Business as unusual

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Body Shop opens in the bookshop

The Body Shop has added one more to its 1,500 outlets worldwide, with the launch of a branch in the University bookshop on campus.

David Abramson, who is responsible for retail development and new business at the multi-national cosmetics retailer, said that the new initiative was not only the first Body Shop in a bookshop, but also the first Body Shop outlet within another store of any kind.

The new branch of the cosmetics chain, which opened on 21 November, is staffed and managed by bookshop employees under a franchise agreement.

The company's founder, Anita Roddick, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University in 1988, was unable to make the launch. In an ironic coincidence, Roddick was away on an international tour, promoting her new book. Copies of Business as Unusual are on sale in the bookshop just a few feet away from the cosmetics.

Assistant bookshop manager Sue Green-Innes said that if Roddick had been in the country, nothing would have kept her away. "It was the Sussex connection that swung it for us," she said of the Body Shop's decision to support the new initiative.

Founded in 1976, the Body Shop rapidly evolved from one small shop in Brighton and now employs over 4,000 employees worldwide, including more than 2,800 who are based at its Littlehampton headquarters.

Market research by the bookshop produced a promising response from both men and women to the idea of an integral Body Shop concession. At present, 17 per cent of the bookshop's turnover comes from non-book sales.

Term-time sales of books are holding up well despite competition from online booksellers, but bookshop manager Kristian Berggreen (pictured above with colleague Trish Cotton) has identified a need to broaden the product base in vacations and an opportunity to cater for vacation visitors such as conference delegates and Open University students.

Although there will be some changes in the way new titles are displayed, there are no plans to decrease the shop's stock of 70,000 books.