‘I would not have pulled Lush out of Russia if it weren’t for public pressure’

‘I want Lush to be the nicest place on the high street, so people will pay the parking fees to visit us,’ says Mark Constantine – Rachel Adams The boss of Lush has said the ethical cosmetics chain would “definitely” return to Russia once the war ends and said he was unwilling to cut ties with the country. Mark Constantine, the chief executive and co-founder of Lush, said he would not have chosen to stop trading in Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine[1] if not for public pressure on companies to pull out.

Mr Constantine said: “It was horrible. I hated it because we have a very diverse workforce and lots of people who probably wouldn’t be welcome in Russia. “We had a partner of 20 years in Russia who never cheated, never lied, and we had to tell him we weren’t going to supply him anymore.

“That was asked of us by society. It was difficult, harsh, horrible and not something I would have chosen to do. But we did it.”

In March 2022, Lush suspended supplies to its Russian licensee[2] amid a wider exodus by Western companies. It resulted in the closure of all Lush stores in the country.

Lush suspended its supplies to stores in Russia in March 2022 – HEORSHE/ALAMY Mr Constantine told The Telegraph: “Would I go back and do business with that partner in Russia again?

Yes, I definitely would. And I would go back to that same business that we had there, but not now.” The stance may surprise many, given Lush’s reputation as an “ethical” cosmetics company.

Since its founding in Dorset in 1995, Left-leaning political campaigning has been as central to the business as its best-selling bath bombs. Lush has campaigned against everything from animal testing to the death penalty in the US. The company’s mission statement was updated in 2018 to include the phrase: “We believe that all people should enjoy freedom of movement across the world.”

Lush products on display in a Moscow store – HEORSHE/ALAMY

“If I’m honest, I don’t like the term ethical much,” Mr Constantine said. “Because it just begs someone to say, well he needs knocking off his perch. Most of the time what we do is just what you hope someone might do. It’s the bare minimum, I think.”

Not everyone agrees. In 2018, Lush put up posters in its shops highlighting misconduct by undercover police officers[3], featuring the slogan “paid to lie”. Story continues

The campaign was in response to an official inquiry ordered by Theresa May[4] while she was prime minister that uncovered police officers had assumed false identities to infiltrate more than a thousand political groups, in some cases forming long-term relationships with women. Sajid Javid, the then home secretary, criticised the Lush advertisements, saying they were “not a responsible way to make a point”. Calum Macleod, the chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales at the time, called for Lush to cancel the campaign.

“Would I do it again? Absolutely,” said Mr Constantine. “We mainly serve women. Did everyone need to know about it?

Yes.” Mr Constantine is quick to say that Lush is not “anti-police, we’re just anti-police doing that”. In fact, he claimed, relations with the police have not been soured by the campaign. “They’ve been great with us, they support us.”

Good relations come at a time when shoplifting is at epidemic levels[5]. Many rival retail chiefs have complained that police are failing to do enough to tackle the problem. But Mr Constantine claims to be unconcerned. “Look, every retailer knows the way you decrease crime is to have more staff and everyone has cut their staff.

Increase staff numbers and crime will go down, it’s as simple as that,” he said. “We don’t get too caught up about it anyway. If we were selling televisions, perhaps we’d worry, but if people nick a couple of bath bombs?

We don’t really mind.”

Mr Constantine says he doesn’t ‘really mind’ if people ‘nick a couple of bath bombs’ – NEIL HALL/REUTERS Lush’s campaigning bent extends online. In late 2021, it deleted its Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat accounts, saying it would not be returning to social media until companies “provide a safer environment for users”.

The company cited the Facebook Files as a motive for its actions, a trove of internal documents leaked to The Wall Street Journal showing internal research suggesting Meta’s social media platforms were damaging to teenage mental health. Mr Constantine said: “Everyone thinks it takes such bravery to not be on social media. But, knowing everything we do about social media, it begs the question why are other brands on it?

When you’re attracting young women to use social media and you’re busy stoking the fire?” Mr Constantine’s current focus is not on campaigning but on expansion. Earlier in December, Lush said it would spend almost GBP11m on its UK shops before the end of its financial year, including improving existing sites and opening new locations.

It recently opened its first eco-friendly hair salon and has started to offer spa experiences. Lush is betting on the high street even while others are struggling to make it work. Mr Constantine said: “All we can do is try to be the nicest place on the high street, so you will come in and you will pay the parking fees to visit our stores.”

As you would expect from Lush’s campaigning record, Mr Constantine is not a card-carrying Conservative Party member. However, despite his personal views, he takes his hat off to the Government for stepping in during Covid and supporting business. Lush was among the retailers who furloughed staff and benefited from a reduction in business rates during the lockdowns.

“We’ve never had benefit like that from anyone, we’ve never taken any grants. I’m very grateful for that, I understand it’s not the fashion.”

The anti-police ‘paid to lie’ campaign, which Lush ran in its shop windows – JULIAN SIMMONDS While Mr Constantine was impressed by Rishi Sunak’s generosity as chancellor, his view of him as Prime Minister is very different.

“What a disappointment, he’s got no real policy,” he said. “At least I felt Boris did have some beliefs. They’re out there and people may not like them, but at least he had them.” The decision to accept government support during Covid has led to some hard questions for Lush more recently.

The company paid millions of pounds in bonuses in 2022, despite receiving GBP5.1m in government support and suffering a 90pc profit slump. Mr Constantine defended the payouts, which he said were related to the purchase of its North American business. “It was bought for GBP117m, you have to pay bonuses to people if they’re going to pull off a GBP117m deal for you.

We see it in every other business and all through the City and everywhere else. You can’t not entice people.” He adds: “It’s a private company, we do what we like.”

Would Lush go public? “It would be very interesting if there was a more socially minded option. What is weird is everyone wants to put their money into social enterprises, but where is it going then?

Because there aren’t many of those companies out there on the market.” Mr Constantine is 71; questions about what happens next for the company he helped set up almost 30 years ago are bound to come up. He says he plans to keep Lush in the family by handing his and his wife’s shares in the company to their three children.

“If we weren’t going to be family-owned, we’d be planning to be owned by the staff.” Recommended Why The Body Shop can’t blame the economy for what went wrong