The character arc of Anita Roddick
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born Anita Perella on 23 October 1942 in an air raid shelter in Littlehampton, to Italian immigrant parents. Died 10 September 2007, aged sixty four. Between the two sit a teacher's training, the first Body Shop in Brighton in March 1976, a second shop within six months, a franchise model, seven hundred branches by 1991, campaigns against animal testing, a sale in March 2006, a diagnosis in 2004 and an estate given away entire. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Anita Roddick?
One shop in Brighton, and she gave it all away.
She was born in an air raid shelter in Littlehampton in 1942, to Gilda and Donato Perella, Italian immigrants, her father a restaurateur. She trained as a teacher at Newton Park College in Bath and taught history and English. In March 1976 she opened the first Body Shop in Brighton, not as a grand plan but to support herself and her two daughters while her husband Gordon was abroad.
What she sold was skincare in refillable containers, described honestly rather than with the usual claims, which in 1976 was close to an eccentricity. A second shop followed within six months. Gordon came back and joined her, and the two of them built a franchise model that grew to seven hundred branches by 1991. When she expanded into the United States she paid three and a half million dollars for the Body Shop name.
She used the company as a platform. She refused animal testing before it was a marketing position, built fair trade partnerships, founded Children on the Edge in 1990, supported Greenpeace and campaigned for the Angola Three prisoners. In March 2006 L'Oreal bought the company for six hundred and fifty two million pounds, which was criticised because L'Oreal used animal testing; she called herself a Trojan horse who could change things from the inside. She had been diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2004 and died of a stroke on 10 September 2007, at sixty four. She left her entire estate, fifty one million pounds, to charity. Her line is worth reading for the last fact.
The moments
Anita Roddick's timeline.
The 1940s
Born in an air raid shelter
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Born underground, in a war, to immigrants who ran a restaurant.
The 1960s
She trained as a teacher
Milestone, and it changed her direction. History and English. Nothing about cosmetics, and nothing about business.
The 1970s
One shop in Brighton
Milestone, and it changed everything. Not a plan for an empire. A way to pay for two children while her husband was away.
A second shop
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Six months from one shop to two, which is when it stopped being a job.
The 1980s
The franchise model
Milestone, and it changed everything. Other people's shops, her name, her rules. That is what made it move.
The 1990s
Children on the Edge
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The shop paid for the campaigning, which was always the arrangement.
Seven hundred branches
Milestone, and it changed everything. Fifteen years from one shop in Brighton to seven hundred.
She would not test on animals
Milestone, and it changed everything. Before it was a marketing position, when it simply cost money and made suppliers harder to find.
The 2000s
Diagnosed with hepatitis C
Setback, and it changed everything. The record gives the diagnosis and the year.
Sell to a company that tests, or not
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: sell, and argue from inside, taken, or refuse the sale. She called herself a Trojan horse who could influence decisions from within, and left her entire estate to charity the following year.
L'Oreal bought it
Setback, and it changed everything. The sale, the criticism, and her own answer to it. This page does not say who was right.
The line ends 10 Sep 2007, at sixty four. What it set moving is partly a high street full of shops that have to say where things came from, and partly one clean decision at the end: fifty one million pounds, all of it, given away.
What she wrote
Books by Anita Roddick
- 1991
Body and Soul
Written fifteen years after the first shop in Brighton, when there were seven hundred branches and she was being asked how it had happened.
- 2000
Business as Unusual
The second telling, after she had stepped back from running the company, and franker about what the growth cost.
- 2001
Take It Personally
An anthology she assembled on global trade, aimed at the reader as a shopper rather than as a voter.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers started as one shop opened to pay the bills. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Anita Roddick: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What was Anita Roddick's character arc?
Why did Anita Roddick open The Body Shop?
How big did The Body Shop get under Anita Roddick?
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What did Anita Roddick campaign for?
What happened to Anita Roddick's money?
Where was Anita Roddick born?
Where does this timeline of Anita Roddick's life come from?
More character arcs
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Sources
- Anita Roddick, English Wikipedia biography.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Anita Roddick.