Roddick to stand down to be campaigner

Roddick: to campaign full-time

Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, says she is quitting the world of business to become a full-time campaigner on environmental and social issues.

The woman who joined the protests at Seattle in November 1999 says she wants to "smash the WTO, blow up the armaments industry and do some real populist campaigning."

"I do take the moral high ground," she says. "I take it because I prefer kindness over rapacity, public good over private greed."

The outspoken businesswoman, whose personal fortune is estimated at $150 million, says : "I've got power, I've got influence, and I've got money. But I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to hang around in the company.

"After 25 years, I want the political freedom to do the things I want to do.

"I don't want to have to keep on emoting about the shape of a bottle or whether or not we should go for elderberry body butter

"If I can't do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?"

A Body Shop spokeswoman said she expected Roddick, 57, to stand down within the next two years.

She has seen her company she created in 1976 "simply to create a livelihood for myself and two daughters" grow into 1,700 stores in 49 countries, selling environmentally-friendly beauty products in 24 languages.

Roddick has just published her autobiography, "Business as Unusual," in which she charts the extraordinary rise of the Bofy Shop.

But she also uses the book to fly the flag for "ethical business" -- the creed which led her to becoime a household name in the 1980s.

Roddick, 57, believes her legacy will be a business world compelled to be more ethical by public pressure.

She says that waves of public consciousness -- like the anti-WTO protests at Seattle and the boycott of Shell in 1995 -- are steadily forcing corporations to re-evaluate their actions and to change for the better.

Seattle and WTO each assess damages
December 4, 1999
Seattle mayor declares civil emergency as WTO unrest grows
November 30, 1999

The Body Shop

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