The Body Shop North America has appointed Jordan Searle as general manager for the brand in the U.S. and Canada.
He will oversee the strategy and performance of the beauty brand’s North American division in retail, wholesale distribution, marketing, e-commerce and activism.
“The Body Shop North America is entering an exciting new chapter,” said Searle. “Now more than ever, we’re leaning into our activist roots, championing our assortment of effective and ethical product that caters to every body, and driving positive impact through our aggressive sustainability agenda. I am energized to work alongside our talented team in North America to deliver the brand’s purpose-led mission while continuing to elevate our customer experience.”
Founded in 1976 in Brighton, England, by Dame Anita Roddick, The Body Shop is a global beauty brand and a certified B Corporation with 177 stores across North America. There are 110 stores in Canada.
“We never say no to opening new stores but with 110 stores in Canada we are fairly well distributed. What we’re focusing our minds on right now are actually renewing our fleets with our new Workshop concept. So we’re on that journey,” said Searle. “This year we plan to re-fit the new concept to seven stores.
“Workshop is a new concept for us that we did launch back before the pandemic in Vancouver at the (CF) Pacific Centre. But unfortunately then with the pandemic kicking in stores were kind of closed and we didn’t get to see the impact of it until recently when we started opening more Workshop stores last year.
“The Workshop store is really an embodiment of our brand in many ways. Firstly a lot of the fixtures and fittings inside the store are made in a sustainable manner with sustainable materials and there’s a lot more experiential elements to the stores such as we have a big sink at the front of the store where customers are invited to actually experience the products.”
There’s more opportunities for the product to be displayed and experienced by people. Searle said the Workshop stores are more “tactile” than what’s in place at existing stores.
Searle said five stores in Canada have undergone the transformation – one at the Oshawa Centre, one in CF Market Mall in Calgary, one in CF Pacific Centre in Vancouver,, one at the Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby, BC, one in West Edmonton Mall and by the end of June one at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto. MacArthurGlen Designer Outlet in Vancouver, Bramalea in Brampton, Orchard Park in Kelowna, the Willowbrook Shopping Centre in Langley, BC and the Guildford Town Centre in Surrey, BC are also on tap for the transformation.
Searle said the strategic plan is to refit five to eight stores per year.
“We’ll see how far we get on that journey,” he said. “The idea really is to completely rejuvenate our retail footprint within Canada.”
He said the brand has a very strong heritage in Canada and often Canadians think it’s a Canadian brand even though it hails from the UK.
“The real estate is actually very good. We have a lot of prime units and we operate in all the top malls and most of the best streets within the Canadian market. However, there hasn’t been a lot of investment into the fixtured environment over the last 10 years. It’s definitely due for an upgrade,” said Searle.
“But more than that we’ve had a lot of movement within our product line as well. A lot of it has been rejuvenated, reformulated. A lot of new products also introduced.”
Searle joined The Body Shop North America in 2021 as Vice President of Omnichannel, where he was responsible for omni-channel planning and strategy, and developing the framework to deliver sales, commercial incentives, and general merchandising. Prior to joining The Body Shop, Searle spent much of his career working with coveted lifestyle apparel brands developing sales distribution and commercial strategies. Additionally, he played a pivotal role in developing and expanding direct-to-consumer practices for ECCO and Canada Goose in North America and Europe.
“Jordan has had a successful introduction to the business since he joined us just over a year ago as Omnichannel Director,” said Caroline Le Roch, Managing Director for Europe and North America, The Body Shop, in a statement. “He brings great retail experience from his time at Canada Goose and ECCO where he led the introduction of its elevated retail concept. As we continue our focus on growth and delivering our changemaking mission, we’re confident his deeply collaborative leadership skills, affinity for our brand and expertise in retail, ecommerce, and marketing make him an excellent choice to lead the future of The Body Shop in North America.”
The company said Searle will leverage his experience to help advance the brand’s omnichannel transformation with a strategic focus on retail and ecommerce. Among his priorities are realigning initiatives to accelerate growth; expanding the brand’s Workshop-concept retail locations in Canada; growing sales for the brand’s skincare category; driving customer acquisition; and accelerating The Body Shop’s social and environmental impact.
“I think there’s a necessity these days for brands to be able to storytell in a compelling way and have the right environment in and that’s what our Workshop store is all about, bringing that sort of feeling to the market and getting that connection with consumers,” he said.
The Body Shop operates about 3,000 retail locations in more than 70 countries. Along with Avon and Natura, The Body Shop is part of Natura &Co, a global, multi-channel and multi-brand cosmetics group that is committed to generating positive economic, social, and environmental impact.
I shopped at the Body Shop all the time when I lived in B.C. but with no stores in Quebec anymore I switched to Yves Rocher where the products contain fewer harmful ingredients. I’m always suspicious when a company head is for North America and not Canada because it doesn’t bode well for the Canadian consumer.