Body Shop eyes £100m expansion

BODY Shop is planning to spend £100m on global expansion over the next few years, with new store openings in Britain, the US, central Europe and Japan.

The group, struggling to maintain sales growth in recent years, already has some 2,000 outlets worldwide, including more than 300 in the UK.

Its UK operations were again the worst-performing part of the group, sales falling 10% to £161.5m in the year to 28 February. The like-for-like decline was 13%, against 16% in the Christmas period.

But chief executive Peter Saunders said the fall reflected the group's decision to cut back on discounting and, as a result, margins were 'significantly' ahead.

On the plus side, there was another strong performance from The Body Shop at Home, he said.

Group sales were flat at just under £700m, with a like-for-like decline of 4%. But pre-tax profits surged from £20.4m to £28.5m and earnings per share raced ahead by 57% to 10.7p. The dividend total is a same-again 5.7p.

Star performer during the year was the US, where underlying sales were ahead by 4%.

Saunders expects that positive trend to continue in the current year, boosted by new product launches and strong marketing events. However, he warns that the weak dollar will affect results.

Overall, current trading is in line with expectations and Saunders predicts 'another year of progress'.