The Body Shop’s Fairtrade suppliers have been left with more than £792,000 ($1 million) worth of beauty ingredients that may never be ordered or paid for by the retailer following its administration.
The retailer’s suppliers told the Guardian that workers who are often living on low incomes in remote areas.
Most community projects do not supply The Body Shop directly they sell their ingredients to intermediaries such as oil refiners or one of the group’s 20-plus cosmetics and beauty product manufacturers.
However, workers are concerned about that if manufacturers are not paid by administrators to The Body Shop, they in turn will not be paid.
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Head of one community producer group based in Africa said: “We are all affected, whatever the changes coming up. It is going to affect the whole supply chain.”
Some suppliers said they had no written contract with The Body Shop but produced an agreed amount of product for the retailer for several years.
Candela Peru has been providing Brazilian nut oil for The Body Shop since 1998 from nuts collected by 400 local families in the Amazon.
President Gaston Vizcarra said there was a $0.5m inventory of oil on hold for the retailer. “We don’t have any debt, but for more than two years we have manufactured this oil ready to go. There is no contract. It is based on trust.
“We usually sell a certain volume but The Body Shop has not been buying for at least a year. It has affected our capacity to work with producers and buy nuts from them.”
