which £30 million went directly into her foundation. She devoted her time, money and energy to her charitable commitments, including the efficient diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C, from which she suffered and which eventually killed her in 2007. |
||||
Back to Hall of Fame 
NEW programme available – download today!
Digital Newsletter - Issue 2
Audience Profile 2010
Download the sample delegate list today!
Specialist Briefings at the Congress
Download post 2009 event report
Featured report of the week, courtesy of Interbrand
Only 2 exhibitor places left! Download floor plan today.
Book Accommodation
follow us on Twitter