Headlines about Avon filing for bankruptcy, closing in certain countries, and changing hands have left a lot of people confused. Customers want to know if they can still buy products. Representatives want to know if their business is at risk. And business observers are trying to figure out what it all means.
The short answer is: Avon is not fully shut down. But its corporate structure has changed significantly, and understanding why requires separating the brand from the holding company that ran into serious legal trouble.
Here’s what actually happened — and where things stand as of 2026.
Avon Is Not Fully Shut Down — But Its Corporate Structure Changed Significantly
Avon products are still being sold in more than 50 countries. You can still shop at avon.com. Representatives are still active in many markets. The brand is not gone.
What did collapse was Avon Products Inc. (API) — the U.S. holding company that sat at the top of Avon’s corporate structure. That entity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2024, and its liquidation plan became effective in October 2025.
But the holding company and the brand are two different things. Think of the holding company as the legal shell that owned and managed the business. The brand — the products, the representatives, the operations — continued under separate ownership in different regions.
The confusion is understandable. When people hear “Avon filed for bankruptcy,” they picture store shelves going empty. That’s not what happened here.
Why Avon Products Inc. Filed for Chapter 11 in 2024
The bankruptcy wasn’t about poor product sales alone. The trigger was a massive wave of legal liability tied to historical products.
Nearly 400 lawsuits alleged that talc used in Avon’s older product formulas caused cancer. Legal defense costs surpassed $225 million. Two high-profile verdicts came in at $52 million and $24 million. When you added those litigation liabilities to existing debt, Avon Products Inc. was carrying more than $1 billion in total obligations.
Chapter 11 is a reorganization tool under U.S. law. Companies use it to restructure or resolve debts they can’t handle through normal operations. It’s the same mechanism that other manufacturers have used to manage mass tort claims — asbestos cases and opioid settlements have followed similar paths.
It’s also worth being clear about something: the lawsuits focused on past talc-containing products, not Avon’s current product line. The legal issue was rooted in historical formulations, not what’s being sold today.
Forbes described the talc litigation as the “final blow” for Avon Products Inc. — the culmination of years of strategic decline, slow adaptation to e-commerce, and mounting competition in the beauty space. The legal weight simply made an already fragile structure impossible to sustain.
Who Owns Avon Now
To understand the current state of Avon, you need to follow the ownership trail through three distinct stages.
Stage 1: Natura & Co Takes Over (2020)
In January 2020, Brazilian cosmetics group Natura & Co acquired Avon for approximately $2 billion. Natura is the company behind brands like The Body Shop and Natura cosmetics. The Avon deal was meant to give Natura global scale and access to Avon’s direct-selling network.
Stage 2: The Holding Company Files for Bankruptcy (2024–2025)
Avon Products Inc., which Natura used as part of its corporate structure, filed Chapter 11 in August 2024. The U.S. holding entity wound down, with its liquidation plan taking effect in October 2025. But this was the legal shell — not the regional businesses selling Avon products.
Stage 3: Natura Splits the Business (2025)
On December 31, 2025, Natura completed the sale of Avon International — covering operations in Europe, Africa, and Asia (excluding Russia) — to U.S. investment fund Regent LP.
Natura kept ownership of Avon’s Latin American operations and the Avon brand in that region. Russia was not included in the Regent deal and remains a separate situation.
Think of it like a sports franchise changing owners. The team name, the players, and the games still happen. But the legal entity and the people controlling the finances behind the scenes are different. That’s essentially what occurred with Avon internationally.
Which Markets Closed and Which Are Still Open
Not every market is in the same situation. Here’s a straightforward breakdown.
Australia and New Zealand — Closed Since 2018
Avon pulled out of Australia and New Zealand back in 2018 as part of a profitability restructuring. Around 21,000 sellers were affected. This was a regional business decision made years before the bankruptcy — it was not a signal of global collapse at the time, and it’s not directly connected to the 2024 filing.
Europe, Africa, and Asia — Now Under Regent LP
These markets transferred to Regent LP as part of the December 2025 sale. Operations are continuing under new management. Regent is an investment fund, so the strategic direction they take with Avon International remains to be seen — but the business did not shut down as part of the transaction.
Latin America — Still Under Natura & Co
Latin America is Avon’s largest and most established region. Natura retained these operations and has no announced plans to close them. Representatives and customers in markets like Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico are operating under the same parent company as before.
If you’re in a specific country and want to know whether Avon is active there, the most reliable step is to check your local Avon website directly or contact a regional distributor. The brand’s footprint varies by market.
What This Means for Representatives and Customers
If you’re an Avon representative or a regular customer, the practical impact depends heavily on where you are.
In Latin America, day-to-day operations continue under Natura. In markets covered by the Regent sale — Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia — operations are continuing, but new ownership may bring changes to product availability, compensation structures, or distribution over time.
Products remain available through avon.com and through representatives in active markets. There’s no indication as of 2026 that the brand is preparing a global shutdown.
The bigger uncertainty is what Regent LP does with Avon International over the next few years. Investment funds buying distressed or restructured businesses typically either turn them around or optimize them — which can mean further market exits, rebranding, or operational changes that aren’t yet visible.
One Thing to Clear Up: Avon Cosmetics vs. Avon Protection
Some “Avon is shutting down” headlines have actually referred to Avon Protection — a completely separate British defense company that makes helmets and body armor. Avon Protection announced it was winding down its body armor business after failing U.S. military tests.
That company has nothing to do with Avon cosmetics. They share a name and nothing else. If you saw a headline about “Avon” shutting down a division and it seemed unrelated to beauty products, that’s likely why.
The Bigger Business Lesson Here
Avon’s situation is a useful case study in how legacy companies run into trouble and what tools exist to deal with it.
The brand was founded in 1886. For decades, it was a genuine pioneer — one of the first companies to build a large-scale business around female entrepreneurship through direct selling. At its peak, it operated across more than 100 countries.
But the transition from door-to-door catalogs to digital commerce was slow and uneven. Competitors moved faster. The representative model, while still effective in some markets, struggled to adapt. And then the talc litigation arrived — a liability inherited from historical products that the current business had no real way to absorb.
What followed was textbook crisis restructuring: Chapter 11 to manage the legal liabilities, ownership changes to separate viable regional businesses from the troubled holding entity, and asset sales to refocus on core markets.
The brand survived the process, at least so far. Whether the regional businesses under Regent and Natura can grow or stabilize is a different question — one that depends on execution, not just legal outcomes.
For more coverage of how businesses handle restructuring, ownership transitions, and market exits, visit First Business Mag.
The Bottom Line
Avon is not going out of business globally. The U.S. holding company that filed for Chapter 11 has been wound down, but the brand continues operating under new ownership in different regions.
Latin America stays with Natura & Co. Europe, Africa, and Asia are now under Regent LP. Some markets like Australia and New Zealand have been closed for years. And Avon products are still being sold online and through representatives in active markets.
The story isn’t about a brand disappearing overnight. It’s about a company that accumulated too much legal debt, used bankruptcy as a resolution tool, and restructured ownership to keep the business running in parts of the world where it still makes sense. Whether that’s enough to stabilize the brand long-term remains an open question.
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