Anita Roddick

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Dame Anita Lucia Roddick , DBE , (* October 23, 1942 in Littlehampton , Sussex , England as Anita Lucia Perilli ; † September 10, 2007 in Chichester , Sussex, England) was the founder and long-time director of The Body Shop , the largest in England Cosmetics trading company that had 2085 branches in 54 countries in the year of her death and today (in 2010) has over 2800 branches in 65 countries.

Life

Anita Roddick grew up as the daughter of Italian immigrants in the coastal town of Littlehampton in southern England , where her parents ran a café. After studying to be a teacher, she traveled extensively as a hippie to Tahiti, Australia, Madagascar, Polynesia, Mauritius and South Africa. She lived in the kibbutz , worked in the women's rights department at the United Nations ( UN ) and also as a teacher.

She married Gordon Roddick in 1970 after opening a hotel and restaurant together. In 1976 Roddick founded the first Body Shop in Brighton with a range of cosmetic products made exclusively from natural ingredients, without animal testing, and packaged in an environmentally friendly way. She is considered a pioneer in ethical retailing.

Body Shop attracted many environmentally conscious customers. The company spread across Europe. In 1984, The Body Shop became a publicly traded company, which was criticized by its supporters. Today The Body Shop is a global retail chain with more than 2,800 stores in 65 countries.

Roddick used her entrepreneurial reputation and her extensive branch network to support social and environmental projects (caring capitalism) . She campaigned for animal and human rights and also for fair trade with the third world. Her willingness to be different and to do everything differently made her a role model for female entrepreneurs.

After visiting Romanian orphanages, Anita Roddick founded the charity Children on the Edge in 1990 , which supports disadvantaged children in Eastern Europe and Asia.

In 1998, Roddick left the chief position, four years later she and her husband gave up their positions as co-chairs, but still acted in an advisory capacity. In 2006, the cosmetics chain she founded was bought by the French cosmetics giant L'Oréal for 944 million euros , which again irritated its clientele. Anita Roddick has received several awards and recognitions, including a. In 2003 she was awarded the title Dame of the British Empire .

Roddick's commitment to animal testing and for animals has earned her respect from the international animal rights organization PETA .

She died on September 10, 2007 of a cerebral haemorrhage in St Richard's Hospital in Chichester in the presence of her husband Gordon and their daughters Sam and Justine.

literature

  • Anita Roddick: The Body Shop Story. The vision of an extraordinary entrepreneur. Econ, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-430-17878-9 .

Movies

  • With a lot of breath. Documentation, Germany, 45 min., Directors: Meike Hemschemeier and Thomas Weidenbach, production: WDR , first broadcast: 23 September 2008
  • How do you become a billionaire? Anita Roddick - Mrs. Body Shop. TV documentary, Germany, 2004, director: Thomas Weidenbach, production: hr

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Philipp Lichterbeck and Maren Peters: “Anti-wrinkle creams are lies” ( Memento from June 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Tagesspiegel , April 15, 2007, interview.
  2. ↑ Table of contents ( memento of March 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) of the WDR: TV portraits of the three entrepreneurs Michael Otto , Anita Roddick and Andres Gut, "who not only have capital markets and profit curves in mind, but also protecting the environment and that Misery of the poor in the third world ”.
  3. ↑ Table of contents of the television documentary How does one become a billionaire? Anita Roddick - Mrs. Body Shop .
personal data
SURNAME Roddick, Anita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Perilli, Anita Lucia (maiden name); Roddick, Anita Lucia (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British businesswoman
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Littlehampton
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 2007
Place of death Chichester