O BOTICARIO is a Brazilian beauty market phenomena which spiralled
from a simple chemist shop into a retailing chain, based on natural
products, years ahead of the ''natural'' trend.
Meaning apothecary in Spanish, and Italian, but particularily
Portuguese in this instance -- as denoted by the O -- Boticario came
into being through a small chemist shop in Curitiba in Brazil, when
young pharmacist Miguel Krignser was asked to create a face cream for
sensitive customers.
From there, the story of supply and demand led to the creation of an
exclusive range of soap, shampoo and then cologne for sensitive people
and purists alike.
With the creation of the products came an ethos for a range of shops,
based on the style of an old apothecary but given polish with glossy
elegance. The quality products were given a highly-desirable look with
attractive packaging and prices were kept to a reasonable level.
The combined formulae for the products and the shops have seen O
Boticario spiral through franchising from one airport shop in 1978 to a
1200 strong chain.
Of those, 1000 are in
Brazil -- giving a strong national identity to the chain throughout
that country -- but the pilot for a UK chain has now opened in Glasgow's
St Enoch Centre.
Leading the charge of the Brazilian apothecaries into the UK are
husband and wife team Englishman Richard and German-born Astrid
Hannigan. A success story within a success story, they came across O
Boticario when Richard was working in Brazil for a multi-national and
Astrid used the products.
Seven years ago, they signed on as franchisees. They now operate a
core of 12 shops and act as distributors for a further 90 in the
North-east of England.
Six British cities were targeted for their initial market research and
the vote went with Glasgow.
''There is a dynamic about Glasgow, which, in this year of culture,
gives it a
far-reaching image,'' said Richard Hannigan. ''But we also chose it
because of the St Enoch centre. There was nothing of this size and
beauty in the other cities.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article