O Boticário
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Cosmetics |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Headquarters | São José dos Pinhais, Brazil |
Key people | Artur Grynbaun, (Chairman) |
| Revenue |
 US$ 3.3 Billion (2013) |
Number of employees | 22,000 |
| Parent | Grupo Boticário |
| Website | www.boticario.com.br |
O Boticário (Portuguese pronunciation: [u botʃiˈkaɾju]) is the biggest Brazilian cosmetic company. It has 3.755 stores in Brazil, Portugal, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, United States, Paraguay, Japan, France and Venezuela. O Boticário is the largest cosmetic franchise in the world. The main competitors of the company are Natura, Avon Products and Jequiti.
History
O Boticário was created in 1977 as a small prescription drugstore in the city of Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná, in southern Brazil. Today the company is the world’s largest perfumery and cosmetics franchising network.
O Boticário’s industrial and administrative complex has 34.4 thousand square meters of floor space in the city of São José dos Pinhais in the Curitiba Metropolitan Area. It employs 1,300 people and creates approximately 10 thousand jobs through its franchising network. O Boticário’s first manufacturing plant was inaugurated in 1982, with just 1 thousand square meters of floor space. Then it employed 27 people who worked to manufacture about 400 thousand items a year. O Boticário’s current production exceeds 59 million units.
Fundação O Boticário
In 1990, the company created the Fundação O Boticário de Proteção à Natureza (O Boticário Nature Protection Foundation), a nonprofit organization that has already sponsored 800 conservationist projects including studies, scientific research, environmental education programs and direct fauna and flora protection actions all over Brazil. The Foundation also supports the “Natural Areas Protection Program”, which aims at implementing its own private network of Natural Heritage Sites.
The first one is the Reserva Salto Morato (Salto Morato Natural Reserve), which occupies a 2,340-hectar area, in Guaraqueçaba, on the north coast of the state of Paraná, in southern Brazil. This reservation protects a significant area of the Atlantic Rainforest, besides being provided with infrastructure for scientific research, environmental education, and outdoor recreation. In November 1999, the reservation supported by Fundação O Boticário de Proteção à Natureza was declared a Natural Heritage Site by Unesco.
Products
O Boticário’s product lines consist of approximately 480 items, divided into the following categories: body care, facial care, sun care, makeup, deodorizing colognes, deodorants, soaps and shampoos.
Amazonian plants such as açaí, cupuaçu, carnaúba, guaraná, cashew, and passion flower; gums extracted from algae and vegetal extracts, such as arnica and urucum, are among the active ingredients present in the brand’s products.
