The Body Shop, the ethical and naturally inspired beauty brand, and part of the L’Oréal Group, is carrying on efforts to increase cooperation with its suppliers. Following the motto taken from the Suppliers Day, organised on the 24th February 2011, "from cost efficiency to value creation through quality, time-to-market, innovations and eco friendly/natural products," the brand’s new sourcing strategy is rolling out. Objective: to boost innovation and actively contribute to business development.

The Body Shop Values

The Body Shop has a strong position in the global market with more than 2,600 stores in over 60 markets. An ethical brand with a belief in business as a force for good based on its five core values: Against Animal Testing, Support Community Fair Trade, Activate Self Esteem, Defend Human Rights and Protect the Planet.

The brand’s aim through this workshop is to work with suppliers to increase creativity a key driver of the brand’s success, alongside evaluating its suppliers’ performance on quality, supply chain, sustainability and competitiveness.

Innovations should not be seen as something we can only deliver from our laboratories. We also build on relationships with our key suppliers to identify and facilitate ideas for the benefit of our customers,” points out Jason Matthews, Director of R&D at The Body Shop.

Processing innovations to achieve more

The workshop held in London, has gathered seven selected suppliers: four from Europe, two from Asia and one from the U.S.A.

Using a detailed brief for each product category, which we sent them a few weeks before the event, all the suppliers have designed their proposals with the aim to perfectly match with The Body Shop expectations,” tells Jerome Courtaigne, Director of International Sourcing

The suppliers did not only propose new concepts matching the expectations but also ‘blue sky’ ideas pushing boundaries but staying realistic to fit the brand’s requirements.

We want to build up our suppliers’ relationship based on mutual understanding and strong intimacy to create value together. Innovation is a perfect example because it requires strategic alignment and is the fuel of our growth,” adds Jerome Courtaigne.

According to Sandra Weinheimer, Director of Technical Product Development, this event was only the first step to get tangible results. “To innovate successfully, we need not only new ideas of formulas and packaging but also the best process and methods to make new concepts come to reality with quality, speed, and with respect for our values. We are now focussed on launching a few of them in the coming months,” concludes Sandra.