[...]To begin with, Dame Anita was not an activist or campaigner, simply a born trader who saw a business opportunity and opened her first shop in Brighton, on the English south coast, in 1976. Her bodycare products sent a refreshing message to women: nothing will make you stay young or grow more beautiful, but this stuff will make you feel better about yourself in the meantime. It tapped into a contemporary counter-culture removed from the sleek, sophisticated marketing of the beauty-product firms. By the time she sold the business last year to L'Oréal for £652m ($1.1 billion), of which she received £118m, Body Shop had 2,000 shops in 53 countries.[...]