Who founded The Body Shop in Brighton, England, in 1976?

The Body Shop was founded in Brighton, England, in 1976 by Anita Roddick.

Roddick opened the first shop to support herself and her two daughters while her husband, Gordon, was travelling in South America. She began with only 25 products, focusing on skincare, refillable containers, sample sizes, and ingredients marketed as natural or ethically sourced.

The business grew rapidly after Gordon joined and encouraged franchising. By 1984, The Body Shop had 138 stores, including 87 outside the United Kingdom. Its campaigns around animal testing, fair trade, and environmental issues helped make ethical consumerism part of mainstream beauty retail.

A common mix-up is the earlier, unrelated Body Shop opened in Berkeley, California, in 1970 by Peggy Short and Jane Saunders. Roddick later bought the rights to use the name in the United States, but Anita Roddick remains the founder of the British company described in this question.