The once healthy sheen on the earnings follicles of natural cosmetics retailer Body Shop has been dulled as the group struggles to keep up the pace of growth in the face of intense competition from "me too " imitators. The international chain, headed by the tree-hugging husband and wife team of Gordon and Anita Roddick, this week produced a lacklustre performance from its 1,500 mainly franchised stores in 47 countries, with pretax profits in the six months to end August last inching ahead only 4 per cent to £12.3 million, on the back of a 5 per cent growth in global turnover to £123 million. Asia, once a boom market, has turned sour with turnover back by 5 per cent and in the United States, turnover also declined by around 5 per cent. It was a bad hair half year for the group in Japan, where like-for-like sales tumbled 16 per cent, with growing local competition and too many Body Shop products not in tune with market requirements. Asian franchisees are allegedly moaning that some Body Shop products do not suit skin and hair types of their customers.

Body Shop aims to fight back with new skincare and aromatherapy ranges and intensified product marketing. Shareholders are kept sweetly-smelling with a 20 per cent rise in dividend to 1.8p a share and the additional bonus of a 9p rise in the share price on foot of the results.