Crabtree and evelyn in Guildford High Street - geograph

Crabtree & Evelyn is a current online-only and former brick-and-mortar retailer of body, fragrance and home care products. Beginning with one store in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, in 1971, the brand grew to an international presence, with hundreds of locations globally. The founders sold the chain in 1996, and the brand has been resold several times since. Most recently, Crabtree & Evelyn was acquired in October 2016, by Nan Hai Corporation of Hong Kong. The brick-and-mortar stores became increasingly unprofitable, with numerous closings in 2009. It was announced in November 2018 that all retail and wholesale operations were to cease to exist worldwide. The Crabtree & Evelyn brand was relaunched in July 2019 as an online-only retailer. In 2022 Nan Hai Corp made mass redundancies and the Crabtree and Evelyn US and UK websites ceased trading for a short while.

Founding

The company was founded in 1955 in

, by

Janus Films Janus Films is an American film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences, including the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergei Eisenstei ...

businessman Cyrus Harvey It opened in a small Cambridge shop under the name The Soap Box. In 1971, Harvey met designer Peter Windett in London and started a 25 year working relationship including changing the name to ''Crabtree & Evelyn''. In 1977, the company opened a stall in the new

Faneuil Hall Marketplace Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others ...

in Boston, and its first stand alone shop was opened by Stephen Miller in the Montgomery Mall outside of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Harvey invented the products, while Windett designed the packaging for products and stores. American tourists looked for the store in England, prompting the founders to open their first store on

Kensington Church Street Kensington Church Street is a shopping street in Kensington, London, England, designated the A4204, and traditionally known for its art and antiques shops. Buildings at the southern end date back to the early 1700s. It is named after Kensington ...

in 1980. Over time, many more US and UK locations were added, and new stores also opened in several European countries, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia. The company's name, conceived by Harvey and Windett was inspired by the 17th-century renaissance Englishman

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or ...

, who wrote one of the first important works on land conservation. He is also known for his writings on food, including a book on

salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a va ...

s, in which he introduced the first

salad dressing A salad dressing is a sauce for salads. Used on virtually all '' leafy salads'', dressings may also be used in making salads of beans (such as three bean salad), noodle or pasta salads and antipasti, and forms of potato salad. Salad dressing ...

recipe made with olive oil from Europe. The Crabtree or

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symbol is native to Britain and the ancestor of all cultivated apple trees It was highly prized for its beauty, as well as its usefulness in home

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Amer ...

Acquisitions

In 1996, Cyrus Harvey decided to sell the company, and it was sold to Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad and operated by a subsidiary as CE Holdings. While funded and managed by the holding company in Kuala Lumpur, day-to-day operations—such as research and development, manufacturing, and design—continued to be based in the UK and US. In July 2009, Crabtree & Evelyn Ltd. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. District Court in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Following the filing, 30 of its 126 American based stores closed. Stores in the UK were not affected by the filing. CE Holdings was sold to the

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

-based investment-holding company Khuan Choo International Limited, as of July 2012, for US$155,000,000. The brand was acquired in October 2016, by Nan Hai Corporation of Hong Kong. Multiple stores within the United Kingdom closed prior to 2018, including Portsmouth, Dalton Park at Murton Seaham, and the Glasgow flagship store in Princes Square shopping centre, after struggling to make profit and rising business rental costs. All UK stores were set to close by the end of 2019, with exception of a new flagship concept store in Islington, London. In mid November 2018, it was announced that manufacturing operation in

Woodstock, Connecticut Woodstock is a New England town, town in Windham County, Connecticut, Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,221 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History 17th century In the mid-17th century, John Eliot (m ...

, were to cease in the New Year of 2019. Late November 2018, it was announced all retail and wholesale operations were to cease to exist worldwide, with the Canada business filing for bankruptcy. The previously announced flagship "concept" store opened in Islington, London, in early 2019, but was permanently closed by 2020. The brand relaunched on 16 July 2019. Under its new ethos "Born Curious, Grown Wild" the products are available to purchase online only.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crabtree and Evelyn Personal care brands Retail companies established in 1968 1968 establishments in Massachusetts Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018 American companies established in 1968 Online retailers of the United States