At the age of 12, Raquel Carvalho was already taking artisanal cosmetics courses and said she wanted to create her own brand. Later, he chose industrial pharmacy as his training and worked in the pharmaceutical industry before opening a cosmetics store in Fortaleza to understand consumer behavior in practice.
“There’s no point in knowing how to produce something wonderful if you don’t know how to sell it,” he says.
It was from this commercial laboratory that Labotrat was born in 2012. The Brazilian cosmetics brand created by Raquel attracted the eyes of Brazilians with colorful packaging, named after fruits, and achieved leadership in strategic categories by going viral on social media.
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“In 2023 we went viral on TikTok with them and the product became very popular. For every 10 exfoliants sold at points of sale, 7 are from Labotrat. And competing in this category with giants, with centuries-old brands, is wonderful. Very motivating”, said the founder and CEO of Labotrat during an interview with the podcast From Zero to Top.
After gaining a national presence, the company is now investing in international expansion that has already reached Europe. All of this while maintaining its own production, internal laboratory and a verticalized industrial operation.
From regional factory to national leadership
During the pandemic, the brand took advantage of the demand for hand sanitizer to keep operations active while strengthening its digital presence. Shortly afterwards, it began an aggressive commercial expansion movement to other states.
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Today, the company claims to hold around 70% of the exfoliant market sold in Brazilian retail and compete for leadership in facial cleansing categories, competing directly with traditional brands in the sector.
Another difference highlighted by the founder is in the operational model. Labotrat maintains laboratory, industry, logistics and product development within its own structure.
Currently, the company has around 14 thousand square meters of industrial operations. “We manufacture 350,000 products per day. That’s enough to fill a Maracanã every day”, compared Raquel. With a presence in more than 100,000 points of sale, the company already earns more than R$200 million and plans to reach R$1 billion in revenue by 2030.
According to her, controlling the entire chain allows for greater speed in launching products and responding to market trends.
Labotrat’s strategy is to avoid competition in already saturated categories and focus on innovation. For the businesswoman, the brand’s growth is directly linked to the ability to create new demands within the market.
“When you go for something new, you really perform. Is it more difficult? Yes, it is undoubtedly more difficult, but when the consumer understands what you want to communicate, it really is disruptive”, reveals the CEO.
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This positioning helped the company build leadership in segments such as body scrubs and facial cleansing, in addition to opening doors for international expansion. Currently, the brand already operates in Latin American countries and has begun its entry into the European market.
“Today we already have coverage from Brazil to Mexico. In Europe we also have an official distributor starting in Portugal and Spain”, said André Rios, commercial and marketing director at Labrotat.
To find out more details about Labotrat, see the full episode on . The program is available in its podcast version on the main streaming platforms such as , , , and
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About From Zero to Top
The Do Zero ao Topo podcast is a production of InfoMoney and brings, every week, the stories of prominent women and men in the Brazilian market to tell their story, sharing the biggest challenges faced along the way and the main strategies used in building the business.
