The boss of Lush has blamed Brexit for the drop in its European sales, the Telegraph reports.
The ethical cosmetics retailer reported a 28% decrease in sales in the year leading up to June 2022, comapared to the previous year. This decline was higher than the 10% decrease observed specifically within the UK market.
Co-founder and chief executive Mark Constantine told the title: “Is Brexit to blame? Our popularity in Europe has certainly waned since Brexit and we need to rebuild the love for our UK owned brand across Europe.”
Constantine added that following the EU referendum, Lush’s investment in a factory in Germany resulted in financial losses as reduced sales volumes led to a decrease in production at the facility, hitting profitability.
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Back in 2021 Lush announced a boycott of a number of social media outlets amid concerns over the safety of the platforms.
The Poole-headquartered business said it would be “turning its back” on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat until the platforms took action to provide a safer environment for users.
On the move, Lush admitted there had also been a hit from its decision to stop posting on social media.
“At the time we estimated that this might be £10m in sales but it could well have been £10m in profit or 10% of our £800m brand sales (£80m). We simply don’t know,” Constantine told the Telegraph.
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