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Holland&Barrett compete against Body Shop

UK’s most popular health food franchise Holland & Barrett have announced plans to open 100% vegan shops in response to the fast-rising vegan population, and to expand into the field of vegan beauty, a market currently led by the Body Shop.

Holland & Barrett are a chain of health food shops with over 1,300 stores in 16 countries and especially prevalent in the UK. With this new expansion, their intention is to distance themselves from their stereotyped image from the past when they were known for selling only supplements and nuts. Now that veganism is so widespread in Great Britain, with 7% currently following a plant-based diet excluding those identifying as vegetarians or flexitarians, the chain is growing and progressing along with the moving trends.

One strategy to create this updated image is for the stores to effectively stand against Body Shop with a major expansion into cruelty-free beauty. There are current plans in place to test-run two vegan stores, which will sell around 1000 items in both food and beauty. At present, only half of the Body Shop’s products are vegan; Chief Executive Peter Aldis is quoted by the Guardian saying of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick, “If she was here now she would be doing this.”

Aldis states of Holland & Barrett’s future vision: “We don’t want to feel like a place for alternative hippies. We want vegan to become more mainstream and there are lots of very good reasons why it will.”

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