The Body Shop International plc, known as The Body Shop, has 2,400 stores in 61 countries, and is the second largest cosmetic franchise in the world, following O Boticario

O Boticário

O Boticário is the second biggest Brazilian cosmetic company, behind Natura. It has 2,114 stores in Brazil, 52 in Portugal, 4 stores in Mexico, 5 stores and 6 points of sales in Bolivia, 2 in Peru, 2 in Paraguay, 438 points of sale in Japan and has stores in other fourteen countries. O Boticário...

, a Brazilian company. The Body Shop is headquartered in Littlehampton

Littlehampton

Littlehampton is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, on the east bank at the mouth of the River Arun. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton and east of the county town of Chichester....

, West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, was founded in 1976 by the late Dame Anita Roddick

Anita Roddick

Dame Anita Roddick, DBE was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, a cosmetics company producing and retailing beauty products that shaped ethical consumerism...

 and is now part of the L'Oréal

L'Oréal

The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics...

 corporate group.
In the early 1970s, Anita Roddick (then Anita Perilli) visited a shop in Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

 selling naturally-scented soaps and lotions called The Body Shop.