By any measure it’s an amazing Dorset success story – and it’s celebrating its silver anniversary.

A business that started life in 1995 with one shop in Poole, pictured right.

Twenty five years later it has a group turnover of more than half a billion pounds, 12,000+ staff, 438 shops worldwide and seven manufacturing plants.

Add in its partners and the figures become even more eye-watering with a total brand turnover of £977m, 928 shops in 48 countries and 19,000 employees.

And at its heart two of the original founders, joined now by their son and daughter.

We’re talking Lush, the cosmetics retailer, which began trading from its first shop at 29 High Street, Poole.

That was when the six co-founders – Mark and Mo Constantine, Rowena Bird, Helen Ambrosen, Liz Bennett and Paul Greeves, pictured left – joined forces to launch the new venture.

The High Street premises are still in use today as a shop as well as the company’s headquarters.

But one of the company’s most famous products, the bath bomb, actually began life in Mark and Mo’s garden shed.

Little did Mo, pictured right, know that her invention, known first as the Aqua Sizzler, would take off with a such a bang.

The inspiration came from the antacid pill Alka Seltzer.

The famous brand-name hangover tablet erupts into bubbles once dropped into a glass of water.

Working in her shed, Mo’s first Aqua Sizzlers were pressed together with citric acid, sodium bicarb and French Lavender.

The resulting bath bomb helped to soften the water and relax the body and mind.

She began to experiment with different shapes, sizes and colours to create a range of fizzers and foamers with husband and co-founder Mark.

Lush now has 34 bath bombs listed on its website.

Mo’s bath bombs have inspired millions, but none more so than son Jack Constantine, Lush’s Digital Director, pictured left.

He has further developed the range into more complex, multi-layered products, incorporating multi colours alongside innovative new ideas and effects.

It led to the opening in 2018 of the world’s first bath bomb concept shop in Harajulu, Tokyo,

But Lush, which prides itself on 100 per cent fresh, handmade and cruelty free cosmetics, has evolved way beyond bath bombs, albeit a key element of its continuing success.

It also produces creams, soaps, shampoos, shower gels, lotions, moisturisers, scrubs, toothpaste tablets, masks and other cosmetics for the face, hair, and body using only vegetarian or vegan recipes.

In 2018, Lush made 154m products globally.

Its flagship stores include Oxford Street in London and Liverpool which has a hairdresser, florist, perfume library and a new style spa with six treatment rooms, all across three floors.

Less expensive concept stores include ‘naked’ shops which feature no plastic, just naked products.

Lush, which is ten per cent owned by its employees, says it is working to a three point ‘not so secret’ master plan:

1. Make products for every need.
2. Be number one in every category.
3. Create a cosmetic revolution to save the planet.

The company is known for its campaigning, especially against animal testing.

The Lush Prize offers a global prize fund to support initiatives to end or replace animal testing.

It’s the largest prize fund in the non-animal testing sector, awarding £250,000.

Lush is also a major charity contributor.

In its financial year to June 30, 2019, Lush partners worldwide donated just over £12m to charities and good causes.

Many were small grassroots organisations working in the areas of the environment, human rights and animal protection.

Claire Constantine, who was five when Mark and Mo co-founded the business, joined Lush as a sales assistant and is now Global Retail Director.

She said that despite the growth of the company it had stayed true to its original values.

These included buying ingredients only from companies that don’t commission tests on animals and using little or no preservative or packaging in the manufacturing process.

Claire said: “Dad always had a good vision and is still very much involved in the business.

“The growth of Lush has been amazing.

“We’re very proud of the company and initiatives such as the Lush Prize.

“Covid-19 has been very challenging but our staff have risen to it.

“Our customers are still there and want to go shopping. It’s a question of finding ways to reach them.

“I just love what I do.

“There is so much variety and it’s an exciting place to be.”

• Lush’s Bournemouth store is offering order and collect via the shop’s page on the Lush website. It is also one of 45 Lush shops nationwide to team up with on-demand delivery service, Stuart. Customers can place orders directly with the store which will then arrange trackable same day delivery.