Anita Roddick opened the first Body Shop in 1976, with the goal of earning an income for herself and her two daughters while her husband was away in South America. She wanted to provide quality skin care products in refillable containers and sample sizes, all marketed with truth rather than hype. She opened her second shop six months later. On her husband’s return, he joined the business.

Entine also noted that Roddick’s The Body Shop did not make charitable donations for its first 11 years of operation, although Roddick had made statements to the contrary. The Body Shop opened in Brighton in March 1976. The company entered the stock exchange in 1984. The first sponsorship, which was made possible by the wealth generated by the IPO, was for Greenpeace posters in 1985.

In 1990 Roddick founded Children on the Edge (COTE), in response to her visits to Romanian orphanages. She created COTE to help manage the crisis of poor conditions in the overcrowded orphanages and worked to de-institutionalise the children over the course of their early life. COTE’s mission is to help disadvantaged children affected by conflicts, natural disasters, disabilities, and HIV/AIDS.

By 1991, the Body Shop had 700 branches, and Roddick was awarded the 1991 World Vision Award for Development Initiative. In 1996 she told Third Way:

In 1997, Anita Rodick developed the Body Shop’s most successful campaign ever, creating Ruby, the size 16 doll, who was thought to bear a passing resemblance to Barbie. The campaign evolved from positioning developed by ethical communications consultancy Host Universal. They created the image of the naked red-haired doll, hands behind her head and wind in her hair, that became the embodiment of the campaign. The photographer was Steve Perry.

Roddick was a close friend of Littlehampton Community School. In 2003, it successfully applied to become a Business and Enterprise specialist school. Much of the money required was donated by Roddick. As a result of this donation, a new building built with this money was named The Roddick Enterprise Centre (normally abbreviated to ‘REC’). The Littlehampton College also hosts ‘Roddick Days’ such as ‘Day of Action’ and ‘One World’; these events allow students to give something back to their local community and learn about what is happening around them.

By 2004, the Body Shop had 1980 stores, serving more than 77 million customers throughout the world. It was voted the second most-trusted brand in the United Kingdom, and 28th top brand in the world.

In 2004, Roddick was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis due to long-standing hepatitis C. She did not reveal her illness until 14 February 2007. Roddick said, “I have hepatitis C. It’s a bit of a bummer, but you groan and move on”. She subsequently promoted the work of The Hepatitis C Trust, and campaigned to increase awareness of the disease. On 30 August 2007, less than two weeks before her death, Roddick was a special guest in an episode of the live television programme Doctor, Doctor broadcast on Channel 5 in the UK. She discussed hepatitis C with the presenter and general practitioner, Mark Porter.

Roddick explained that her hepatitis C was unexpectedly diagnosed in 2004, following a blood test that was part of a medical examination needed for a life insurance policy. The blood test indicated abnormal liver function and subsequent blood tests diagnosed hepatitis C. Roddick explained that she had a large blood transfusion in 1971, after the birth of her younger daughter, and that she was convinced that the transfusion had infected her with hepatitis C. This was about twenty years before blood donors in the United Kingdom were screened for hepatitis C.

On 13 December 2005, the National Post reported that Roddick had announced that she intended to use her fortune for philanthropy; it was estimated at £51 million ($104 million). This was before her sale of her business to L’Oreal.

On 17 March 2006, L’Oréal purchased Body Shop for £652 million. Some controversy and criticism was raised, as L’Oréal was known to use animal testing and the company was part-owned by Nestlé. The latter had been criticised for its treatment of third-world producers. Roddick addressed the issues directly in an interview with The Guardian. It reported that

After her death in 2007, her husband, Gordon Roddick, founded 38 Degrees in her memory. He said, “I knew what would make Anita really laugh would be to cause a lot of trouble.”

Roddick died of acute brain haemorrhage at about 6:30pm on 10 September 2007, after being admitted to St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester the previous evening suffering from a severe headache. As promised earlier, she left her estate to charities rather than to her family and friends. When details of her estate were published, it was disclosed that she had donated all of her £51 million fortune upon her death.

Between 2009 and 2014, the Roddick Foundation gave four grants totalling £120,000 to CAGE, an organisation led by Mozzam Begg, that aimed “to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror”. The Foundation, along with two other charities, agreed to cease funding CAGE under pressure from the Charity Commission, which had expressed concern that funding CAGE risked damaging public confidence in charity. Lord Carlile, formerly the British Government’s independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, said: “I would never advise anybody to give money to CagePrisoners. I have concerns about the group”.

In 2015, the charity commission agreed to cease to interfere with charities’ right to fund CAGE, if they wished, following a judicial review. The judicial review heard testimony that a British Cabinet Minister and US intelligence had applied pressure on the charity commission to investigate CAGE.