Diego Ortiz de Zevallos, General Manager for Spain and Portugal at The Body Shop
The Body Shop turns its dome around. The British cosmetics company, owned by the Brazilian group Natura&Co, has appointed Diego Ortiz de Zevallos as the new general manager for Spain and Portugal. Ortiz relieves Antonio Rodríguez de la Paz Fernández, who led the region since 2018 and who, in September of last year, left the company.
With more than ten years of experience in the cosmetic industry, Ortiz de Zevallos has been working at The Body Shop since the end of 2016when he joined the company’s London team as senior brand manager. The director will occupy his new position from the offices of The Body Shop in Madrid.
Until now, the executive has participated in the process of renewing the brand, including the launch of more than seven hundred products and the incorporation of the format refill in stores, leading the company’s brand development and marketing department on a global scale.
After the appointment, Ortiz de Zevallos has taken over from Antonio Rodríguez de la Paz Fernándezwho was appointed general manager of The Body Shop for Spain and Portugal in July 2018, just one year after the company was acquired by the Brazilian giant Natura.
The Body Shop operates in the Iberian Peninsula with more than one hundred points of sale and 300 employees. According to the latest available data, the company closed 2019 with a turnover of 18.5 million euros in Spain and a net result of 529,834 euros.
The Body Shop had Antonio Rodríguez de la Paz Fernández as general manager for the Iberian market since 2018
In September 2017, Natura acquired The Body Shop through an operation valued at 1,120 million dollars. The British chain operated a global network of more than 3,000 stores in 66 countries and had been in the hands of the French giant L’Oréal since 2007, when it was acquired for 652 million pounds (744 million euros).
The Body Shop was born on the south coast of England in 1976, by the hand of Anita Roddick, when she began to market an offer of 25 handmade products. In 2007, the company became part of the L’Oréal group, which promoted the international development of the company throughout the world until 2017, when it decided to look for a new buyer.
In 2021, The Body Shop grew by 9.2%, to 5,821.8 million Brazilian reais (1,051.6 million euros). As explained by the company’s parent company in the presentation of its results, the supply crisis caused 22% of the firm’s shipments during the Christmas campaign to be delayed, especially those destined for North America.
Natura is one of the largest cosmetic groups in the world. As a whole, the Brazilian company, which operates through the Natura, Aesop, Avon and The Body Shop brands, closed the 2021 financial year with a year-on-year growth in sales of 8.8%, to 40,164.7 million Brazilian reais ( 7,255.2 million euros). Compared to 2019, Natura&Co closed the period with an increase of 22% and increased its digital penetration, which stood at 11%, compared to 7% in the year prior to the outbreak of Covid-19.
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