The Body Shop, which has been in Wake Forest since 1992, will be closing its customer service center in early July and establishing a new U.S. headquarters in New York City.
The move will throw 145 employees out of work although the company says it is making offers to about 10 Wake Forest employees to relocate. There will be the headquarters office in New York City, offices in New Jersey and a distribution center somewhere in the northeast.
The Body Shop is a British firm with international headquarters in Littlehampton, West Sussex, England and is owned by O’Oreal, which acquired it in 2006. The maker of natural beauty and bath products was begun in 1976 by Anita Perilli Roddick and now has more than 3,000 stores in 67 countries.
The move out of the facility on One World Way in Wake Forest will leave the large building and its 35 acres unoccupied. The land and building are on the Wake County tax rolls at a combined value of $8 million.
The land was acquired and the building constructed in 1982 by Walter Kidde, a division of Kidde Inc., a fortune 500 firm, which announced in July 1982 it was moving to Wake Forest to employ about 250 people to manufacture fire protection equipment.
Part of the reason for the site selection was its easy access via Burlington Mills Road to Capital Boulevard (then called just U.S. 1). Another reason was the availability of Town of Wake Forest water, sewer and electricity from lines that had been built to serve the town’s new wastewater treatment plant on Smith Creek at the Neuse River, which had opened in May of 1980.
In 1982 the town’s largest employers were Burlington Mills’ Wake Finishing Plant on U.S. 1 at the Neuse River bridge with 500 people and Scovill’s Schrader Bellows plant farther north on U.S. 1 with 450. In 1982 also the compressed gas plant operated by AGA Gas was built on Forestville Road.
Walter Kidde announced in 1989 that, as a result of corporate mergers, it would leave Wake Forest. It then employed about 150 people.
The facility stood empty until 1992 when it was purchased by The Body Shop for its U.S. headquarters.
In 1994, foreseeing the need for more industrial employment and development, the private Business and Industrial Partnership formed by several local leaders borrowed $286,000 from the town and purchased a large tract from the Kitchen family immediately adjacent to One World Way built as the entrance for the Walter Kidde plant and began organizing what is now the South Forest Business Park. The money has been repaid to the town with interest.
3 Responses
Wonder what made the location unattractivve to the new owners?
I meant to say, I met him LAST FALL.
I believe the family’s name is spelled Kitchin. I met one of the current owners (grew up on the dairy farm on Burlington Mill Rd during the 50’s and 60’s) of the remaining farm property east of the business park, son of the Kitchin who was President of the college, I believe. Maybe grandson. He lives in Maryland now.