Centauro () was born without glamour, without investors and without money to spare. The brand’s first store, opened in 1981 in Belo Horizonte, opened its doors with an improvised sign made of hospital canvas because the budget simply ran out before the final facade was ready.
“I didn’t have the money to put the sign in the store”, recalled Sebastião Bomfim Filho, founder of the company, during another episode of From Zero to Top, program that tells stories of successful entrepreneurs.
Forty-five years later, the company has become one of the largest sports groups in Latin America, with more than 230 stores and thousands of employees spread across the country.
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During an interview at the company’s new headquarters in São Paulo, Bomfim spoke behind the scenes of the construction of Centauro, a journey that began long before the first sporting goods store.
Son of a family of 10 brothers in the interior of Minas Gerais, he started working as a child helping in his father’s business.
“My father always felt that work was an important way to shape one’s personality.”
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After his father’s death, when he was 16, he took on family responsibilities and entered the business world once and for all. Before Centauro, he bought a small scales factory in Belo Horizonte, but the business ended up collapsing after a rural credit crisis. “I had to sell all the machinery.”
Even after the fall, he decided to continue his business. It was then that the idea of investing in the sports market emerged, driven by people’s growing concern for health and well-being.
“I saw a report saying that people were starting to wake up to health and well-being. Then I said: ‘That’s what I want to do’, recalls the founder.
From the first store to the sports empire
The first Centauro unit opened on April 1, 1981, on a less busy avenue in Belo Horizonte.
At the time, Brazilian sports retail was still characterized by small and disorganized stores, a scenario that Bomfim wanted to avoid from the beginning.
“I wanted to create a well-lit, organized store with quality products.”
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The name Centauro came up during a car trip, after the original idea of registering the “Sport Shopping” brand was blocked. According to the founder, the inspiration came from the meaning of the mythological character himself.
“It was on the road, after taking my family to the beach that the name Centauro came to me. The strength of the horse and the human mind. I said: this represents the sport very well,” recalls Bomfim.
The company grew quickly in Minas Gerais and later expanded to Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and São Paulo. But the big turning point came at the end of the 1990s, when the company decided to invest in megastores inspired by international retail.
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The brand’s first large store, located in São Paulo, had a sports court, experience spaces and even free internet for customers, something rare at the time. “The store was a success. All the shopping malls wanted to have one.”
The movement accelerated the company’s expansion throughout Brazil. “For a decade, we grew 23% a year.”
Today, according to the founder, the group sells “a sneaker or boot every two seconds in Brazil”. Despite the size achieved by the company, Bomfim states that the main pride of the trajectory is not in the numbers.
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“The greatest pride is seeing a company that started with four employees and today has more than 11 thousand people.”
To find out more details about the creation and success story of Centauro, see the full episode on . The program is available in its podcast version on the main streaming platforms such as , , , and
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.
