Next has approached administrators to The Body Shop about a potential deal to purchase parts of the stricken cosmetics chain.
Sky News has learnt that executives from the UK fashion retailing giant have contacted FRP Advisory to express an interest in acquiring assets as part of any sale process it decides to launch.
There were doubts this weekend, however, that FRP, which was appointed to handle the insolvency of The Body Shop in the UK earlier this month, would elect to run a conventional auction, with one source suggesting that contact between FRP and Next had already stalled.
Read more: The Body Shop UK in administration – what went wrong?
Next is understood to have been monitoring The Body Shop for some time, but people close to the FTSE-100 company confirmed that it had expressed an interest in assembling a deal.
The retailer, run by Lord Wolfson, has become one of the most prolific buyers of distressed retail businesses in Britain in recent years.
Among the brands it has acquired are Fat Face, Joules and the online furniture retailer, Made.com.
It has also snapped up Cath Kidston and JoJo Maman Bebe, the maternity wear retailer, while it has struck partnerships with Victoria’s Secret and Gap.
One obstacle to any deal with The Body Shop may lie in the fact that its brand and intellectual property (IP) assets are not part of the administration process.
It is understood that Aurelius, which has only owned The Body Shop since 1 January, is financing the rest of the business, and as part of that has secured major assets including stock and IP.
FRP is expected to decide whether to launch an auction within weeks, with a sale of the restructured business in its new form back to Aurelius a possibility.
If Next did pursue a purchase of the chain, it would be unlikely to retain many, if any, of The Body Shop’s British stores.
This week, FRP announced the closure of nearly half of its 198 UK stores, with seven shutting immediately.
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