Body Shop: Anita Lucia Roddick
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Body Shop
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Anita Lucia Roddick, née Perilla, was born in Littlehampton, England in 1942, one of four children of Italian immigrants. Her parents settled in Littlehampton to run the Clifton Cafe. Her father died when she was ten and the children then helped to run the cafe. From school she went to Bath College of Education where she took a Teacher Training course. She started teaching, but wanted to live abroad so she got a job with the United Nations in Geneva. She had never had a holiday as a child and so, with the tax-free money she earned in Geneva, she decided to spend a year travelling around the world. She visited Polynesia, New Caledonia, Australia and Africa where her interest in the use of natural ingredients for cosmetic purposes was aroused. In Tahiti she saw local women plastering themselves with cocoa butter. Half the bean was used for chocolate and the other half was used as a cosmetic. In Morocco she saw women washing their hair in mud.
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Returning to England, she met Gordon Roddick, a graduate of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. He had farmed overseas and in the UK before settling in Littlehampton. They married in 1970. Originally they planned to travel overland to Australia and buy a pineapple plantation, but the arrival of first one and then two children made them change their plans. Instead they bought and ran a restaurant and later a small hotel in Littlehampton.
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In 1976 Anita opened the first Body Shop in a back street in Brighton in 1976. The roof leaked and the ugly unpainted walls were covered with green garden lattice primarily because it was cheap. The shop sold only
Body Shop
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Anita Lucia Roddick, née Perilla, was born in Littlehampton, England in 1942, one of four children of Italian immigrants. Her parents settled in Littlehampton to run the Clifton Cafe. Her father died when she was ten and the children then helped to run the cafe. From school she went to Bath College of Education where she took a Teacher Training course. She started teaching, but wanted to live abroad so she got a job with the United Nations in Geneva. She had never had a holiday as a child and so, with the tax-free money she earned in Geneva, she decided to spend a year travelling around the world. She visited Polynesia, New Caledonia, Australia and Africa where her interest in the use of natural ingredients for cosmetic purposes was aroused. In Tahiti she saw local women plastering themselves with cocoa butter. Half the bean was used for chocolate and the other half was used as a cosmetic. In Morocco she saw women washing their hair in mud.
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Returning to England, she met Gordon Roddick, a graduate of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. He had farmed overseas and in the UK before settling in Littlehampton. They married in 1970. Originally they planned to travel overland to Australia and buy a pineapple plantation, but the arrival of first one and then two children made them change their plans. Instead they bought and ran a restaurant and later a small hotel in Littlehampton.
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In 1976 Anita opened the first Body Shop in a back street in Brighton in 1976. The roof leaked and the ugly unpainted walls were covered with green garden lattice primarily because it was cheap. The shop sold only