citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . june 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message crabtree & evelyn stratford on avon crabtree & evelyn in guildford high street crabtree & evelyn hong kong crabtree & evelyn kr btri nd i vl n is a retailer of body and home products with stores globally . according to its website crabtree & evelyn uses over 160 natural botanical ingredients in its skin care products . the brand is owned by nan kai corporation of hong kong as of january 2016 . contents 1 history 2 bankruptcy 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was founded in 1968 in cambridge massachusetts by cyrus harvey . the first retail store was opened in 1977 by stephen miller at the montgomery mall located in north wales pennsylvania . the company s name conceived by harvey and designer peter windett was inspired by the 17th century renaissance englishman john evelyn who wrote one of the first important works on conservation . he is also known for his writings on food including a book on salads in which he introduced the first salad dressing made with olive oil to europe . the crabtree or wild apple symbol is native to britain and the ancestor of all cultivated apple trees 1 it was highly prized for its beauty as well as its usefulness in home apothecary . although certain documents and much of the current marketing is consistent with the information above a number of early crabtree & evelyn documents point to the name being inspired by a george crabtree who is allegedly a 17th century englishmen . citation needed if george crabtree was indeed a fictionalised entity in the vein of john bull or uncle sam 2 the surname crabtree and the reason behind its selection would still be consistent with current marketing . 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 continue to be based in the uk and us . ce holdings was sold to the hong kong based investment holding company khuan choo international limited as of july 2012 for usd 155 000 000 . 3 bankruptcy edit on july 1 2009 crabtree & evelyn s operations filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection . that month the company had closed more than 30 stores domestically due to an inability to re negotiate leases with the stores . the employees of those closed stores were made redundant but received compensation . when 2010 began the company had recovered from bankruptcy . references edit a modern herbal apple . botanical.com . john bull and uncle sam four centuries of british american relations exhibitions library of congress . loc.gov . 22 july 2010 . 1 dead link external links edit media related to crabtree & evelyn at wikimedia commons official website this united states retail business article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title crabtree % 26 evelyn & oldid 735350371 categories united states retail company stubspersonal care brandsretail companies established in 19721972 establishments in the united stateshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from march 2014articles needing additional references from june 2012all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from november 2009commons category with page title same as on wikidataall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages espa olfran ais edit links this page was last modified on 20 august 2016 at 04 02 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view